Navaja
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The navaja is a Spanish fighting knife that first appeared around the 17th century. It is a very large flick knife with a locking blade or in some modern examples a switchblade. These knives are usually highly stylized and ornamental consisting of elaborate handle designs of bone, ivory, gold or other various metals.
The navaja was popular among thieves and the Spanish "Gypsies", the Gitanos. The navaja's popularity among the criminal element is attested to in James Loriega's book Sevillian Steel. Loriega writes, "Navajas crossed the hands and drew the blood of soldiers and sailors, rogues and ruffians, and diplomats and aristocrats both in and out of Spain's borders. The use of the navaja fostered a mystique, not only from Seville's back streets, but also from the seedy waterfronts of Barcelona, and the cosmopolitan promenades of Madrid. Regardless of their original intent, the navaja represented the ultimate means for resolving disagreements, misunderstandings, and problems that arose in dockside bars, darkened alleys, and an untold number of places not found in any guidebook; places where there is little reliance on legal recourses; places where you either catch a glimpse of steel and live-or miss it and never know why you died."
