Two north african knives

[blue lander]

The first one's a bou-saadi for sure. It's pretty rusty and the handle's dried up and beginning to crack, but other than that it's a really sturdy knife. There is a pin through the tang, but it's hidden by the wire wrapping on the handle. I know these things are usually made from old files, but I don't see much evidence this one was. I posted a picture of the spine, and there are some etches that might be from its previous life as a file. I don't see any other file patterns on or around the integral bolster.

Both sides are decorated, but the decorations on the right side are more elaborate. There's two crudely shaped brass dots but only on the right side. The spine is very plain. There's two horizontal lines on the middle of the knife and two towards the front. It does have a distal taper but it's still pretty thick by the end of the blade.

The cutting edge is oddly shaped. It's basically a chisel grind. The left side is virtually flat, but the right side is deeply hollow ground. There's some nicks and dings on the edge, but I don't know if that's from use or if it was in a drawer without a sheath and got dinged up.

The blade is a little out of alignment with the handle. In this thread there was some discussion as to whether or not this was done on purpose or if it was just mounted in the handle carelessly. His drifts a bit to the right and mine drifts a bit to the left so I'm thinking it probably wasn't deliberate.

Even though it's in poor condition, this seems like a really well designed utility knife. I'd be surprised to find out it was a tourist piece due to how plain and sturdy it is. Do they still produce knives in bousaada? I think a new one would make a great camping or "tool box" knife. This one would still be perfectly useable if it weren't for the cracks in the handle.

The second knife is the curved one with a sheath. The sheath is made of folded tin, I don't see any evidence it was once covered with an outer layer. The inside of the sheath seems to be lined with wood. The wood handle's all dried up on this one too, and the blade wiggles a bit. There's a pattern on the blade as well as the spine and some patterns on the handle made with brass wires and pins, much of which is now missing. There were once two "stones" on the handle, only one of them is left. After looking through pictures on the forum I still have no idea what it is. It looks pretty rough now but I bet this was a smart looking little dagger when it was new.

[Emanuel]

Hello,

The top one is a knife from Bou-Saada yes, but I don't recognize the second one.

Looking at older Bou-Saada knives I have the feeling they are derived from the Corsican and Genovese style of knives often called "vendetta knives". Almost identical shape and construction in some cases. I can see "Genwi" knives making it so far south since it was a stop over on the caravan routes, 250km just south of the major ports on the Mediterranean.

As to whether they are still produced in Bou-Saada, I don't know. The place was a major French tourist destination from the 1930s until independence so I think a great deal of them were made for the tourist trade there. We see a lot of these on e-bay with very poor quality craftsmanship. Thin wavy blades, excessive decoration, poorly carved hilts. I think the forged integral bolsters stopped being a feature when the tourist purpose was popularized and the sturdiness stopped being a requisite.

Emanuel

[blue lander]

The only vendetta knives I've seen are the modern folding knife variety. The other bousaadi knives I've seen on this forum look more optimized for use as a dagger than mine. The tip on mine is dull and rounded and it's much thicker than you'd expect from a stabbing weapon. I don't know if this was by design or just careless craftsmanship. I still don't know what to make of the weird cutting edge. It could again be careless craftsmanship, the maker only bothered to sharpen one side, but there is a very slight bevel on the "flat" side so he had to have put some effort into that.

Edit: Another thing I just realized after looking at a dozen bousaadi knives on auction sites is that they all have a hole drilled through the handle, even the cheapo tourist ones. Mine doesn't.

I've been looking and looking for similar knives to that second one, but I haven't come up with anything. Maybe it was a "fantasy" piece made for tourists.

[Emanuel]

Here are two Corsican and Genovese knives. These particular ones are modern. The books "Petite Histoire du Stylet Corse" and "Il Coltello Genovese" show 18th-19th century examples that seem to be the inspiration for the Bou-Saadi knives, down to the wire-wrapped faceted handle.

The tip on your example might have been worn down over time. There have been discussions on this forum of these knives with very oddly bent tips. I can imagine them used many times to open jars, paint buckets and such.

The Corsican/Genovese knives did not generally have holes in the handles, but I have seen that did, with a lanyard passed through. This would be tied around the fist. I don't know if this usage was kept in Bou-Saada.

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Emanuel

Hello,

The top one is a knife from Bou-Saada yes, but I don't recognize the second one.

Looking at older Bou-Saada knives I have the feeling they are derived from the Corsican and Genovese style of knives often called "vendetta knives". Almost identical shape and construction in some cases. I can see "Genwi" knives making it so far south since it was a stop over on the caravan routes, 250km just south of the major ports on the Mediterranean.

Just one comment here, I think it's difficult to say one is directly derived from the other. However I think it is pretty clear both come from a similar family of knives found around this area of the Mediterranean, likely established for a very long time.

The question of "which came first" is always I think a difficult one in these cases and there's a tendency to sometimes attribute ethnographic items as later, simply because they've remained in production longer.