How old is this kind of design? i have found originals dating back to the Boer war but i think that the pattern could be older

it is the most common design found in the military navy context? i believe that the example postet belong to a royal navy sailor but i'm not sure

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Can't say which navy, but certainly a sailor's knife as the spike is used to open up the knots to help get them loose whenbeing untied.

That spike doesn't mean its a sailors knife. they turn up in all contexts. Most usual over here is that they are on the British Army knife. They appear at the start of the 20th cent and go on in pretty mjuch the same way until the 1950's.

I'd say yours looks older but that's just a hunch.

http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topi...ry-knives/

The marlin spike is great for punching holes in tins and picking out hooves etc as well as canvas work.

the example posted is dated to the boer war, but i have found it browsing through the web and i don't know how reliable the dating it is

i was intrigued by the repro made by Leo Todeschini in this thread:

http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=34502

he say that the basic design is pretty old,