Mystery knives

[not2sharp]

This was a vintage Buck 110 Gen 2, dating to 1968-1970. But as you can see it has been heavily modified. It appears that this kind of alteration was common at the time with bike gangs. They would modify the knife for quick one hand deployment. To me it looks good and it works. An interesting mod by person(s) unknown.

n2s

 

[not2sharp]

This is an interesting old fighter which turned up in South America 25 years back. It is considerably older than that and resembles some of the later knives made in Guam during the early 20th century. Although it likely predates those as well. For now, I have this tagged as an 18th or 19th century knife possibly from Guam. Then again, for all we know it may have been Jim Bowies knife from the sandbar fight....all part of the fun with mystery knives.

For reference: The two Guam (Chamorro) knives below date from around the period WWI and the interwar years. Guam was a very small place (about 13,000 people in 1920), so all of these knives would have likely been made by the same school or family of knifemakers.


This photos below were shared with me during the 1990s. They are from the last traditional knife maker in Guam. He also believed the knives shown above may have been made by someone in his family. Unfortunately, he has since passed away. These are his knives shown below.



n2s

 

[not2sharp]

Today we have yet another species of "theater knives".

These are knives made from modified swords.

This was cut down from a Weyersberg Kirschbaum & Co. sword. Most likely a 1898 Artillery sword.



This one is a cutdown French Briquet sword



The top knife is very well done. Especially the modification to the guard. These kinds of conversions were popular. The best know US examples were the knives made during WWII from cut down Patton swords.

Although the original swords are well documented we can only guess at when or why these modifications may have been made.

n2s