Thanks, everyone! I'm looking forward to receiving this one. It should be in-hand late this coming week.

Connor,
I'm not sure if any of the martial treatises discuss the use of daggers of this length. I'll leave that to the more well-versed to answer. :)

Tim,
I'll try to post more pics of it when I get it. I know I'll do a group shot to update the Daggers in your collection thread. It should be interesting to see this new monster next to all the rest of the daggers. My dirk, which is not tiny at 20 1/4 inches long, will not look so huge next to the newcomer. And I'm sure the new rondel will look like it could eat (or did eat) something as small as my Arma Bohemia ballock dagger, which is very slight.

Scott and Jean,
Checking out the period art posted earlier in the thread shows long daggers held both point-up and point-down. I would guess (which is all it is) that some of the techniques normally associated with a sword could be used with something of this length. I'd also think some dagger-specific moves could be as well. But I'm not sure.

My Eric McHugh Rondel Dagger is 25.5" long with a 21.5" long blade. It's really almost like a sword.

You can see it photographed with a bunch of other daggers here:

[ Linked Image ]

Wow.
Long daggers are long.

There's an interesting long dirk in Cannan's "Scottish Arms and Armour" (pg 96). The blade is cut down from a sword. How long, I don't know. 16" blade?

Noting the style of fuller, one could do a home-made version of this by starting from a "ninja" sword blade with fuller. This looks nice enough and interesting enough to possibly tempt me away from using such a blade for a seax.

I haven't seen very many dirks with fullers like this, outside the many Vince Evans dirks with fullers like this posted here by many.

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Long dirk, from pg 96, F. Cannan, Scottish Arms and Armour, Shire (2009). Photo credit: West Street Antiques, Dorking.

I was browsing through the catalogues at Hermann Historica and came across these 3 extremely long daggers:

http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm50...b=A-50.txt
Ritterlicher Dolch,

deutsch, 1.Hälfte 15.Jhdt. Lange, beidseitig gegratete Klinge mit gebogener Parierstange und facettiertem Kugelknauf. Mit Wachs konservierter Bodenfund mit guter Substanz. Seltener Dolchtyp. Länge 60 cm.

Google's not so good translation:
Knight's Dagger,

German, 1st half 15th century. Long, curved blade with both sides gegratete guard and faceted pommel ball. With growth of conserved land fund with good substance. Rare type of dagger. Length 60 cm.


http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm53...at53_p.txt
A French dagger

14th century
Long, double-edged blade with ridges on both sides and stamped decoration on the ridges. Slightly curved quillons with marks stamped on the rectangular tapered tang. Round iron pommel, in cross section a pointed oval. The entire length is unusually well preserved for an underwater discovery, the point is slightly corroded and it has a black patina. Length 59 cm.
Cf. Müller/Kölling, Europäische Hieb- und Stichwaffen, p. 177, No. 59.


http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm61...at61_w.txt
A dagger from the Battle of Castillon, 1453,

discovered in Castillon-la-Bataille. Slender thrusting blade of diamond section. Tapered quillons slightly curved toward the blade. Narrow tang, the slightly oval disk pommel tapering towards the top. Length 59.5 cm.
Provenance: Dordogne or Lidoire in the vicinity of Castillon-la-Bataille. So far only three daggers are known from this discovery site, along with a total of about 80 medieval swords discovered there. Cf. E. Oakeshot in "The Tenth Parklane Arms Fair". p. 9.

Danny

a bit out of period, but we have a few examples of viking seax that are immensely long
these three are replicas made by manning imperial
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_...amp;c_id=6 21 inch langseax
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_...mp;c_id=65 combat seaxes
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_...mp;c_id=65 27 inch langseax

these id imagine would be perfect for the press of a shieldwall.
in the same way the xiphos is great for the phalanx

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Combat seax with 21 inch blade and 6mm spine.
Elm timber grip with brass end caps.

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Basic combat seaxes
12 inch blade
19.5 inch blade
With elm grip and brass end caps.
Copper spined leather sheath

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Langseax
27 inch blade with twin fullers
4.2mm spine
English elm grip

Little thread necromancy here. Can anyone help me identify the painting, context and date of the close up image below? I've had it for a while, and I believe I found it in relation to myArmoury, but I haven't been able to find it again on the web since I first found it.

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Some other examples of long rondel daggers from some 15th century french manuscripts:

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Wow, nice detective work! Thanks very much for posting a reply to this; it's very helpful.