African dagger for I.D.

[Iain]

Originally Posted by SwordsAntiqueWeapons

Great links Iain.

When you see this design element in these weapons one has to ask why the similarities.

Gavin

I've always understood it to be entirely coincidental, these are shapes fairly easy to arrive at with forge work, the spirals derived from bending the bar of material around.

There's been similar comments around any short Congo sword with a wooden handle (Romans!), or the "crusader" kaskaras. While it's always fun to speculate, history is usually a little more mundane I think.