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- Jun 26, 2007
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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
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
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