Ethnographic folding knives

[Oriental-Arms]

Regarding the small folder posted by Maisey, thus was discussed before in the forum. See http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=918

[asomotif]

Thanks !

[Anandalal N.]

The folding knife posted by Alan Maisey is a knife used by scribes. The blade is a multiple use blade including the preparing of the 'ola leaf' of the palm tree on which traditionally writing was done. The point is a stylus with the use of which images are scraped on the palm leaf and blackened in with charcoal and oil or some other substance. This example is from South India; the script appears to be Tamil.

Certain Pihakaettas from Sri Lanka that still retain their sheath have a seperate channel to hold the stylus. These knives are a portable version of same.

By the way I have one of these knives where the stylus has rusted into the grip and cannot be removed. The grip is of wood. Any advice on how I could release the stylus would be appreciated.

The carpet makers knife has a small nick at the end of the point to catch the string and pull it through.

[Anandalal N.]

Here is an ola leaf written with a stylus. The script is sinhalese and the contents is Ayurvedic text.

By the way the wood of the grip in Alan Maiseys example also looks like coconut or some other such palm?

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you Anandalal for what I believe to be the correct ID of the folder I posted a pic of in post #4.

I obtained this knife from an importer of hand woven carpets, and it was he who suggested that it was in fact a carpet maker's knife.

Perhaps it was, but probably not used for making carpets.

Your explanation makes perfect sense.

Again, my thanks.

[Freddy]

I'm a bit like Alan. When I visit a fleamarket and I see an inexpensive folder, I just buy it. Goes together with the rest.

I've been doing this since I was in school (and that's a long time ago). From every schooltrip, I returned with a small knife. Must be in my blood Just can't help it.

When we (from the States or Europe) talk about etnographic knives, we always think about knives from China, Japan, Afghanistan, etc.... People living on that side of the planet might consider European knives also as typical and etnographic.

Here are some which might fit into that category : Opinel, Albacete and the unknown knife with horn grip.

Finally a portion of what I found the past few years : from tourist knife to Swiss knife. And there are a lot more in my collection.

[A. G. Maisey]

Well Freddy, you're a bit better organised than I am.

Here's some of my indiscriminate accumulation --- how they're stored and most of what's in that drawer laid out.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by Freddy

...
When we (from the States or Europe) talk about ethnographic knives, we always think about knives from China, Japan, Afghanistan, etc.... People living on that side of the planet might consider European knives also as typical and ethnographic.
...

i'll go along with freddy on that. some of these french, spanish, and other folders may be european, but are also traditional knife forms of historical designs associated with specific ethnic cultures which happen to be in europe, rather than the bland one shape fits all modern 'tactical' designs that could come from anywhere. we do have a european armoury sub-forum for those arms predating the 20th c. but i see no reason why a certain amount of overlap and discussion of traditional ethnic folders from europe should not occur here as well. we so rarely include them in any discussion at all.

i throw in a gratuitous photo of my marjacq knife with it's ebony grip, another french ethnic design still in production. neat ring lock that not only locks in the open position like the opinels, but in the closed position as well. i gather that opinel has now modified their design to include a similar functionality that was not there in my earlier opinels.


we have yet to see the butterfly knives that i somehow think of as filipino...i'll have to dig out a photo of mine, i think there is one traditional one amoungst some of the more 'tactical' designs....