Curious massive knife or machete

Ian · 4th October 2024, 08:14 AM

Hello fran,

Interesting Item. It seems to have been assembled from a bunch of largely unrelated parts. Given the thickness of the blade, I'm thinking this may be a cut down sword—perhaps a recycled broken sword—and what we are seeing is the ricasso end of the blade. Even so, it is a beast of a knife. You won't know a great deal about the tang and guard without taking it apart (a considerable task by the look of the hilt).

The criss-cross markings on the wooden scabbard suggest to me the application of a heavy duty reinforcing tape. There are some strong packing tapes that have a similar fiber pattern embedded in them. Given that the structures on your scabbard span a crack in the wood, this seems like a possibility.

At a guess, I would say this is a WWII piece assembled by a serviceman for a general purpose jungle knife.

4th October 2024, 08:14 AM	#5
Ian Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Aussie Bush Posts: 4,200	Hello fran, Interesting Item. It seems to have been assembled from a bunch of largely unrelated parts. Given the thickness of the blade, I'm thinking this may be a cut down sword—perhaps a recycled broken sword—and what we are seeing is the ricasso end of the blade. Even so, it is a beast of a knife. You won't know a great deal about the tang and guard without taking it apart (a considerable task by the look of the hilt). The criss-cross markings on the wooden scabbard suggest to me the application of a heavy duty reinforcing tape. There are some strong packing tapes that have a similar fiber pattern embedded in them. Given that the structures on your scabbard span a crack in the wood, this seems like a possibility. At a guess, I would say this is a WWII piece assembled by a serviceman for a general purpose jungle knife.