[Reinier van Noort]

Even though my showgroup only does 13th century, I've been wanting a Rondel dagger for quite some time now. I just love the way they look; beautiful, and very efficient. Finally I have one!








I used it for training some Fiore and Talhoffer Dagger techniques and it did great. I'm still considering whether I should blunt it and use if for training, or keep it sharp because that does look a lot better.

R

[Peter Grassmann]

Very nice looking dagger. I share your appreciation for rondel daggers.
Is it a replica of an original?

Peter

[Randall Moffett]

Keep it sharp!

It would be sad to dull such a nice weapon. I am working on a rondel at the moment. This one looks very nice. Looks very sturdy as well

RPM

[Gary A. Chelette]

Very nice piece, clean lines and nice grip.

[M. Eversberg II]

Beauty.

M.

[Michael S. Rivet]

Did I miss it? Did you say who the smith and cutler are?

[Reinier van Noort]

Thanks for the nice comments!

I made this dagger out of a reproduction bajonet. I simply cut the bajonet off at the bend, where the blade connects to the gun, and then ground the back-part of the blade down to form a tang for the hilt. I don't think the bajonet was hardened (it was a 28 euro blade), so it probably isn't an excelent blade, but that shouldn't be a big problem for me.
I cut therondels (2 inch diameter) out of 2mm thick steel plate, and riveted two plates together to get double thickness rondels as I though 2mm looked a bit too thin. I countersunk the rivet holes on the hand-side of the rondels so the rivets wouldn't damage hand or glove. I added brass rings behind the rivets to get a decrative effect.
The grip is beechwood (I happened to have some), with a ring of copper between the pieces. Drilling a hole in a 10cm piece of wood is difficult so I used two 5cm pieces and added the copper ring for decoration (I happened to have some ).
I glued the whole handle onto the blade using some really nasty epoxy glue (I used the same glue at work to glue things to salt single crystals and not only does it actually glue those, it even stays on the surface when the crystal is held in a saturated solution!). When the glue was still wet I peened the end of the tang over a brass ring for keeping the handle on (double safety) and a more original look.
I did base my dagger on various pieces and descriptions here on myArmoury.com, so I tried to make a historically inspired piece, but I wouldn't call it a reproduction.
The sheath came with the bajonet!

The bajonet blade was bought here (the Springfield one):
http://www.aus-omas-truhe.de/aot2/action-list...liste.html

[Bob Burns]

Hi Reinier, very nice rondel dagger, I too did not have one for a while and finally got mine about 16 months ago. for myself, I figured how can my collection be complete without a rondel dagger? I have a rather large collection, even though I bought my first sword in July of 2005, I went gonzo and it's large. I practice with all of my "Arms", though not with anyone else, and I keep everything sharp! Now, when doing half swording, I put on my pair of gauntlets, their nothing special, just the standard leather gauntlets from Windlass. I've never come close to getting hurt, but then I am very safety conscious and I've worked many years with power tools, especially saws of all kinds.
Swords, daggers and saws do not think, they just cut indiscriminantly and therefore must be treated with the utmost respect, not fear, respect and consciousness!

I am glad you finally got your rondel!

Bob

[Jean Thibodeau]

I would keep it sharp as I don't think even if blunted it wouldn't still be dangerous: So might as well leave it sharp and maybe make a training version with a much wider crosssection that would make a safe(r) blunt.

Or get something like this rubber training Rondel: http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageAction=VI...ProdID=231