[Dan D'Silva]

Hoo boy. After decades in production, it appears that Windlass is retiring all their old bare blades (and seemingly replacing them with the same cheap stainless ones that everyone else sells). I panic-ordered a handful upon finding this out, and they've just arrived.

The thing that led to me finding this out was that last week I had yet another project idea. This one is for a little Bauernwehr/mini-Waidpraxe-type thing. I thought their combat blade would make a good starting point because it has a protruding shoulder that can support a pair of bolsters for the finger guard (a one-piece bolster is beyond the tools and skill I have).

I'm not thinking of this as a truly historical project, because the blade is too squat compared to originals, although I did come across a wonderful example that had a very short blade. In any case, as always, I'd like to at least base it on originals, though its features will probably wind up being a bit of a historical mashup.

First thing will be reshaping. As photographed, I've planned the butt to be bird's head-shaped, but I think I'm going to add a flat end instead. With the blade's overall taper, the original slightly dropped point seems preferable to a clip. But I can always add a clip later if I change my mind.

The only thing I'm iffy about right now is where and how to put the nagel. The middle of the three pin holes at the shoulder will be out of line with the new ones in the grip area and I don't like the idea of drilling another one in the same line (perforated shoulder for easy breakage?). It might be an interesting challenge to give the nagel two shanks so it can sit between two holes, but right now I'm leaning toward just accepting that the nagel will sit closer to the shoulder than it should.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

[Dan D'Silva]

Reshaped tang with a new line for the butt, along with one of the other ones I ordered and patterns for scales and bolsters. I'm pretty sure I'll put the nagel in the central of the original three holes. Right now I'm wondering if a 1/8-inch-thick shank is too thin for a nagel or a 1/8-inch-thick nagel is too flimsy overall. My hunting cleaver has a side ring made from 1/4-inch stock with the shank ground down to 3/16-inch, but even just 3/16-inch would require redrilling the hole.

[William P]

if needed you could just plug the holes in the guard area with steel pins and redrill new ones bu based on the original, having a nagel right in the centre of the bolster seems about right

[Dan D'Silva]

I would, but I had a go at the new pin holes today and the steel is way harder than I expected. I'm thinking two new holes and enlarging the one for the nagel is the most I'll want/be able to do, and that's after I get some new drill bits.

Meantime, hooray! I found a model for this that's actually about the same size and shape, third post down on this thread. It's not an exact match -- the spine side of the tang doesn't line up and the original has a fuller cutting edge and spear point -- but I've modified the shape of the tang to be as close as I can get it.

Hafting materials are on order; I needed some wider pieces of steel for the bolsters than the 1-1/2" stock I have on hand and I'm going for American walnut scales even though they're probably not period because I think dark brown will look nice here and I don't want to do everything in oak.

[P Ullrich]

[Dan D'Silva]

[Dan D'Silva]

Haven't been totally idle, just backlogged with too many projects and ideas for projects. The bolsters are mostly shaped, just need to de-epoxy and take them off for some refinement on the mini belt sander.

By the way, this little blade weighs almost a pound with the bolsters in place! Maybe they should be thinner or not go so far up the grip?

[Alex Indman]

Dan,

I am curious, is there a gap between bolsters where they form that little fingerguard extension (since there is no blade there)? Did you work around this problem somehow?

Alex.

[Dan D'Silva]

It may look like I lengthened the guard, but actually the tang has an extension for the guard built in. Possibly it looks longer in my photos than in the online catalogue because of the bolsters, or because I made the grip area narrower.

I set the pins and drilled the nagel a few weeks ago, but I've been busy studying for a certification exam and haven't worked on the nagel since then. I've just gone and cut it out. It's going to be shaped like the one on my hunting cleaver, so I'll put a groove in the side of the bolster for the ring's base to fit into. After that I'll start cleaning up all the dings and grime.