Unusual Bulgarian Knife

[TVV]

Hi Mark,
What you have is called "kundre" in Bulgaria and it was a small, folding knife that women in Bulgaria used during the 19th century, and probably before that. It had various applications, the most famous being cutting a newborn's umbilical cord. Overall it was a utility tool, and by no means a fighting weapon, despite that it could have some limited application in self defence.
That is about it, but because you would probably ask how it was worn, well, it was worn on a string underneath the skirts. That is waht the ring is for.
Regards,
Teodor

[Yannis]

I agree with TVV but I have to add few words. This is also a greek folding knife, with the name “sougias”. I was lucky enough to find a better example in Ebay recently.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6573941130

The blade of mine is defiantly greek, with greek words and date 1902. It is very beautiful blade with engraving and acid made black color to give this aesthetic result.

There is also a mystery here because it has a hilt of bone, worked and painted in an exotic style. It is the first time I see a hilt like this. The normal hilts are wood for the common pieces or silver for the higher ones. I wish your comments about the hilt. Also if anyone here has in his collection a piece, please post it.

[erlikhan]

it is a common simple farmer's tool , still used by some Turkish villagers with the name "nacak". I guess for choping and picking corn, sunflower etc. I dont know if Mike's sample is from the Ottoman period, but as the materials and shape hasnt evolved since then, it shouldnt differ so much , if antique or not. The second one probably belonged to a richer landowner looking for some difference and luxury as much as the limited village life let him.

regards

[Aurangzeb]

Hello All!

Was it strickly a womens knife? So it seems this knife is widely ditributed inparts of the balkans. Very interesting, thanks every one for the information.

Mark...

[Rick]

It's a fairly common style ; I'm not sure if one country alone can really claim it as originating there .
Yannis example shows a slight similarity to a navaja .

[TVV]

Yannis, your sougias is a marvellous example, by far the best one I have seen. The clip knives I have seen in Bulgaria are always simple ones, like Mark's and the one I have attached to this message. I do not have a time machine and I cannot be 100% certain if they were strictly used only by women, but men preferred small qamas, similar to this mundane example from my collection, referred to as Bachelor's qamas.

[Yannis]

Originally Posted by Rick

It's a fairly common style ; I'm not sure if one country alone can really claim it as originating there .
Yannis example shows a slight similarity to a navaja .

There are some special features in this Greek and Bulgarian knife that make the difference. (a) The hilt is very thin and like half circle. (b) The blade is very wide, often with flowers etching and the back side has a angle and sometimes a very obvious cusp (I found the last word in a dictionary ). I hope you can see what I mean. Unfortunately I have no picture of a fine silver example this time.

[eftihis]

Hallo, here is a silver example, but i cannot tell if it comes from a specific country.
What is very interesting is the ending of the handle where we can see a lion holding an open book, an image that reminds me very much Venice.
Propably then, it comes from an area of the Balkans that was once under venetian domination or influence, and this design just continued to be made because of habit even in the 19th century under Ottoman domination.

[gp]

Originally Posted by Aurangzeb

Hello All!

....So it seems this knife is widely ditributed inparts of the balkans. ...

Mark...

indeed, mine is from Herzegowina and is also quite old ( bought it near Mostar and could be traced back by the previous owner to his family around 1910 ).
Even antique I think ( Ottoman or just post Ottoman times / early Habsburg maybe)

[gp]

on the use of this knife:

next to being used for hunting, poaching, fishing in the former Yugoslavia ( Southern Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Hercegowina, Montenegro, Serbia and parts of Makedonia...could well be also Kosovo or Albania ) during the last 100 to 150 years (maybe more but I could not find any reference in my literature on a date prior that)
it was also given to young boys as a kind of toy or preparation in their boyhood to becoming an adult man who would wear a knife; the so called "cakija".
As the cakija was too dangerous and it was simply "not done " to give a cakija to a minor or underaged.

* Çakı:*knife[1], pocket knife ENfromTR çak- +Ig → çak- Oldest source: çakı "açılıp kapatılabilen bıçak" [Ahmet Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani (1876)]*

Cakija hat it's root in the turkish word ÇAKI, what means little knife and is actually a knife or small dagger.

Interesting from a linguistic perspective : also occurs in Persian in the form "Chaqu". "Chaqu-kesh" is a knife-wielding thug.
The latter repution quite some "Yu"men got in Europe because of the use of their knives in fights.

Funny that during my stay in the Balkans mid 80ies, travelling around on a bike in summer, I got approving nods when I took mine out when folks said "aah, cakija ...good lad" whilst its use was for preparing my breakfast along the road; cutting bread and slicing sausages or fruit ☺☺☺


Nice to see this Turkish reference ( I think the writer made a typo / typing error and the year should be 1890 instead of 1990, also with reference to the Russian war and overall Ottoman- Russian Balkan troubles between 1850 and 1890) although it's still nice to see the flick knife reappearing again in Turkey now