West African machete

length: 25"
blade: 20 1/2"
blade width: 1 1/4" base, 1 1/2" max
grip: 5"

Interesting machete, most likely from the central west coast area of Africa. Blade looks to have been created from a wider blade cut down for this purpose, there's the tail end of a "21" marking visible about 2" up from the grip, and the edge of another marking 3" up from that - very unusual to see blades marked that far away from the forte or ricasso, and it's hard to imagine what kind of a wider blade this could have been cut from. The widening at the tip for extra cutting power is pretty nifty, too. Handle is hardwood with iron rivets, and there are four flattened "fingers" complete with rivet head fingernails for the pommel. The scabbard is of sewn leather, with some hair still on the hide. Scabbard has a split at the cutting edge side about 1/3 of the way up. I picked this one up from one of the world's foremost ethnographic weapons specialists, and he wasn't exactly sure of it's origins. If you know, let me know, and I'll include the information here.

4/27/01