14thC Italian dagger
Hi All,

A while back I received a very interesting commission for an Italian dagger from the 14thC. All we had to go on was this one painting and neither of us knew of something like this in a museum or in pictures. We speculated that it had the standard whittle tang construction of a bollock dagger (which it resembles a little) rather than a basilard (which it also resembles). We concluded it was a carved hilt without a metallic guard or pommel/cap and that is about as much as we had.

I later found a dagger in the Wallace (I733) that has a similar pommel end, though the guard is more bollock dagger and the knife is 200 years later. I then found this picture in Armi Bianchi Italien which is 15thC at least and has many of the same characteristics. To this end I constructed the dagger as best I could by squinting at the various sources and trying to fill the detail and this is what I came up with.

The original was probably Ivory but we went for a hilt of ebonised Holly and the scabbard fittings are brass and the dagger has a blade length of about 9". The tang button is rather curious, but on the Armi picture there does seem to be a long tubular button so I went for something similar.

In the end this can only be conjecture but I hope I have got somewhere close to what could have been.

Regards

Tod


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14thC painting

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Painting detail

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Image from Armi Bianchi Italien

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Last edited by Leo Todeschini on Fri 04 Feb, 2011 11:26 am; edited 1 time in total
As per usuall Leo, very nice work, and I'm sure it's new owner will think so too.
That's fantastic. I want one. :)
I love these kinds of threads. Always something drool-worthy!

Echoing Stephen and Chad, fantastic! and unique. Very well done!
That is truly beautiful. I like the look of the holly grip.
Yes, I really love the shape and finish of the handle.
wow nice one Tod

makes me itch to make some daggers
Chad Arnow wrote:
That's fantastic. I want one. :)


I want one too. It looks great.
Thanks guys.

Nathan and Chad - you are not alone. I want one too, but as is the story of these things, I still don't have a dagger of my own for when I do reenact.

It was an interesting piece to make and I always love the ones where things are not obvious - if anyone has seen any originals of pieces similar to this I would love to see pictures.

Tod
Different and visually interesting.

I still want another rondel dagger more than I want one of these (someday). :D
Thats a nice one! I like the style. tr

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