Mystery knife for comment and id

[Araña_del_Sol]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi ADS,

The middle part is some sort of horn. The knife looks Mongolian to my eyes but I am not sure about its exact origin. But it's an interesting knife.

Regards,
Detlef

Originally Posted by Ian

The translucent piece of horn could be a piece of albino horn from a cow, water buffalo, or goat.

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Looking at the scabbard I wonder is it is some form of Bou Saadi knife. The horn and brass/aluminium washer construction is common to north and north east African.

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

Is the scabbard made of leather only or does it have a wooden core?. If only leather, I would say east African

Thank you all for your responses! It seems like northern Africa or possibly Mongolia is the place of origin for this knife. The scabbard has a wood core covered in leather.

- ADS

[Ian]

The deeply struck characters on the blade look vaguely Chinese to me. I favor Detlef's interpretation that this is East/Central Asian. The leather covering a wood core for the scabbard might be horse leather. It reminds me of ass and onager leather on some NW Indian knives (not that I think that is the origin for this piece).

[Araña_del_Sol]

Originally Posted by Ian

The deeply struck characters on the blade look vaguely Chinese to me. I favor Detlef's interpretation that this is East/Central Asian. The leather covering a wood core for the scabbard might be horse leather. It reminds me of ass and onager leather on some NW Indian knives (not that I think that is the origin for this piece).

Thanks for your comment, I will look at other examples from those regions for comparison.

- ADS