Jambiya Blade Construction

Michael Blalock · 24th August 2009, 10:39 PM

While the Jambiyas with two piece blades are not the better ones, they should not necessarily be disregarded as tourist pieces. Having lived in Yemen before the existence of tourism in that country I used to watch a few jambiya makers in their shops in the Taiz souk. I only witnessed the fabrication of the two piece jambiyas with zebu horn. The jambiya maker sat cross legged in a small space. With a water pipe, a small anvil, a white gas blow torch to heat and braze the blade. I recall that they used a garden spade shaped tool to work the rib into the metal. They would periodically heat the blade with the blow torch.
Every Yemeni man wore a Jambiya. Jambiyas were even made for young boys. I am wearing one of these child’s Jambiyas in my avatar. With a population of several million at that time there must have been a demand for hundreds or thousands of new Jambiya’s each day. I recall that my Jambiya was about 2-3 reals and my dad brought the fine ones for 20-30 reals. I think the exchange rate was 4 reals to the dollar and those were silver Maria Theresa Thallers. Our servants were paid one real per day.
Even today, Yemen is an impoverished country with a population of 24 million. For 40% of the population the average daily income is less than a dollar. I would bet the vast majority of Yemenis can only afford these two pieces blades.

24th August 2009, 10:39 PM	#2
Michael Blalock Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: dc Posts: 271	While the Jambiyas with two piece blades are not the better ones, they should not necessarily be disregarded as tourist pieces. Having lived in Yemen before the existence of tourism in that country I used to watch a few jambiya makers in their shops in the Taiz souk. I only witnessed the fabrication of the two piece jambiyas with zebu horn. The jambiya maker sat cross legged in a small space. With a water pipe, a small anvil, a white gas blow torch to heat and braze the blade. I recall that they used a garden spade shaped tool to work the rib into the metal. They would periodically heat the blade with the blow torch. Every Yemeni man wore a Jambiya. Jambiyas were even made for young boys. I am wearing one of these child’s Jambiyas in my avatar. With a population of several million at that time there must have been a demand for hundreds or thousands of new Jambiya’s each day. I recall that my Jambiya was about 2-3 reals and my dad brought the fine ones for 20-30 reals. I think the exchange rate was 4 reals to the dollar and those were silver Maria Theresa Thallers. Our servants were paid one real per day. Even today, Yemen is an impoverished country with a population of 24 million. For 40% of the population the average daily income is less than a dollar. I would bet the vast majority of Yemenis can only afford these two pieces blades.