Zuavo 19 Cm Cow Horn

The very name of the ZUAVO refers to a knife in use among the zouaves who came to Italy with Napoleon and derives from knives produced in Chatellerault with the typical yatagan blade in fashion after the Egyptian campaign. This simple spring knife was immediately adopted by the three major Italian production centres (Maniago, Frosolone and Scarperia) due to its characteristics that complied with the 1871 law prohibiting fixed spring knives. In Frosolone, the tortoiseshell of the handles of French examples was even imitated, subjecting the horn to a yellowing process using nitric acid and a subsequent maculation operation using a mixture of virgin lime, minium and lye obtained by boiling vegetable ash. These 'tortoiseshell' handles became the distinctive and immediately recognisable sign of Frosolonese production to such an extent that, when the horn was replaced by plastic, yellow plastic speckled with black spots was used, precisely to reintroduce in some way the ancient characterisation of the Frosolonese knife handle.