Today's update:

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Spotlight: The Ballock Dagger
An article by Jason Elrod

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John Gage Cocobolo Ballock Dagger
A hands-on review by Jason Elrod

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John Gage Thuya Burl Ballock Dagger
A hands-on review by Patrick Kelly

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Manning Imperial Ballock Dagger
A hands-on review by Jason Elrod

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Tod's Stuff Bog Oak Ballock Dagger
A hands-on review by Ralph Rudolph

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

Hopefully people enjoy this group. The Spotlight article is now probably the most comprehensive pictorial reference available for ballock daggers, either in print or online.

With this group, we also welcome Ralph Rudolph as an author. Thanks, Ralph! We also have expanded the breadth of our reviews, covering two new makers: Tod's Stuff and John Gage. :)

Thank's for the great update !
Its nice with some focus on daggers, I dont think daggers got the attention they deserve, so it's great to se such great handwork.
A bit congrats to Jason Elrod for a wery informative and well written article, I se forward to read more of his work.

best regards
Klaus

Must say that I enjoyed this update quite well. Jason gives a ton of info in the spotlight article, and having handled PK's John Gage Ballock, I can feel a certain kinship to what each auther wrote about this special style of dagger. Congrats on another great update, guys.

Chad Arnow wrote:

Daggers do sometimes get short schrift, but we try to include them when we can. This is our fourth all-dagger update grouping. We're currently hard at work on a couple more While swords seem to get more attention due to their popularity and frequency in the market, it's not all we focus on.

I hardly cant wait for more updates on the daggers, I'm havin a period where dagger's are my main focus when I buy new stuff.
My goal is to have at least one qood quality reproduction of each of the 5 types.
attached are my last daggert.


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Great updates! I am also great fan of daggers.Thanks guys for all that info.It should save me much time. :)

Love the spotlight articles! Keep 'em coming, gentlemen. This is one of my favorite on-line magazines.

As the owner of the Cocobolo John Gage ballock dagger I' m really pleased to see this review and I have to agree to all of it.

The choice of coobolo was mine as it's as a colour and grain pattern I really like. The historically correct choice of wood wasn't a concern for me.

The subtlety curved triangular back of the blade is very nice and it's interesting to see it through someone else's eyes: Jason comments are very useful to me as I look again at this dagger and maybe notice consciously now a few things I hadn't noticed before like the way the bronze guard blends with the wood as if it was all one piece.

The bronze has acquired a little natural and very attractive patina and a few light wear marks from sliding the dagger in and out of the scabbard.

A little occasional wipe with linseed oil and renaissance wax really brings out the colour and grain of the wood and makes it feel even more " glass smooth ".

Oh, the blade is quite sharp so that even if a chopping cut would not be very effective with a very light and rear balanced blade a slicing draw cut would get to the bone with little effort and the blade it stout enough and pointy enough that it could do the same job as a rondel.

With it's single edge blade it may be more of a " Jack of all trades " than Patrick's double edged blade: I can see sticking it in a big piece of boar meat, cutting bread or an apple and being a reassuring companion when heading back to one's lodgings after a meal at a local tavern.

Oh, I also enjoyed the other reviews.

:cool:
Excellent update,
Big thumbs up to all involved,
my only problem now is i may have to find a ballock dagger for myself :lol:
Cheer's all. :)

I am days late in reading these. Nathan knows I don't vote excellent unless i mean it. I really appreciate the total (more than less) overview type feature updates and this one is another I find pretty exceptional in the scope of material covered.

Cheers

GC

I really enjoyed these items, too. This update really opened my eyes to the ballock dagger. I hadn't really paid much mind to it before this project. I like Jason's spotlight and really was surprised at how many of these daggers are documented and represented in museums.

Really good articles! I especially enjoyed the feature on the Ballock dagger. It is nice to see so many pics in one place. Also, the reviews were all good. The examples in the reviews were all really nice too. I love the rich woods used in the grips of these daggers. Thanks guys!