Highly impressed by Gordon Clark's pictures of the Ballock dagger Justin King made for him, I decided to have a go at making one myself. To put credit where its due, the result is influenced by Gordon Clark's dagger, the images of the dagger posted by Sean Flynt from his travels in London and Chad Arnow's superb dagger by Vince Evans.
Obviously there is a lot of work left to do. The pommel nut, for instance, is clearly not final; I'll either make one from scratch or do something obscene to an old fashioned square nut to make it fit the bill.
Anyway thanks for indulging.

Nick.

---

 Attachment: 80.44 KB



 Attachment: 87.14 KB



 Attachment: 92.79 KB



 Attachment: 35.67 KB



 Attachment: 43.28 KB

Looks good so far! Did you make the blade?

I think that looks wonderful! Great work!

I was surprised by the slender "neck" of the grip on the MOL dagger you mentioned. I estimated that it's no more than the diameter of my middle finger tip (just over .5"). I'm guessing that the tang is either round or very thin. Either way, there isn't much wood around the tang at that point.

It does look nice Nick - I like the hilt a lot - and yes - it does remind me of something I have seen ...
What kind of wood is used?

Gordon

Thanks Justin,

Yes, I did make the blade. I have to admit to having studied the images of your blade very closely before I started. Its only mild steel though.

Sean, thanks,

That dagger in the MOL has given me new hope for a half finished hilt I had abandoned because I decided it had gotten too narrow. So probably there will be more ballocks to come. :)

Gordon, again , thanks,

The wood is an Australian hardwood called Ironbark (Eucalyptus tricarpa or sideroxylon) which used to be very common around Sydney but has now been logged all but out of existence. I cut the grip from a recycled piece of 4x2 perhaps a hundred years old.

Cheers,

Nick.

Nick...

That is a very nice job. It is difficult working wood in several planes at once, as I know from personal experience. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

As finished as its going to get.

Having dropped it while shellacing the grip and dinging the blade, I decided I'd better call it done before I destroyed it completely.

I went with my second option on the pommel nut and shaped an existing square nut.

---

 Attachment: 66.3 KB



 Attachment: 96.12 KB



 Attachment: 92.46 KB



 Attachment: 71.58 KB



 Attachment: 74.03 KB

It looks nice, is the back edge hollow ground or am I imagining?

Justin hi,

Yes the back edge is hollow ground. An idea I pinched from the dagger Vince Evans made for Chad Arnow.

Thanks Greyson,

Having made half a dozen or so 'blades' using mild steel I'm thinking I should graduate to something a bit more substantial. I'm becoming frustrated by the delicacy of the mild stuff.

Cheers,

Nick.

I really like the reshaped square nut, looks good.

That nut was actually my second attempt; done with a hand grinder. The first attempt I reshaped using a hammer and it turned out looking like, well, a nut that had been hit by a hammer.