Navaja with questions

[Chris Evans]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Thank you Chris!

So it's a "Spanish" navaja in French style. Or a French navaja worked for the Spanish market.

Age early 20th century? Handle scales from celluloid?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Regards,
Detlef

Hard to say how widely these knives were distributed, but I very much doubt if they were made exclusively for the Spanish market as their general shape and style was not "Spanish" at all. The French did produce knives similar in style to the ones that were made by Spanish cutlers at the time, but these are numerically in the minority.

This knife was made, according to Forton and other sources, late in the 19th century. The handle scales were usually bone.

I'll add that Forton's books are the definitive resource on these knives and no other extant work even remotely approaches their content. Unfortunately they remain untranslated.

Cheers
Chris