Hey Everyone,

Someone over on another forum was asking what this thing was... I'm clueless but thought there was bound to be somone here who knows... anyone have a clue?

http://members.aol.com/tomyze/dagger.htm

All of those barbs, separated blades and thin profile would suggest it was used for assassinations, it would slide into the victim quite easily and all of the wounds would be a pain-and-a-half in the ass to treat medically. It's construction and sheath/handle design suggests Indian origin (or somewhere thereabouts). Just look at some katar designs; scissor-like punching daggers and others with blades, hidden inside of other blades! From my knowledge I haven't seen many, if any other cultural area do this with their weapons.

Perhaps it was used in tandem with poison? The added surface area would be more receptive to it and the metal sheath would prevent leakage.

I could be wrong though :p

I have seen middle eastern swords, cavalry weapons, with "forked" blades like that. I do not have any pictures, but hopefully some one else can expand on this, I personally am also very curious myself. I would guess that it might even just be a style. The sword I saw was long and curved and was a single blade up until the last 8 inches or so in which it forked off into two blades. maybe it would have inflicted some kind of double wound, my question would be how sturdy was this, the piece I saw was in very good shape in the atlanta arms museum I believe. This is my first post btw so hey everybody I have learned alot on this forum.

Well quite obviously, it's one of "them." And, of course, I ain't never seen any others before, so it's the neatest darn one of "them" I've seen.

More seriously, I really don't know what it is, but it strikes me more as a tool than a weapon. I say that for two reasons, one the blade is shaped rather like a filet knife, and so my mind just jumps to that conclusion. The other is the animals (a lion and an impala?) on the ricasso. Makes me tend to think it is some bizarre hunting knife. I don't have any idea why the bade would be shaped like that though...

-Grey

By the way, Jeremy, glad to have you. Enjoy!

Its a sub calss of the jimbya fmilly of curved islamic knives found everywhere from Morocco to India. I have seen these a few times before but don't recall exactly what the tines are for. I am not 100% but I don't thnik they serve the same prupose as the scissors katar with its blade inside a blade layout. They were meant to be used for parrying like a main gauche.

As for the forked blade, it seems to me that a wound inflicted by something like that would be almost impossible to treat. The cuts would be so close together that trying to stitch one closed would probably tear any adjacent ones open wider.

Just a thought. Or maybe they made it just to look cool and scary.

Thanks for the inputs guys!

The shape reminds me mostly of some Persian and Indian daggers - khandjar, IIRC? The Arab jambiya is generally a heavier weapon, with a symmetrical hilt, and a broader and more acutely curved blade sporting a prominent central ridge.

Some examples I dug up from the Czerny auction house:
http://asp.thetisweb.com/czernysasp/scheda.as...amp;ris=80
http://asp.thetisweb.com/czernysasp/scheda.as...amp;ris=20
http://asp.thetisweb.com/czernysasp/scheda.as...mp;ris=140

I tend to like the poison blade idea as a possibility to consider, or ( Joke ) an apple peeler. :p

The style is that of an Indian peshkabz, a good example of which can be seen in Leslie Southwick's Price guide to Antique Edged Weapons, page232,no.713. The length is also consistent with other models shown. I would think it originates in the Portuguese colonies in India as the figure on the scabbard is reminiscent of Portuguese sea captain of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The split in the blade is a nasty innovation on how to inflict the most damage to one's kidneys with the least repetitive motions. It can't be muslim because of the representation of a human figure in the art work, also the tiger attacking the antelope reinforces the idea of an Indian provenance. And by the way, nice scabbards, I enjoyed looking at your work.

Kidneys?! :eek: *shudder*

Thanks Andrew!!

My pleasure, Russ. :)