Finished my latest knifemaking project (choice of blade type and how I made it discussed early this year here: http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=39160&highlight= ). Overall more or less closely based on an excavated condition example from Swiss national Museum, with some additions to improve the looks.

7" blade (about 1" shorter than typical originals) of hexagonal cross section at the base, 3/16" thick 1084 steel.

Handle of thuya burl wood. May not be exactly historically correct, but sure looks good.
All fittings of handle and scabbard in mild steel, with some details added in brass to basically "pretty it up" compared to the rather plain originals (spacers under guard/pommel, pins and "flower" peen block on the pommel, matching "flower" holding scabbard fittings together).

Scabbard - wood core, leather covered, mild steel fittings with a brass element.

Suspension by way of a semi-flattened copper tube piece soldered at the back, just enough for a leather thong.
What is interesting is that it was originally hanging almost horizontally because of the heavy handle construction (even though I made the scabbard at least an inch longer than necessary, just for looks). I solved that by filling the tip of the chape with lead (about half an ounce of it or more). Wonder how the originals carried - they had noticeably wider guards than I chose to make, so must have been at least as handle-heavy or more, even with slightly bigger blades.

Take a look at pictures and let me know what you think!

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More pictures, if I understand correctly the limit is 1MB total per post.

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and the last pictures of scabbard

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Congrats, that looks really nice! It looks like it fits securely in the hand. The issue of handle-heavy balance is interesting, and something I've run into as well.

What techniques did you use to fit the shoulder of the blade to the guard? Did you make a recess, or is it sitting on top?

WOW!!! Great job. Baselards are so cool. I love the shape of this one. Really nice execution of the fuller and the transition into the spine is masterful. Very impressive.

Alex,

Very nice job! The handle may not be historic, but certainly looks good. Like the fittings very much, very nifty. Attention to detail when replicating an item is fine, however a bit of artistic license gives it a personal signature.

Regards,
Dan

Thank you guys!

Nathan A. wrote:

...What techniques did you use to fit the shoulder of the blade to the guard? Did you make a recess, or is it sitting on top?

There is a little bit of recess at the transition from tang to shoulders, but mostly the guard is sitting on top of blade shoulders. I tried to heat the guard to red and drive it onto the blade, but somehow it didn't do much for me. Probably was losing heat too fast and I was afraid of screwing up the blade's temper so I let it be. The fit is pretty tight as it is.

Tim, regarding "Really nice execution of the fuller and the transition into the spine is masterful" - I guess the pictures aren't as good as I would like. There is no fuller, just flats at the base of the blade. As I said, it is hexagonal in cross section there (which is also historical, even if less common than fullered). I have never tried cutting fullers in the few blades I made so far. Going to try soon but in some project where blade shape itself won't be so challenging for me (this one was my first double edged dagger and the longest blade I ever made).

Dan, I like to think that I am keeping my historically inspired projects within "historically plausible" limits even with the personal design touches added. I mean if this dagger was somehow shown to some XIVc Swiss guy, I hope he would say something like "a bit unusual but a cool dagger" rather than go "where the heck did this thing come from?!".

Alex.