Today's update:

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Arms & Armor Aunlaz Dagger
A hands-on review by Chad Arnow

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Arms & Armor Medieval Knife
A hands-on review by Chad Arnow

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Arms & Armor Aunlaz Dagger
Added to Chad's collection

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Arms & Armor Medieval Knife
Added to Chad's collection


Today marks our forum's five-year anniversary!

Yeah, that's right! We've had this forum for five years as of today! To celebrate, we're throwing another contest:

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Five Years and Going Strong
A new contest!


As always, you can see our Complete History of Updates listed right from our home page.

I have to vote "other" because my favorite would be a parrying dagger, with downcurved or s-shaped quillons, a side ring and a longish two-edged blade- maybe 12-14". Something along the lines of the A&A Musketeer Dagger, or their German Parrying Dagger, but with a longer blade. Sweet!

Marc

I'm not really a big dagger fan but I suppose it would be the quillon dagger.

Voted for other, while seax might be under the topic of knife, it really feels like its own thing. :)

Being a proud Irishman l'd have to say a skean, Oh and happy birthday myArmoury.com

I voted "ballock dagger", but I'm including it's descendent, the Scottish Dirk, among the type. Alba go Bragh! :lol:

At the moment I'm very interested in utilitarian messers of the hauswehr/bauernwehr type. One rarely sees reproductions but they're all over German artwork of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

I think this says it all (this was actually one of my earliest posts at myArmoury, apologies for the awful photo):
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One decade or another I will have it recreated.

I would say Bowie knife... but, you know, not European (although a great many bowie patterns were exported from England and the Continent to the US back in the day).

But parrying daggers are pretty awesome too.

I'm actually kind of a fan of the cinquedea. The traditional daggers here in Crete are quite stunning as well, but they have more of an eastern feel.

For my favorite type of European dagger, I selected 'Other.'

I've always been partial to the so-called main gauche (or does this qualify as a quillon dagger?). Some are extremely elaborate! Even ones that aren't so fancy are still eye-catching in their own right and all can be used as a regular dagger or large knife.

I voted for the quillon type. I like the rondel and the ballock, too, but it's the quillons that really tug at me. In fact I've been eyeing the Aunlaz since last February when Craig posted it as a highlighted item. Of the three pictured in the attachments, I have the one on the top, the center one is on my short list, and the bottom one is on order. These pics came from Vladimir Cervenka's website and I encourage you to have a look.

Great contest, Nathan! Thanks for doing this!

The seax is definitely my favourite knife but it's not really medieval, so I put in a vote for the quillon dagger.

I'm partial to Holbeins.

I found a picture of an historical "Aunlaz" that I thought everyone would enjoy.

Copyright to Logan Thompson

" Daggers and Bayonets A History" by Logan Thompson.

I believe you're right! And much better photography, I believe :eek: ;)

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Sean Flynt wrote:

At the moment I'm very interested in utilitarian messers of the hauswehr/bauernwehr type. One rarely sees reproductions but they're all over German artwork of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The utilitarian nature of these side arms are what I find the most interesting. It is an every-day tool that peasants seem to carry for mundane tasks and it can be used to fight with in the event one is threatened. It is for this reason, I voted "OTHER." The Hauswehr, Bauernwehr is simply a jack-of-all-trades.

I very much like the handle design of the Baselard, which I thought about voting for, and I like the variety that exists in the Rondel dagger and the protection that the disks provide. The hand protection offered by the Rondel dagger puts it higher on my list than the Baselard. However, both of these lost my vote because of the utilitarian nature of the simple farmer's blade. It was designed for more than just killing.

(Craig)

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Here's another historical dagger of this form. It's dated to c. 1400 and is in London's Guildhall museum.

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