An example showing wooden handle with patina similar to the coeval Fa sword handles and other early onzil examples (acquisition dates 1874-1881) in Liverpool and Oxford museums. The shape of the handle, low curvature of the decorated stem and shape of the back of the blade together with the relatively small size place this example in Westerdijk's (1988) type XIV, 9A. On the corrugated seam between upper and lower parts of the blade, Westerdijk (1988, pg 341) writes, "in some very rare cases type XIV, 9A specimens also display such a corrugated seam instead of the usual central rib." The cylindrical wooden haft, typical for type XIV, 9A, would very probably have been originally wrapped with copper or brass wire, now lost.

Mary Kingsley (1897) and Bennett (1899) described such knives as "sacrifice knives," and Mary Kingsley described witnessing such a use. De Brazza (1878) implied that these are not sacrifice knives, but failed to state what use he thought they did have. A status display or ceremonial use is a likely possibility, and this was the case by the 1960s and 1970s among the Mahongwe in the north (Collomb 1981).