metal99 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Hey everyone, I hope your all doing well. I was digging through some of my stuff in storage when we moved it home and found something that I forgot I had. Its a forged "chopping" style blade. I found it when my Dad and I were looking for native arrow heads and stuff like that. Do any of you have an idea on the age of something like this? sorry the pictures are so big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Shears Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Just a semi-educated guess; to me it looks like a Medic's variant of the 'bolo' style knives issues by the U.S. military after the Spanish American War (in the Phillipines) and IIRC used up to and through WWII. Those issued to the Medic's didn't have a stabbing point and were meant for cutting poles to make strechers, and build shelters. As I said, it's just a guess going on the size (related to your hand) and what little I can recall from a line drawing illustration in a 1950's book about weapons or U.S. military equipment. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Cool man, It could very well be a bolo but where I found it makes me think it might be way before them times. We found about 100 stone arrow heads in the same spot that I found this blade so that makes me think it may be from the fur trade days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramsies11 Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 it could be a crudly forged buffalo skinners knife if your thinking of that, they didnt have points, and they had a slight curve, they were used for skinning the buffalo and not damaging the insides like the point of a regular knife did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 My cousin has my grandmother's garden knife that she used to harvest cabbage, lettuce, cut corn stalks and the such. She was born in 1860 so she could have acquired it from an old buffalo hunter we were supposed to have one of those in the family that returned home to peace and quiet of Indiana. I have seen the bolo style knifes used by medics in a surgeons collection of military medical items and they all had flat riveted wooden scales not a handle that was peened on the end so I don't think it is from the Spanish-American War. I think you may be correct that it was a trade knife to the Native Americans from White traders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 Thanks for the info! I have seen similar blades like this but just like Bentiron said, they had rivited on handles. Its really bothering me that I can't quite get to the bottom of this tho. I have shown it to a few people and they all gave me a puzzled look and took a guess as to how old it could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramsies11 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 did you find this knife in canada? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 Yup I found it about 50 miles west of Saskatoon saskatchewan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 Oh and another note. I saw some pics of what were thought to be buffalo skinners and the cutting edge was on the outside of the curve this blades edge is on the inside. It's gotta be a chopper of some kind. There are a lot of old farms in the area and a few small towns so it also could have been made by a local smith way back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal99 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 I had a local collector look at this blade. He collects stuff from the Hudson bay era. He figures it was for butchering bison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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