Just trying to find out a bit more about these knives... it seems many were made by a British cutler who moved to Salem, Madras, India; some knives are marked "Arnachellum". I read that the steel of these Indian-made knives was considered superior to the European product, being hard but not brittle.
Here is an image of the 19th century big-game hunter Sir Samuel Baker with a knife in his belt that looks suspiciously like one of these Indian-produced hunting knives.
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