I'm thinking of getting a custom modified version of the standard A & A Rondel dagger.

The main differences would be first using 1/2" stock for the blade with distal tapers on both the blade and the tang.
The point would be a reinforced armour piercing type based on one in the "myArmoury " feature article on Rondel daggers.

The main part of the blade would be hollow ground and the point in a diamond section.

The handle upscaled slightly because of the much thicker tang near the guard.

I would leave the bevel details for Craig to figure out as I wouldn't micromanage the project and would depend on his knowledge to make it work.

I'm still in the design / negotiation / pre-order being official stage, but the odds are high that I will go for it: Craig has already replied that the general idea was a credible design. He still has to see the drawing were I have refined my original idea of having a section of the blade hollow ground and a diamond section instead of a flat ground section in my first query about the design a while back.

Just, giving you guys a taste of what I am planning on having made. ;) :lol:

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Sounds like a very nice idea. Funny how this has gone lately - I ordered a custom Rondel from them a few weeks ago. Here is Craig's sketch of our concept:

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Okay Jean,

I'm not just following you around am I? You ordered a pole arm I ordered a polearm (almost done finally) you are going to order a rondel and I REALLY think that's going to be my next order from them (unless I get that flail of course). You trend setter you...

Out of curiousity, what would the point be to that particular style of tip?

:?:

Jean, have you guys estimated how much this thing will weigh yet? Obviously the hollow grind will shave off quite a bit of weight (stupid pun intended), but you're still talking about 1/2" stock. :eek:

P.S. Very cool design!

I don't have a lot of experience with quality daggers, but I think the longer version is going to make some unneeded/unwanted sacrifices. You are still going to want the same thickness of material right before the reinforce on both pieces, and that means the Mk 2 is going to have less taper. I'm not sure, but I think that is going to make the whole thing disproportionately blade heavy. Depending on what you want, that may not be a problem, but definately something to consider.

The other thing I notice is that you have not enlarged everything. The rondels are still the same size, which means that there is very little space between the edge or spine of the blade and the edge of the rondel. There's nothing wrong with that, but aesthetically I like the proportioning of the rondel/blade on the Mk 1.

Lastly, I think the wider blade looks just a bit too beefy for this kind of dagger. It probably won't affect it's thrusting ability that much, but I've noticed that most rondel daggers are narrower than I tend to realize at first. This one was already kind of on the wide end of the spectrum, and I think that the Mk 2 is creeping into the realm of extreme when it comes to blade width.

I do like the longer blade, though. There aren't all that many daggers available with blades longer than 12 inches. Still, I think that you would be better served to go with the shorter, narrower blade on this project and save the longer blade for a non-reinforced dagger project. That's right, I just suggested another way to go broke.

-Grey

I don't like the bigger version.

Thought you might get a kick out of this one, attached.

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Jean, I think that looks quite a bit better. It's amazing the difference a 1/4 of an inch can make.

-Grey