I’ve grown more and more fond of the bauernwehr design over the years. Despite the modern nomenclature (“bauer” means “peasant” or “farmer”), these weapons were also carried by the upper class and often made to be high end. These are the weapons that catch my eye, personally.

Todsworkshop.com just put this beauty up for sale:
https://todsworkshop.com/collections/in-stock-historical-swords-daggers-crossbows/products/high-status-bauernwehr

Sorry, Crocodile Dundee, but THAT’S a knife! It has all of the classic elements of a bauernwehr, but takes it up several notches. The medalion in the nagel, the file work on the spine, the leatherwork for the sheath, everything.

Just thought I’d plug it in case you hadn’t already seen it. :)

Thanks for posting this up Bill and thanks for the nudge; the first time I have posted a new piece here for a while.

The story so far....

I have leant my book out so some details are sketchy.....Mattaus Schawrtz was a very rich, young and fashionable German guy who had his portrait painted in the late 15thC. He loved it and started to have a portrait painted every year in his best clothes and wrote a few lines about a notable event from that year, my particular favourite (paraphrase) "This is my new sled, I crashed driving it back from the wine shop and broke it into 17 pieces". No change there then. The portraits over around 40 years, have been put into a book called "The first book of Fashion" - fabulous. The portraits and his attention are really on the clothes, but of course weaponry was 'dress accessories' and so these are featured too.

A client (forumite?) approached me to make a bauernwehr based on and interpreted from one of the portraits and add it was a rather complicated piece and not yet complete, I wanted to make a 'cartoon' of the piece to get my head around it and this is the result. The basic forms are similar to his, but finish detail will be quite different.

As Bill said, the bauernwehr was a low status working knife, but like the bollock dagger, its low status origins remained for the masses, but the upper classes also adopted it. I assume that the function was different and so it would have different characteristics even though they may have looked superficially similar. This knife was obviously built to be flashy, but also more 'fighty' and less 'worky' and hence it has a blade with significant distal taper and the twin fullers to reduce weight.

The portrait shows little detail other than an approximate length and handle form, so I scaled the blade accordingly and twin fullered it similar to the St Annen piece discussed here http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=39189

The grip scales are in antler which was a very popular material for German knife handles in the period. I added some decorative rivets ad a nagel of course, but in this case added some simple mosaic detail which is a feature I have seen on a couple of bauernwehr before. File work because again these knives often feature that.

For the sheath I resisted the temptation to go crazy with the fittings and kept a simple thong suspension and bronze chape that is very period to the time. It is constructed from two layers of veg tan leather and carved with an acanthus leaf design.

Overall length 54cm/21"

Blade length 39cm/15.5"

Grip length 11cm/4.25"

Currently (26-03-21) the piece is available from here https://todsworkshop.com/collections/in-stock-historical-swords-daggers-crossbows/products/high-status-bauernwehr

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Yet another astonishing piece, Tod! I particularly like the detail in the nagel.

I'm very proud to own a number of your creations - they are among the very finest in my collection.

Yours,
Christian

What a great story about crashing his new sled! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thanks Christian - appreciated. Now sold.

HI Peter, yes nothing much changes, but it it really its a great book and if for nothing else than his armour for when he was made captain of the night watch, or for "This is me with no clothes on; I believe I am getting a little fat", the whole thing is astonishing, but all a great way to sum up a year in a couple of lines of text.

Tod

Just saw there’s a Kindle version of this book. Downloading now!

Lovely bauernwehr! One of my favorite types of medieval knives....

Tod, Impressive and very beautiful work, I could add as usual and expected from you when you make one of your higher end pieces.

Also, nice that you also make more affordable pieces, plus your least expensive, but still very nice lower end products.

Obviously, the more complex and detailed you make a piece taking many many long hours of work have to be priced accordingly, as often a " bespoke " piece with a budget in proportion to the time and complexity of the project, and in some cases expensive materials if someone want you to use silver, gold or semi precious stones etc ...... ( No t sure if you have had one of these types that might cost in the 5 figures ..... ;) )