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Juan, that is wonderful information. Is there a way to phrase this question to the broader forum to see if such a one edged, or clip pointed knife is known to an aficionado of Northern European...

Hello Javier, it is fascinating how these knives develop over time. I think that the Gaucho knives and the Belduques have a common ancestor, but the Belduque seems (from what I have seen) to be more...

This is a neat little dagger, probably to be categorized as a belduque, called "The Joe Place Sword". It was found on the Gila River in 1914. I would love to get a chance to take photos and detailed...

Thats a good observation. This article here, while not referencing the belduque, has some cool historical information that might be from the same time period. Plus, its just a good fun read about...

Yep, and that means some of these weapons are OLD. We'll never know, but I wouldn't be surprised if this belduque was from before 1750.

The belduque is an earlier weapon whose design informed that of the bowie, or certain variants of the rather broad category of "bowie". One of the diagnostic features of a belduque is the forged-in...

Perhaps some of you have seen this making the interweb rounds. An amateur dug this up in Texas, so its without any provenance, and I can't figure out where it is now. Most likely, the finder has it,...

Those are good points Ralph, I was wondering that myself. Was there a sort of pan-Northern Mediterranean tradition of these weapons, perhaps regional developments after the introduction of the weapon...

Following up on my new interest in Greek swords, here is a pair of kopis from the Metropolitan Museum, which was luckily in a corner case so I could get a closeup of the blades. While seriously...

You are right about the guard being stuck to the throat, you can see the curves of the guard above, and its even more clear if you peer through the case on tiptoe craning your head around to get a...

I actually got interested in these swords recently in part because I went to a very amazing exhibit of ancient greek art in Montreal. There were multiple assemblages from warrior graves from the...

Thanks for posting all of that Matt, the details of these swords are starting to come through. What do you think of the Manning Imperial xiphoi? I don't want one (can't afford it, too much other...

Yes, it is number 418. I am trying to post a picture, but at any rate, in the side view there is a clear gap between the blade and the back of the guard. This gap is the same width as the hilt...

Yes, the early xiphos as illustrated in Killian Dirlmeir seem to be Naue swords to which some enterprising smith has riveted that peculiar guard, it almost looks as if in some examples the guard is...

Thanks Matt for your information, its sad that there is no better info out there, but its good to know I can stop looking around. I have the Killian-Dirlmeir book, its got some good material, but its...

Does anyone know of specialized information or general studies on the Greek Xiphos? Books on the subject seem
nonexistent, and even studies are far between.

I am very sorry to have neglected to update this thread, but the book is no longer available.

Hello all, I am working on a Balinese (?) keris, and I have an interesting problem with the hulu.
The keris tang was wrapped with several layers of thin cloth, tied off with string, and all very...

Hey everyone, I found someones blog about keris, I think with some sales info, and they had
posted a fair number of these pictures. This looks like a really good way to learn the various
dapur,...

I don't know about the holes in the blade, but I have managed to research the blade/ganjah shape, and it's called dapur sepang.

How common is ganja menumpang? I understand this to be the ganjah of a kris being forged in one piece with the blade. I recently purchased a kris which seems to have a ganjah menumpang, the border...

Hopefully, these will appear, I have problems posting images...127031127032

On another forum I found a keris for sale from Lombok, and it had a seemingly symmetrical or near symmetrical ganjah, and holes cut through the blade just above the ganjah. I have looked through my...

Just got Iron Ancestors by Theo Alkema, and its a really great book. The text is conversational in tone, sprinkled with interesting and sometimes amusing anecdotes about how he got his hands on...

Hello Forum folks,
I am about mid stride in restoring a highly polished kris from Bali. It was splotchily covered with crusty corrosion, which I thought would not come off. Boy, was I wrong. With...