Greetings all,

I have been reading Gabaldon's Outlander books due to some lucky finds at the Goodwill store. For obvious reasons, they have stirred a certain interest in Scottish things on my part... I already had a broadsword hanging on the wall and it was a moment's effort to acquire a dirk blade. But now that I have a blade, it requires a handle put on and some clothing beside.

That said: What size would a dirk handle be? Should it fill the whole hand, or should it be rather short so that your index and thumb are about the very top of the handle while the butt (rondel?) fills the heel of your hand?

And how would the scabbard typically be made? Heavy leather or wood core? Any decoration? Tooling, incised lines, punching? How was it suspended?

If any dates are looked for, consider early to mid 1700s, nothing too fancy.

Thanks all!

What kind of blade do you have? Living in Georgia, and saying you got it quickly, I made a presumption that it may be a Windlass-made Atlanta Cutlery blade? That style of blade ought to be sufficient for your time period, and into later periods as well. Anything earlier would be the more wedge-shaped blade style. As far as handles go, I would just look at different handles and decide on a design I like and go from there. :) But that's just me. If I assumed too much about your blade, I apologize. :) ......McM

I think I like yours better than the ACC blade. You can always put on jimping later if you want. I think you could probably make pretty much anything your heart desires with that. I may get one myself. :D Thanks for the link!........McM

I've got a Windlass blade and one from Crazy Crow which looks extremely similar to the Track of the Wolf one and is likely from the same maker -- similar or identical profile, slightly off-center tang with a narrow threaded end, even the same INDIA stamping. The Windlass is nice but I think it clearly resembles a modern regimental-style blade, even though it's not etched. The Crazy Crow and TotW blades are more like 18th-century ones, albeit somewhat less acute than most from the time, and the Crazy Crow at least is rather bulkier and heavier than the Windlass.

For the sheath: I've seen photos of several examples from the late 17th to early 18th centuries with what appear to be leather sheaths, which are presumably back-seamed, are tooled and feature a brass chape with scalloped top edge and ball finial (a small lamp finial will do for that, though it's probably not strictly necessary). This one could be a good idea for simple tooling; admittedly the leather might be new, because it's in awfully good shape, but it's claimed to be original.

At a guess, I'd say that wood scabbards with thin leather facings probably also existed; after all, not even all cowhide is heavy enough for large all-leather sheaths, let alone calf, deer, goat, sheep... but I can't think of examples off the top of my head.

Attached is a pic from IIRC an old build-along album by Vince Evans which I can't seem to locate on the Web anymore; hopefully this can give you some idea about proper hilt sizing, though someone else more knowledgeable than myself would be able to explain it better.

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Here's some dirks copied from the National Museum of Scotland. They should give you some idea of the styles of the era.

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Lin-- no worries about historicity, I'm not looking for that from a series of fiction novels! Mainly they've served as inspiration. My grandmother's family are Wallaces, and I don't know if they're Scottish Wallaces, but you never know ;) so it's a bit of a family joke that we'll set Scotland free someday... anyway, yeah, the dirk blade is a bit thick. Not really an issue for me as I don't intend to chop anybody up with it. I plan to draw-file the blade along the edge to thin the primary bevel down, though. It'll take awhile, but I have time.

Are metal chapes strictly necessary? I was visualizing sort of a very practical, peasant-style plain wood grip and plain leather scabbard.

Would the scabbards have any sort of riser? And I don't think anybody has said how the dirk would be suspended?

Last question-- what's the general diameter of the 'roundel' on top? I'm not sure I have any wood thick enough to make a roundel much bigger than an inch and a half around...

Thanks everybody thus far!

I would think that if you want to go with a very stark, utilitarian dirk then a plain leather sheath would be fine. Maybe a little simple line tooling. I would also think a chape would look nice, but it might detract from the overall 'plain Jane' look you're going after. The pommel end wouldn't necessarily have to be made from the same piece of wood as the grip. Find another piece of wood big enough that you can get the size pommel you want. I've made dirk-style knives in three pieces...guard, grip, and pommel all separate. On one I made, I used a light hickory for the grip and black walnut for the pommel and guard. Turned out looking a bit like a Gladius, but the guy I made it for loved it. :D Doing it that way makes it pretty easy to fit the pieces on the tang. But, once again....that's just me. :) ..........McM