ZUAVA_traditional italian folder: Turkey, Egypt, France, Italy...and Canada

[martineden]

From Wikipedia: “Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962.


The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War.

The chief distinguishing characteristics of such units were the zouave uniform, which included short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers and often sashes and oriental headgear.”


Maybe, you know the terms “Zouave” connected to the trousers called “a la Zouave”, widely used nowadays too, by any kind of people, real and non





Well, the same term, “Zouave” is connected also to a traditional Italian knife, in a semi-circular story that opens on Turkey and expire on Italy ... not, actually expire in Canada, but I will explain it later.





To understand it, we need to coming back at the early XIX century, when Napoleons’ Zoauve Regiments of French Army were fighting on North Africa. As you may imagine, at the time, swords and bayonets were still widely used during fighting actions


During this war, French soldiers were impressed by the short sword (or long knife), curved, “S” shaped, used by their enemies. This kind of blade was called Yataghan


The Yataghan was born, originally, in Turkey, on early XVI century. Then this kind of blade was widely used on the all Ottoman’s empire, including Egypt, Maroc ecc..
At the end of the African war, the Zouave soldiers also changed the shape of their swords and bayonets, adopting the “S” shape of the Yagathan.


On 1859, Zouave’s Regiments came to Italy, for one of the many European wars (2° Indipendence War of Italy, this case). Of course, each soldier had whit him his typical sword, which is very soon called, by the italian peoples, “zuava”, of course.
The characteristic shape was promptly adopted by the local cutleries, to made a knife whit the same traits, the Zuava. This kind of knife, since late XIX century, has a huge popularity in all Italy. Her you may see some old “zuava” (one of them with a reamer, rare)



Few day ago I was emailing with my overseas friend Charlie, located in Canada, and I was saying that I had the chance to find a really nice “zuava”. You know guys, we decided soon to organize a friendly trade, an italian Zuava vs an american Gec Trapper (of course I will introduce you my GEC Trapper ASAP).
And here we are whit Charlie’s Zuava


Specs:
Length OAL: 190mm
Blade length: 85mm
Blade thickness: 2mm
Blade steel: C70
Handle: Cow horn
Pins, liners and bolster: brass
Spring: steel (420hc?)
Made by: Consigli – Scarperia http://www.consigliscarperia.it/
Year: 2005

Oh, apologize for the “cold” colours of the pics, it’s a freezy day here

My only audience, this blackbird


Charlie’s Zuava it’s a beautiful knife, both open and close, in my opinion. Look as the blade shape meet the handle in closed position




Charlie’s Zuava has awesome cow’s horn scales, whit some great marbling, in light grey and deep red



The handle scales meet the bolsters really well too




On the tang is engraved “Consigli – Scarperia – Italia”, and the symbol of Consigli cutlery, a comet



The open knife. The blade has this “S” shape, calling back his ancestor the Yataghan



Zuava’s structure is robust, whit two liners and big bolsters (it’s the only traditional Italian knife whit liners)




Handling the knife. It’s a medium-heavy folder, an all-around knife, the owner traditionally used it for cutting food too. The general shape made this knife a pleasure to handle, ergonomics as his top


The ramp on the blade is great to push the thumb when needed, the curve on the rear handle help too for hard works.

Hope you will enjoi, Charlie.
See ya!
Alfredo

[quattromori]

Alfredo,
thanks for sharing with us the story of this pattern and the origin behind its name. I actually already knew this story, since the Zuava is one of my favourite Italian traditional patterns (it also has alot in common - in looks and feel - with Sardinian folders), but I'm glad you took the time to find pics and share this knife and story with the "foreigners"
I'm sure Charlie will be very happy with this knife, as you will be with your GEC Trapper.

Fausto

[kamagong]

Thanks for the photo essay. Looks like an interesting pattern.

- Christian

[waynorth]

Thanks for finding the Zuava for me, Alfredo, and for the great back story. The knife is a beauty!

I have always had a burning interest in my heritage - all my Grandparents contributed to the great melting pot that is America, around the turn of the last century. My grandchildren are now the fourth generation of our family that has been born here in Canada and America.
My attempts at learning Italian have been slow and painful, but I am a respectable winemaker, having learned from my Grandfather and his daughter, who is my Mother.
And I learned how to cure my own olives while visiting Sicily, which olives far surpass commercially available ones in flavor and texture, if I do say so myself.

Poking about in the history of cutlery is addictive, but rewarding, and doubly so in this case. I want to thank Alfredo for proposing these trades we've been doing, as it helps us both understand each others' cutlery cultures!
GEC is a prime mover these days in the industry, and the Remington style trappers they produce, are truly great examples of the art.

As are the examples of Italian knives he's been sending me in return.
Now I'll hunker down for the long wait, to Coon-finger and Chicken-eye that beauty!

[Humppa]

Thank you for the story, the pics and the whole thread. Nice to see some good traditionals from my indirect "neighborhood".

That´s really history we´re talking about here and Napoleon´s troops were united with the Bavarians (Royal House Wittelsbach). One of their enemys were the Austrians (KK-Monarchy) and especially Mr. Andreas Hofer, who was an austrian freedom fighter. Just to add for you guys to search for in the web, if interessted.

Kind regards
Andi

[Peregrin]

I like that knife Alfredo! The pants ... not so much.

Thanks for the background and information. Great stuff.

[knarfeng]

Excellent!
Congrats to both traders!
And thanks for that great history lesson!

[J D Wijbenga]

Thanks you for the interesting review. Consigli makes some very nice knives!

[prassanna]

Knife Specific Discussion Topic in this forum is very impressive.



Inappropriate Emoticon and link to non-knife related website removed.

I see this is your first post, so I'm allowing some leniency. Please take the time to read the stickies posted at the top of the main subforum page.



Welcome to Bladeforums.