Posts: 165
Mon 03 Mar, 2008 10:34 pm
Thanks for the nice comments!
I made this dagger out of a reproduction bajonet. I simply cut the bajonet off at the bend, where the blade connects to the gun, and then ground the back-part of the blade down to form a tang for the hilt. I don't think the bajonet was hardened (it was a 28 euro blade), so it probably isn't an excelent blade, but that shouldn't be a big problem for me.
I cut therondels (2 inch diameter) out of 2mm thick steel plate, and riveted two plates together to get double thickness rondels as I though 2mm looked a bit too thin. I countersunk the rivet holes on the hand-side of the rondels so the rivets wouldn't damage hand or glove. I added brass rings behind the rivets to get a decrative effect.
The grip is beechwood (I happened to have some), with a ring of copper between the pieces. Drilling a hole in a 10cm piece of wood is difficult so I used two 5cm pieces and added the copper ring for decoration (I happened to have some ;) ).
I glued the whole handle onto the blade using some really nasty epoxy glue (I used the same glue at work to glue things to salt single crystals and not only does it actually glue those, it even stays on the surface when the crystal is held in a saturated solution!). When the glue was still wet I peened the end of the tang over a brass ring for keeping the handle on (double safety) and a more original look.
I did base my dagger on various pieces and descriptions here on myArmoury.com, so I tried to make a historically inspired piece, but I wouldn't call it a reproduction.
The sheath came with the bajonet!
The bajonet blade was bought here (the Springfield one):
http://www.aus-omas-truhe.de/aot2/action-list...liste.html