🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Found Far down the rabbit hole, Magic treasure knife

[Joecoins]

Treasure? For finding treasure?
Wand/ athame?
Aha Bes / Beset . Lingam, magic sigils. Gorgon...yali..etc...
Purchased last year on eBay.
After a series of incredible finds including bonafide athames and magic swords.
I found myself researching magical treasure hunting for fun. I had a book about the topic that I highly recommend. It was something like , Magical treasure hunting in Europe and North America.
I found myself looking at more stuff on eBay when I found this peice. It was unique so I bought it. In research I have come up with some ideas and it lead to researching down many rabbit holes. Anyone got some knowlege orcan point me in the right direction? Unfortunately no xrf analyzers nearby. And not many researches on these things
Thanks
It is kinda sharp I imagine it can be sharpened it is quite solid. Doesn't look like a typical letter opener to me...
Not with the sigils....

 

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[Joecoins]

I’d say it could be for burning incense cones. Unsure as to the symbols. Initially I thought sanskrit or urdu characters. But I seriously doubt it is either.

thanks

 

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[Joecoins]

I was thinking some kind of kufic

 

[Joecoins]

in the imagery I see auspicious symbols "shell" etc..., a tree of life, people peering into bowls.., female figures?,
12 images for the 12 constellations? 12 months? 12 imams?

 

[Plumbata]

As others have said, the knife in question is a relatively modern mid-late 20th century cast copper alloy (probably brass) letter opener. It appears to be emulating the form of a Chinese "Jian" sword and was clearly quite crudely and quickly made. It had the extra brass "flashing" that oozed out along the casting seam knocked down with modern rotary grinders and wasn't smoothed or finished like any quality blade for practical or ritual use would have been.

Compare with my ~3,500 year old Middle Bronze Age riveted dagger that was found preserved with its original bone handle in a tannin-rich boggy environment in the Netherlands. In spite of the primitive technologies available to humanity back then they invested the time and effort needed to craft and finish an elegant blade and handle, then carefully inscribed on each side of the blade with a spiritually potent "Circumpunct" solar/cosmological symbol. If you're looking for magical athames you want to avoid mass-produced modern Chinese letter openers and hunt for pieces more like my ancient dagger, good luck!

 

[Joecoins]

Thanks for your opinion, but I doubt mine was mass produced. And the sigil applied aswell. "Spiritually potent."
Just because it's a little crude doesn't mean it can't be old and should be overlooked. Most modern peices aren't crude as such. To me it shows more modest creation a long time ago...
Taoist peices can be found crude. Nothing is perfect. You must take things as they come. This is the way.
Lots of objects have symbols that are "spiritually potent". Doesn't make them an athame...I am not looking for magical athames. They found me.

Check out the bowl I found after posting this "letter opener"/ shamans alloy phurba "ghost dagger"?.
The bowl gots lots of spiritually potent symbols. And I need some more eyes.
Say sometin nice and I can show you the gold sigils on a true athame...

Thanks for sharing and the luck, I will keep my eyes open for stuff like yours you never know.

The back then your refering to far outdated my best hopes for the age of my alloy knife. Yet at any stage in history I am shure there is the quality clean cut peices and then you can also find the more primitive quality or unfinished to perfect standard peices .

 

[Joecoins]

I like magic jian swords.
But the handle of my alloy dagger is a much more specific ligham shape

 

[creskol]

Thanks for your opinion, but I doubt mine was mass produced. And the sigil applied aswell. "Spiritually potent."
Just because it's a little crude doesn't mean it can't be old and should be overlooked. Most modern peices aren't crude as such. To me it shows more modest creation a long time ago...
Taoist peices can be found crude. Nothing is perfect. You must take things as they come. This is the way.
Lots of objects have symbols that are "spiritually potent". Doesn't make them an athame...I am not looking for magical athames. They found me.

Check out the bowl I found after posting this "letter opener"/ shamans alloy phurba "ghost dagger"?.
The bowl gots lots of spiritually potent symbols. And I need some more eyes.
Say sometin nice and I can show you the gold sigils on a true athame...

Thanks for sharing and the luck, I will keep my eyes open for stuff like yours you never know.

The back then your refering to far outdated my best hopes for the age of my alloy knife. Yet at any stage in history I am shure there is the quality clean cut peices and then you can also find the more primitive quality or unfinished to perfect standard peices .

 

[Plumbata]

I guess describing it as "mass-produced" was a bit clumsy, it probably wasn't something made by the 100s of thousands or millions but instead it is characteristic of the work put out by small-scale or artisanal Asian/Indian metal foundry workshops in the mid/late 20th century, and is probably 1 of hundreds or thousands of knives cast from the same molds/forms that they would have manufactured relatively quickly and supplied to the regional tourism trade or exported inexpensively to retailers of exotic knick-knacks overseas. Besides the lack of patina, roughness and crudity typical of cheap asian/indian metal castings and inauthentic 1-piece construction, the rotary grinding marks are a hallmark of relatively recent manufacture, and an XRF analysis of the composition of the alloy would likely show it's made of a mix of metals that wasn't commonly (or ever) used centuries ago and is a more modern zinc+copper brass alloy (instead of more expensive tin+copper bronze) that they likely extended with mix of copper alloy scrap metal they collected and melted into the batch.

 

[Joecoins]

Well if I had access to xrf we might not be having this conversation...
Rotary grinding marks? In not so shure..
Perhaps it was not finished so well because of use of sub par tools,by someone who doesn't make these for a living..
Maybe for its intended function it didn't need to be finished as nice as even the letter openers you see.
Maybe it is a unique one off peice made locally for very "special" purposes. Long ago..
I know what it looks like. And what the sigil looks like. And it spoke to me.... And the price was right. I definitely don't regret it..

 

[Plumbata]

If you like it then more power to you, but I've been collecting and studying ancient metal tools and weapons as well as the fakes, forgeries, replicas and cheap tourist trinkets any serious collector must diligently avoid for quite a while so have developed a rather keen eye for such objects. I'm 100% confident in my assessment and would wager any amount on the fact that it is modern. I hope that over time as you digest more archaeological reports and study enough museum holdings you'll come to recognize it for what it is, but before that time I hope you don't spend too much money on similar items in the belief they're old or of any historical significance. By all means have fun, a few bucks here or there is nothing but please don't get scammed by anyone claiming such things are something they aren't, 95-99% of the "ancient" artifacts online are either outright forgeries or grossly misattributed so be very careful, good luck out there.

 

[Joecoins]

Thanks. And good luck aswell.
I am very careful with what I buy.
I don't go for the treasures that are claiming to be so. I try to go for what speaks to me, hopefully treasures that are yet to be realized as such.
I am not 100% , so ya it was cool enough for me and I am thank full for it.
It cost me a whole 40$ . Currency exchange and shipping mostly. For all that mystery, and more...

I wish with your experience youd look at my bowl , thanks

 

[Joecoins]

As others have said, the knife in question is a relatively modern mid-late 20th century cast copper alloy (probably brass) letter opener. It appears to be emulating the form of a Chinese "Jian" sword and was clearly quite crudely and quickly made. It had the extra brass "flashing" that oozed out along the casting seam knocked down with modern rotary grinders and wasn't smoothed or finished like any quality blade for practical or ritual use would have been.

Compare with my ~3,500 year old Middle Bronze Age riveted dagger that was found preserved with its original bone handle in a tannin-rich boggy environment in the Netherlands. In spite of the primitive technologies available to humanity back then they invested the time and effort needed to craft and finish an elegant blade and handle, then carefully inscribed on each side of the blade with a spiritually potent "Circumpunct" solar/cosmological symbol. If you're looking for magical athames you want to avoid mass-produced modern Chinese letter openers and hunt for pieces more like my ancient dagger, good luck!
View attachment 2122669

I took some time to look at some bronze age stuff,( and have some thoughts about the magic of such items if found in waters or like bogs etc...)

there are quite a few examples , I found this for sale

pricey but probably still terribly undervalued.

also today I purchased a couple things, at a local auction, a 1840 model militia sword very much just like this one below, I pick mine up Thursday, there is similar symbolism on the sword to the circumpunct .

also I was inspired by you to buy this wood stand for my bowl, the appearance of the circumpunct symbol on it spoke to me, found it on eBay

 

[Joecoins]

also wanted to post

some stuff I been looking at

 

[Joecoins]

concerning my bowl, but involving a research tangent I started on this thread,
I had an insight or further delusion, good food for thought inside this rabbit hole

 

[Joecoins]

My sword. And a Thai amulet..., symbols look familiar...