Help and Looking for ideas

[zooarch]

hello, I'm new here and figured you could give me a hand. I'm an archaeologist out in utah and we've got a folding knife that is associated with some skeletal remains of a native american about 100 - 180 years old. any ideas on the knife? not much to go on and it is real rusted.....

[Sauconian]

Some additional views and measurements might help.
Post bigger photos, so they can be enlarged.

It has the general shape of a barlow style knife, but if that's a centimeter scale, it would be just over 3" ?, which is too small. Maybe a quill knife ?

It's rusted over the area of the handles, are they missing ?

Fran

[griz1200]

Welcome Zooarch. Will you be cleaning this knife at all, or will you be leaving it in it's present condition? It looks to me that on the front bolster, at the top, there is a small area of bright metal showing through. To me, this would indicate that the bolsters are not iron, but rather nickel or silver. This is interesting.

Griz

[ea42]

Here's a larger shot. Is that a Swinden key on the right bolster? If so it's likely only a few decades old and a Schrade. On the other hand, the left bolster looks larger than the right, with possibly a steel pin. Could be German in origin? This is all conjecture on my part, I really can't make out much in the way of details with all that rust on there. Could be a hunk of diabase

Eric

PS- Just re-read the post, if the knife was found ON remains over a hundred years old, it's definitly not a Schrade OT!

[Sauconian]

Definitely a front cover pin there, but it, and the rocker pin don't seem to sticking out of that mess far enough to have been through anything with much thickness. Maybe metal handles ?

More pics might help. Other side, and top, bottom.

Fran