Very ethnic knives?

not2sharp

not2sharp

Platinum Member
Joined
Jun 29, 1999
Messages
20,569
I ended up in Chile last week, and while there, I felt the urge to search for some local knife activity. Even ended up buying a couple of old (19 century) examples of Corvo knives.

These knives are unique to chile and feature an interesting variety of claw shaped blades (something like an oversized carpet knife). Its hard to say how this picular patterned evolved as the style does not seem to have originated in Spain, nor is there an aboriginal connection; and similar knives are rare throughout the rest of Latin America.

I started thinking about some other knives that seem to unique to specific cultures, and I though it might be interesting to see how many we can name.

First tell us what the pattern is, and then let us know why you feel that its unique to a specific region or culture.
 
Interesting thread. The only knife I can think of would be the Ulu. I saw many of these in tourist traps all over Alaska.Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here, but the Ulu is a knife the Eskimos traditional knife. I seem to remember the Discovery Channel having a show about the eskimos and showed a old woman using it to skin a seal. The Ulu is shaped like a fan or an axe head with a handle on the back that sits in your hand. Now I could wrong about this. Maybe someone from Alaska could add some information.
 
The Ulu was traditionally considered a "woman's knife", while males used knives of a more standard shape.

not2sharp,
Maybe the hooked blade is related to use with a common crop in Chile. That tends to be a common agricultural blade shape. Just a guess.
Paul
 
The first that comes to mind is Khukri. Then...Kris,parnag,Kard,Tanto,Barong and the list goes on and on. Of course the blade that identifies the American the BOWIE.

Cheers,

ts

------------------
Guns are for show. Knifes are for Pros.
 
Don't forget the yatagan pattern is associated with Afganistan. We don't see much of it today, but it was heavily used in mid 19th century bayonets (virtually everyone adopted a yatagan bayonet at some point).

Then there is the armor pieceing Khyber knife, with the reinforced T-back spine, from the NW corner of Pakistan.

How many more can we come up with?

 
Among the knives in my collection are a Beduin shabariya, Finnish pukko, Russian kindjal, Argentine Gaucho knife, Phillipine bolo, Syrian jambiya, and even a "mohel's knife."
 
The ulu is an Inuit (Eskimo) design, but Italians used an almost identical blade called the mezzaluna (half-moon) for chopping food in a round wooden bowl. I have the one my grandmother used.

I never saw a corvo, which I guess comes from the word for crow, but hooked blades generally do go back to the sickle, as an agricultural implement. Serrations are very appropriate on this kind of a blade. My daily carry is a Kershaw serrated Talon; it looks mean, so I don't get away with waving it around, but it nips vegetation very nicely.

Spyderco recently came out with a folding Shabaria. I really like mine. We have a few comments on it on the Spyderco forum, if anyone is interested.

I don't know if anyone here looks at the Atlanta Cutlery catalog, but they carry a couple of wierd African knives called the hunga-munga. I can't vouch for the authenticity of the name, but the American Museum of Natural History has some examples on display in the Hall of African Peoples. Those guys had some fine metalworkers.
 
Whoops! Missed one!

A "mohel" is the man who does ritual Jewish circumcisions. The knife must be sharp, to cause as little pain or trauma as possible, and double-edged, so at least one side will be sharp enough to do the job right.

I guess they work; I don't remember it hurting ME.

A man was walking down the street when he saw a shop with a big wooden model of a pocket watch hanging out in front. He remembered his watch had stopped, so he went in. There was nothing in the shop but an old man sitting at a small table, drinking tea. He told him why he came in and the man said he didn't fix watches, he was a mohel. The man asked him why he had a model of a watch out front, and the old man asked: what do you suggest I put out there?
 
Not2sharp: A mohel's knife is what Jews use to perform circumcision. It has a short, wide double edged blade. So, if you ever see someone waving one around, better get out of the way quick! The one I have is from the late 1700s. It has an agate handle with snakes with diamond eyes carved around the handle. (Sorry I can't show pics.)
Someone mentioned the Spyderco shabariya. It was designed by an Israeli knifemaker named Eduard Bradichinsky, who also designed the spydercard. Sadly, he was killed about a year ago in a terrorist attack while driving in his car on the West Bank.

[This message has been edited by yitz (edited 06-18-2000).]
 
Paul,

No one is quite sure where the Corvo pattern came from. But, the pattern seems to originate at about the time of the War of the "pacifico" (c. 1879). During this war Chile found itself in combat with Peru and Bolivia, and it is believed that the Corvo emerged as a martial arm. There are martial arts techniques developed specifically for the use of this knife. Chilean special forces (trans.: the black berets) are still trained in the use of the corvo.
 
Hey this is wonderful. I love this kind of info.
Yitz : What are some of the defining characteristics of the goucho knife? Basically what does one look like?

Not2Sharp and the rest of you very knowledgable folk .. How about a bibliography.




------------------
ALex

http://home.att.net./~a.boriqua
 
Alex,

Most of the Argentine gaucho knives (punal, facon) look very much like large kitchen knives.

The one sent to me by a colleague from Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil (where the gauchos live in Brazil) has a blade about 9 inches long, a cylindrical horn handle and soldered silver fittings. The spine of the blade is very thin.

The knife is traditionally carried in the belt in the small of the back area. The size of the blade ranges from the size of mine as mentioned above and smaller.

The knives are used for everything from work to eating during the course of the gauchos day.

You can find examples in Levine's Guide and also if you use Punal or Facon as a search term on the internet.

Hope that helps a bit.

Blues

------------------
Live Free or Die

Some Knife Pix
 
Don't forget the Katar of India. This is basically a giant push dagger with a crossbar handle and metal plates extending up the forearm to protect the arm and reinforce the thrust. It was primarily designed to punch thru chain mail and feels quite awkward when used in normal knife style. Kalyiripat (not sure of the spelling) is the Indian martial art that trains with this weapon.
 
Correction: Although the yatagan pattern has been used in Afganistan it is generally attributed to Turkey.

A good reference would be:

Sword and Hilt Weapons (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1989). ISBN 1-55584-290-9

Barns and Nobels had this excellent reference on their shelves until recently. You might be able to find a copy there.

[This message has been edited by not2sharp (edited 06-18-2000).]
 
Boriqua: I guess describing it as looking like a kitchen knife is not a bad way to put it. The gaucho knives I've seen have either silver or base metal handles and sheaths with a lot of carving on them. The nicest ones have bits of gold included in the carving. The blade is sort of a long triangular shape. Of course, it could be that these fancy ones are more for tourists than anything else. I'm not sure what the real gauchos use. There's a book called "knives of the world" that has pictures of .... (guess what?) knives of the world. I forget who wrote it, but you can find it, along with lots of other used books on knives at reasonable prices, at bibliofind.com .

[This message has been edited by yitz (edited 06-18-2000).]
 
Hello Yitz,
good to see you on the forum.
now you'll have to make some spare time, this forum thing is addictive.
guy.
 
One of my personal favorites is the Malayan (as in Malay archipelago--including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philipines) Kriss. Serpentine blade, damascus steel (sometimes with meteoric iron included), unusual pistol grip handle, elaborately worked wooden sheaths.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top