Some recent pieces -- myArmoury.com

Justin King · Industry Professional

These are some pieces that have been in various stages of completion for awhile and are finally finished or very close. Life's dramas kept me out of my shop for a few months and I spent another couple fixing up equipment and re-tooling, so finishing these up helped me get back into focus.
The one at the bottom is a little hard to define, it combines elements of several different styles of knife from different regions and time periods. The blade is 1075, steel fittings and walnut grip, 14 -1/4" overall..
In the middle is a very plain rondel dagger, 5160 blade, steel fittings and a turned cocobolo grip, 15-3/4" overall. My maker's stamp wasn't struck deep enough on this blade and just began to disappear in the final grinding so I gave it a less refined finish.
At the top is a dagger which is loosely based on an original in the Wallace Collection, shown on p. 150 of "Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight", described as a Swiss or German quillon dagger, c1530. The blade is 5160, steel fittings and Madagascar rosewood grip,19" overall. This one is still unpolished and lacks the permanent assembly. The pommel is problematic to get a good polish on and I may leave the fittings with a filed finish or antique them.
The blades are hand-forged, given a simple oil-quench heat treat and oven-temepered. I apologize for the picture quality, the blade at the top appears to be recurved in the pic but it's actually pretty straight...

Jared Smith · Posted: Mon 10 Dec, 2007 7:58 pm Post subject:

All three are looking very nice, and distinctly different with seductive good traits in each one. I am sure you will sell those pretty quick. Nice job.

Allen Andrews · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 4:19 am Post subject:

I love seeing three different styles of daggers like this. They all look great Happy

Gordon Clark · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 5:03 am Post subject:

They look great Justin - lovely work, as usual.

Marc Blaydoe · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 9:10 am Post subject: Dirk?

I would call the bottom dagger a dirk. It looks like a variation on the ballock and I have seen similar daggars classified as dirks elsewhere. At any rate, I likie!

Justin King · Industry Professional

I appreciate the comments, thank you guys! The dagger at the bottom has elements in common with ballock daggers and also perhaps with the elusive "whinger", as well as some styles of quillon dagger. It also reminds me of a "rifleman's bowie" or other 18th/19th century American knives. It wasn't intended to represent anything in particular but is obviously influenced by historical styles and may fall loosely into a number of regions or time periods. Again, I appreciate the comments.

Chris Goerner · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 10:41 am Post subject:

Beautiful work, Justin. I particularly like the German quillon dagger. Will any of these pieces be offered up for sale, or did you make them to keep?

Chris

Bill Grandy · myArmoury Team

Fantastic work, Justin! The bottom one is very nice, the middle one is even nicer, and the top one is gorgeous! You've got some serious talent!

Jason Elrod · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject:

Justin King · Industry Professional

More thanks for the kind words. The two on the bottom are availible but I have a possible buyer for one. The long quillon dagger at the top I haven't decided what to do with when it is finished. I would like to play with the basic design some more and might keep it to use as a visual reference. I would love to get better pics/info on the original or maybe even see it in person one day (really dreaming here) and try to do a passable copy, you can only get so much from one picture. At any rate I plan to make similar pieces for sale in the future.
Interested parties can PM me about the availible ones, I have some better-quality pics of these two.

Christopher Gregg · Posted: Tue 11 Dec, 2007 7:00 pm Post subject: new pieces

Justin,

I'll second that the bottom knife is a "dirk". It looks like the knife from Wallace's book, and I believe it is considered to be a Scottish lowland "ball quillon" dirk. Glen McClain has been making reproductions of this style for years, and Chris Goerner had one up for sale very recently (that I think just sold Sad

) which was very nice. I think it was a tangent develpment of the ballock knife, which in the Highlands evolved into the Scottish dirk as we know it, but elsewhere took on a more dagger-like or knife-like form. Just my guesswork here, but it seems to follow logically. In any case, your work is absolutely beautiful! Happy

Justin King · Industry Professional

To clarify, the rondel dagger is sold, the small quillon dagger is availible and is priced to sell, and I can be contacted about making a piece similar to the long quillon dagger. This particular piece may become availible in the near future, I will let it be known here if/when it is.
Thanks again for everyone's comments.

Allen Andrews · Posted: Tue 18 Dec, 2007 8:54 am Post subject:

The rondel dagger is now in my possession. I am not qualified to review it (since I don't have any other rondel daggers to compare it to), but I will say this; very sharp, very pointed, very wicked. I love it. Now I just need a scabbard......