[Radovan Geist]

I have recently started to work on some daggers. Both are from 14260 spring steel.
The longer one is 60 cm long, 2,5 cm wide and 6 mm thick, thinning to 3mm towards the point. It has a diamond cross-section. with central fuller, pierced with round and oblong holes. The blade has a reinforced point, but I might not keep it - I may grind it off. The blade represents a type of extremely long left-handed daggers from 16th/17th century. It´s nearly finished, just needs some cleaning of lines before it goes off to hardening & tempering.
The second one still needs some filing and grinding. It will be a "swordbreaker" type, 16th/17th C., 45 cm long and 4 cm wide, 6mm thick, thinning to 3 mm after the "catcher" section.
Some more dagger blades are in the making, I will post pictures.

[Harry Marinakis]

I have always been fascinated with the reinforced points.

Looking forward to seeing the finished knives.

[Radovan Geist]

Larger daggers are still waiting for their turn, as I was busy turning something else: a hande for a simple late-form of a ballock dagger, inspired by finds from Mary Rose. Here it goes:

All parts ready for assembly: blade from spring steel, hardened and tempered, handle turned on a lathe from applewood, with reinforcing plate from a bronze sheet (already attached by two small nails) and a bronze cape (and a screwdriver, which obviously does not belong to the set, but likes to take pictures so it slipped-in).



First assembly, before the final cleaning. The handle has alredy been varnished with oil mixed with fine ash.



Detail of the cape decoration.


And the result, with a leather scabbard (two-layered) and a terrible light reflection.

[Radovan Geist]

Some progress on one of the larger daggers.

First rough cut of the crossguard.



A protective shell was cut from a sheet of soft steel, 2mm thick



Shaped



and here is the whole setup (oval pommel turned on lathe), before final filing, polishing etc



and here

[Radovan Geist]

Here we go: the first long dagger is finished, only the scabbard is missing.
Stats: Total length: 65 cm, blade: 50 cm, weight: 980 g. POB is some 2cm from the crossguard.

The blade is made from a spring-steel, hardened and tampered; crossguard and pommel are from soft construction steel; the shell was dished from a 2mm sheet. The handle is from walnut wood, stained with fine ash mixed in oil.

[Radovan Geist]

Now, you´ve got an old rasp, brass water-cock from a broken garden pipe and a piece of walnut wood. What´d you do with that? Add a brass plate and few hours of time (as the quarantine spoiled your weekend plans) - and you have a bollock dagger. Not a perfect one, admittedly, but passable for stage fencing.

Here are the parts: blade from an old rasp that I have found rusting some time ago, a brass water cock and a handle from the walnut wood, turned on a lathe, with lobes shaped with a rasp and a sand-paper.


A first setup just to check everything is in place.


The protective plate was made from a 4mm thick brass plate.


And here is the result, evetyhing set-up, cleaned and polished. In the end I was not able to clean the blade completely as it would stay too thin, so there are still those rusty "dots" visible. Well, it´s far from perfect, as I said.


And a handle detail.

[Radovan Geist]

The final setup, with scabbard made from two layers of leather.

[Radovan Geist]

Same problem here with broken links to pictures. Here´re two of them - long narrow blades, different forms of guards.

[Radovan Geist]

And two bollock daggers described in earlier posts:

A simple one:





And her flashy sister: