Unknown British knife

[Anthony N]

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I found something a little similar on ebay said to be a bowie knife but the blade was different.
The handle at first i thought was bakerlite maybe plastic, but not so sure, sounds like it could be GUTTA PERCHA, but obviously not sure
Ant.

[RMR]

Hi their are two candidates for the hilt BOIS DURCI and PARKESINE both of which were in use in the mid 19th century parkesine being the most likely.Similar handles are found on 19th century British bayonets.i have uploaded a picture of 2 dirk knives of the 1860 period which are very similar in blade shape.regards RMR

[Anthony N]

Thanks for that RMR, interesting stuff. Just got the knife out & looking at the blade it is similar to the ones you've shown but not quite the same.
looks like we're getting closer though.
Thanks again, Ant.

[byterock]

It think it is a sea scout knife 1920s or 1930s

[RMR]

Hi in the 19th century their were hundreds of cutlers in sheffield and as the blades were hand made slight variations occur but from your pics it seems to have a spearpoint end sharpened for the first 11/2 inch -2inches on the top edge but more important is the shape of the quillion which as you can see is almost the same in all 4 examples shown,this with the blade shape leads me to think its a mid 19th century knife the scabbard style is also correct for this period.For a definite answer you could allways email pics to Wallis and Wallis.the pics I posted the blades were not curved the page of the book was.

[Anthony N]

Thanks mate, you're spot on about the quillion & i would have thought as you say that there were a lot of these made in Sheffield.
I will try & track down Wallis & wallis & send them some pics.
Thanks for your help, Ant.