[Risto Rautiainen]

Hello!

I noticed this a while ago on a Finnish net auction:



The seller claims it's a gladiatorial fighting knife that was found from Londium. Do you think it's a fake or what it might be? I don't recall seeing anything like this before.

[Matthew Bunker]

Looks agricultural, possibly a form of stock knife ? The long spike fits into a hole or socket to act as a pivot when chopping.

Either that or it might be another regional variant on a billhook/handbill.

Certainly doesn't look like any gladiatorial weapon I've ever seen and, if it came from London, I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about it.

[Matthew Amt]

Well, it *does* look like something the Uruk-hai would carry! But I would tend to agree that it's probably not a gladiatorial weapon. The spike could be a tang for a handle, making it a specialized drawknife of some sort? Someone who knows more about later tools can probably identify it.

Interesting piece, for sure!

Matthew

[Julian Reynolds]

This is definately a type of drawknife. The tang would have a wooden handle, and the ring at the other end would be fixed to a staple or ring in a block of wood, to get a lot of leverage when shaping a wooden object. Below is a clogger's knife, which works on a similar principle (although shaped differently).

[Risto Rautiainen]

That makes sense because sometimes I use the same mechanics when carwing wood with a knife. Thanks for the answers!