I was wondering if anybody had historical information for the Irish sgian found at Arms and Armor here:

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I have a blade that I was planning to make into a traditional Scottish dirk.... but then I came across these and am thinking I might change to something like that....

You can find examples and discussion of the "skean" here:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ight=skean

Here are two examples from the Irish National Museum. These are 15th/16th c. The accompanying illustration shows the typical scale and suspension. That's from Derrick's 1581 woodcuts: http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/Galler...eland.html

You can see that these will tend to be longer than the Scottish dirks, and more in line with the long Continental baselards.

Here are related arms:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ight=irish

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And another:

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Thank you Sean...

Wow that last example is indeed long!