Zuavo 19 cm cow horn

The name of the ZUAVO indicates a knife in use among the Zouaves arrived in Italy with Napoleon and is derived from knives produced in Chatellerault with the typical yatagan blade, a fashion after the Egyptian campaign. This simple spring knife was quickly adopted by the three great Italian productive centers (Maniago, Frosolone and Scarperia) for its characteristics conforming to the law of 1871 which forbade the knives with fixed spring . In Frosolone, French turtle handles was even imitated, subjecting the horn to a yellowing process using nitric acid and to a subsequent operation of dappling using a mixture of quick lime, minium and lye obtained from the boiling of vegetable ash. These handles “ tartarugati” became the hallmark and instantly recognizable as production of Frosolone, at the point that when the horn was replaced with plastic, they used yellow plastic dotted with black spots, just to somehow revive the ancient characterization of the handles of the knives of Frosolone.