A Good Read ...

[WaddWatsonEllis]

This man know s more about South and Central American knives in his little toe than I will ever know ...

It is certainly worth the read ...

http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/facon/criollo.html

[JimBob]

Wow Heck of an article.Went to the home site,if you wanna know about swords an knives with excellent pictures where you can see details this is it.

Thanks for posting the link,it be a good'n.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Jim Bob,

It is a hell of a read about something we don't get too much info on ... Cuchillas and the Gaucho way of life.

I have actuallly emailed him and got a very warm reply ... this is a very nice as well as knowlegable man!

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[The Elderly Kid]

The third knife in photo 6, the double-edged dagger, looks amazingly like a Sykes-Fairbairn commando dagger of WWII, right down to the solid-metal handle. Some classic designs just keep coming back century after century. I'd read much of this material in other articles about Argentine knives, but not in such detail, concentrated in one place, and by a scholar who knows his Bowies as well. When I started college in the mid-60s at the University of New Mexico, the library had a little book called "Esgrimas Criollas," about Argentine knife fighting and duels. When I was back in college after returning from Vietnam I found that it had disappeared, and years later learned that it is a quite rare and collectible book. I wish I'd stolen it when I had the chance.

[Cliff Fendley]

Thanks for all of this info, this is something I've been looking for more info on for quite a while.

[Sacramento Johnson]

Howdy!
Interesting article and pictures.  I think the cuchillo de campo (country knife) looks a lot like a belduque.
Wonder if they're related.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

They probably are related ... all that I have read points back to a common Flemish/Dutch/German style of kitchen knife (cuchillo) that was adopted by Spain and brought to the Colonies ... somewhere along the way, they put a sharpened edge to the opposite side ... I am told to make it easier to penetrate chain mail armor .....

[Messerist]

Elegant,  yet fierce.  Quite a read.  Thanks for the link.  Bookmarked it!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Messerist,

Too bad you can't see me right now ... I'm doin' my best Wallace Beery. 'Wall Gee, Fella,'

The work was Mr Domenech's; I just put up the link ... and since we last talked, he has expanded this into a book ... but unfortunately I can only find Spanish copies ... but here they are on Amazon ....

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Domenech%2C+Abel