My 4th Century Knife

[Medicus matt]

This 4th Century knife that was found with a sword (both on the left side of the body), as well as a crossbow broach with a Chi-Rho, and some glass with a boar hunt scene. The blade is very richly decorated, again supporting in my mind why the sheath should have some decoration....

Ahh, the Bonn 'Steampunk' knife. Lovely piece. A similar knife with decorated blade was found in Winchester but unfortunately it was stolen from the museum and has never been properly published.
But look at the preservation, not just of the metal elements but also the organic parts. If it had been buried in a sheath equipped with a slide fixed with rivets, don't you think that some of it would remain?

Perhaps we're starting with a false assumption, that knives like these were suspended on the person at all? Locations in graves of the majority suggests otherwise.