Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 28th June 2017, 04:23 AM

I am no expert on navajas, but I have owned several. All the ones that I owned were quite old, quite large, and they could very easily and positively be flipped open, once open it required two hands and effort to close them.

I got rid of all of them probably in the early 1980's.

I had assumed that they were weapons, rather than tools, and as weapons they required a very positive locking system to prevent the blade being closed on the user's hand by an opponent.

At the present time the Roman pattern Italian folder, which is usually just about normal pocket knife size, employs a very similar mechanism to the one that my navajas used --- but my navajas were all over 12" long when closed.

28th June 2017, 04:23 AM	#3
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,700	I am no expert on navajas, but I have owned several. All the ones that I owned were quite old, quite large, and they could very easily and positively be flipped open, once open it required two hands and effort to close them. I got rid of all of them probably in the early 1980's. I had assumed that they were weapons, rather than tools, and as weapons they required a very positive locking system to prevent the blade being closed on the user's hand by an opponent. At the present time the Roman pattern Italian folder, which is usually just about normal pocket knife size, employs a very similar mechanism to the one that my navajas used --- but my navajas were all over 12" long when closed. Last edited by A. G. Maisey; 28th June 2017 at 04:59 AM.