[David Etienne]

Hi all,

A couple of weeks ago I bought a rondel dagger from Tod's stuff ( www.todsstuff.co.uk ). I asked Tod a dagger from the late 14th century and he kindly sent me some pictures of what he had in stock.
The rondel dagger I picked up has a very stout hand forged triangular blade slightly tappering to a needle sharp point(most of Tod's blades are hand forged on a charcoal fire using EN45; a spring steel, oil hardened and tempered to a spring hardness).The grip is olive wood, and the upper rondel has a flower shape. The dagger came with a very nice decorated leather sheat that fits it perfectly.
The fittings are very tight, the tang is peened and secured by a bronze rivet block; the blade is sharp (but not razor-sharp) and almost flawless : the only slight imperfection can be seen near the guard, where the grinding is a bit asymetrical.

All in all it's a very beautiful artwork and I will surely order again from Tod's Stuff.

David

Additional specs:

Blade length : 32cm
Blade width : 2cm
Grip length : 11.5cm
Diameter lower disk : 45mm
Diameter upper disk : 60mm
Weight : 456gr.

Some (poor) pics :

[Steve Grisetti]

Congratulations, David. It looks like a beautiful piece. I especially like the olive wood grip! I also wonder how Tod fits the sheath to that blade. And thanks for the link.

[Lee O'Hagan]

Hi David,
Looks good chap,
Todd does some nice stuff,i'd also add he's one of the best scabbard makers this side of the pond,good bloke to boot,
nice to see his work on here,daniel had a nice set of knives on the forum a few weeks ago too,

[Thomas McDonald]

Congratulations on a nice new piece, David !

May I ask where the point of balence lies on this one ?

Cheers, Mac

[J. Padgett]

Cool. I've toyed with the idea of ordering a misericordia from him when I have the money. They look so nice, and I've never seen them offered by anyone else.

[David Etienne]

Thanks for your reactions so far !

The PoB lies 3 cm from the guard.

Tod has many other models in stock and production, and it was very difficult for me to make a final choice (I hesitated a long time between this dagger and a lovely double-edged ballock dagger with a by-knife). He also makes custom knives. And I forgot to say that he is a very friendly person.

David

[Daniel Parry]

Very nice David.

I'm a fan of Tod's work too. As Lee said, I posted a set of kitchen knives that I bought from Tod a little while back and have been very happy with them (fed lot of hungry mouths as i cook about 6 days a week for family and friends). The thing I like about Tod's work is that everything is very sturdily made, takes a good edge, and as mentioned above his scabbard/leather work is superb. The case my knives came in is a leather upright box with separate internal sheaths for each knife and beautiful floral stamped work all around. I also like his use of woods. The Olive on that handle is very nice and natural, and will age well. I think Tod's pieces are well worth the money.

Daniel

[David Etienne]

Hello Daniel,

I remember your kitchen knives and their beautiful leather case (can be seen there : http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p...ght=#39750 ). Tod is indeed a very talented smith and scabbard maker, and also has an excellent artistic approach in his work. I think there's not much people on the market who can combine these talents (and I must add, in the same price range).

David

[Daniel Parry]

Another possibility for UK historical items is Interknife. Despite the name sounding modern they produce historical pieces along very similar lines to Tod's. Again the prices are very reasonable. I think Tod has a lot more artistic flair personally. I'm not sure what the quality of their regular pieces is: the only thing I have is a one-off which they made to show their skills at faires around the country - an Athame with solid silver pommel, cross and furrule and damascus blade. The scabbard is not as good as Tod's work but the detailing on the silver furrule and pommel is excellent.