Old Spanish Knife

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

One more note should be added. This is the type of knife often confused with hunting (plug) bayonets, due to collectors misguidance caused by some well (?) intentioned sellers.

In the wonderfully informative book "The Plug Bayonet" by the late Roger Evans, it is noted that the plug bayonet, or its form, remained in use for many years as a hunting knife actually long after its use in its original manner of use in the gun had ended.

In looking at this interesting knife of the OP, the form also recalls that of the Chilean 'corvo'. The spectrum of Spanish knives is to me, one of the most intriguing and dynamic in often subtle cross influences.

[fernando]

Yes indeed, Jim ...
The 'transference' of the plug bayonet from military to civilan was firstly due to its basic resource purpose; to 'plug' it in the hunter's musket barrel after firing its (single) shot, in defence of a wounded game charge ... like boars, for one, would often do. Only later with the advent of multi shot rifles, this bayonet became more of a game cutting tool and soon ended as a wealthy hunters adornment.

I guess i wouldn't personaly associate Albacete knives with Chilean Corvos. As the name tells (corvo=curved), their characteristic blade shape is what makes a difference in its own.

[kronckew]

chilean corvos, their national knife, from the latin 'corvus' - 'raven' or 'crow', referring mostly to it's beak, roman war ships developed a 'corvus' to defeat the cartaginian navy. unfamiliar with naval warfare, the romans were doing badly ast sea, so they brought mass production and infantry warfare to cure the problem. a damaged cathagenian warship was recovered, brought to the naval yards at ostia, disassembled, parts numbered and marked and they proceeded to mass produce each part, then assembled them in reverse order of the disassembly, producing a fleet in weeks rather than months.

they then added a 'corvus', a boarding ramp on a pivot near the bow that could be positioned over the side of a carthaginian ship, then dropped, a sharp large hooked steel spike, the 'beak' of the raven, drove into the planking of the deck and held it fast for an infantry assault by roman legionaries. bye-bye carthage.

a modern army issue corvo is also included below. like an arab jambiyah or moroccan koumiyah, the primary edge is inside the curve and used with the point down, also like the slightly larger roman corvus.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by kronckew

... chilean corvos, their national knife, from the latin 'corvus' - 'raven' or 'crow', referring mostly to it's beak ...

Not the cuervo=raven, Wayne, but the curved=corvo .

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[kronckew]

i blame google: i shall fire off an error report to them.

i also blame hannibal and julius caesar and all the countries that have mangled latin into the babel of romance languages.

how anyone understands anyone else is a mystery.

p.s. - we have a 'curved', er, crow, living in a leylandii in our garden. poppy visits it every time we go out there walking, and stares at it by pushing into the branches around the base. the bird is not amused. poppy never barks or tries to attack it there tho.

[fernando]

The problem is that you got a translation from the portuguese, in which Corvo is a crow; whereas in castillian Corvo means curved and Cuervo is the one living in your garden; subtle differences beween similar (not equal) languages.
On the other hand, Hannibal and Caesar, after a dozen pints of bitter would tell that the beak of your corvu has a curvu shape .


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[Jim McDougall]

Since we all enjoy linguistics so much, let me throw in another, uh, 'curve'.

Again, travelling through these states these past months, in Montana we drove through the Absaroka Range of mountains. I was curious to know what the word meant. We are in regions of the Crow tribe, and learned that Absaroka apparently was a Hidatsa (tribes to east of here in Dakotas) word for 'children of the big beaked bird' which also I have seen as curved beak.
This could mean either raven or crow if used indiscriminately, as often occurs in transliterations and descriptions cross linguistically.

These two birds are of the genus 'corvus' which seems to mean curved as well, and wonder if the term applies to the beak of these, even though the raven has the more curved.

If this is the case, then although 'corvus' means curved in Spanish, perhaps the meaning might have been extended to the avian meaning as it seems to be in some other instances.

A quandary indeed.