Medieval Knife Questions -- myArmoury.com

Mark Shier · Industry Professional

When I've used silver, I've used commercial sterling tubing. For accurate lower class knives, I'd use rolled sheet.
mark

Sean Flynt · Posted: Fri 30 Nov, 2007 6:55 am Post subject:

Length and thickness (or thinness, rather) would be the main drawback of a modern kitchen knife. The medieval knives of the Huaswehr/Bauernwehr family are in the 14 inch range and very thick. My blade starts out at over 15 inches and I'll take about an inch for the clip. I assumed I would have to settle for the (Atlanta Cutlery) advertised blade thickness of 1/8 inch for my project, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the blade is 1/4 inch through the tang/grip and tapers down to the tip. I was not thrilled by the heat treatment, however. I gently hacked at a stump and then noticed a 1/8 inch crack running straight back from the edge toward the back of the blade. Fortunately, this was near the spot I wanted to clip the blade so I can live with it. Whaddaya want for $18.95?

Sean Flynt · Posted: Fri 30 Nov, 2007 6:59 am Post subject:

Sean Flynt · Posted: Fri 30 Nov, 2007 7:13 am Post subject:

FYI: Here's the blade as shown in the AC catalog followed by a quick Photoshop image to show the main changes I'll make. It's hard to get a sense of the scale from these photos, but it's as big as those depicted in the artwork above.

Sean Flynt · Posted: Thu 13 Dec, 2007 8:07 am Post subject:

Interestingly, as with the Holbein dagger, the Nazis revived this knife form:

Sean Flynt · Posted: Tue 06 Jan, 2009 7:18 am Post subject:

Another interesting thread here inspired me to provide an update on the progress (or lack of) on my own knife project.

I haven't spent much time on this, unfortunately, but I've at least finished rough shaping of the blade, roughed out the scales and one shoulder. I can't quite decide which I like better, though--brass shoulder or plain scale (see both sides below). Everything is temporarily held together with wooden pins. Those will be replaced with tubular brass rivets.

I would prefer a curved blade--this one is almost straight and probably not nearly as useful. But it's looking medieval to my eyes.

I'd say this is approximately 1/3 finished at this point. Need the other shoulder, final shaping and finishing of everything, rivets and scabbard. By-knives?

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

Hi Sean,

Looking good I would say and I think you could get a bit of curve into the back edge and so mirror it on the front edge and that would just add a hint of curve to break up the straights I think, though as a disclaimer you really have to have it in front of you to properly judge if this would work for the knife.

Tod

Sean Flynt · Posted: Wed 07 Jan, 2009 7:22 am Post subject:

Greg Thomas Obach · Industry Professional

just abit on tube rivets.. saw these posts away back

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=578697

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread....p?t=471416

Sean Flynt · Posted: Wed 07 Jan, 2009 10:47 am Post subject:

Robert P. Wimmers · Industry Professional

Please excuse my ignorance, but the bolster does not seem to wrap around the tang. So does this bolster consist of two separate plates which are inlaid into the handle in some way? I have ordered Knives and Scabbards, perhaps that will produce some new insights, me being very much into Roman and Frankish seax till know.

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

This is a very simple and common way of keeping the front of the scales together and basically a piece of sheet is bent into an angle of say 45 degrees and soldered onto the tang, usually soft lead solder.

Tod

Sean Flynt · Posted: Thu 08 Jan, 2009 1:03 pm Post subject:

Seeing the back of this elegant knife by Aaron Schnatterly was my eye-opener.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...t=shoulder

A detailed discussion ensued. I won't be soldering my shoulders (which sounds painful anyway), but rather will use epoxy and send the topmost rivet straight through the shoulders.

D. Austin · Industry Professional

For setting tubular rivets I use a large centre punch with a fairly obtuse angle on it, like a roofing punch, held upright in the vice. I just use another small punch, held together with the knife in my left hand, and gently hammer it, swapping sides a few times. This gives a slight flair which can be enlarged with a small ball pein hammer, still resting the underside of the rivet on the large punch, then carefully flattened with the flat side of the hammer with the knife on the anvil. It's a little tricky to balance the knife with your two smaller fingers whilst holding the punch between forefinger and thumb but it's a lot quicker than making a specialised tool like the one that Greg linked to.

Aaron Schnatterly · Posted: Fri 09 Jan, 2009 7:47 am Post subject:

Sa'ar Nudel · Posted: Mon 12 Jan, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject:

Something similar - from the early 20th century though... Big Grin

http://cgi.ebay.com/1922-Ontario-Knife-Co-Fra...tsupported

and for the sake of future readers, I downloaded the pic

Josh MacNeil · Posted: Sat 26 Dec, 2009 4:36 pm Post subject:

I've been inspired to essentially copy this project (with some variation of course) as a piece to go with a kit I'm working on, so I thought I'd respond for a bump and maybe an update if Sean feels like it. Every time I get the new Atlanta Cutlery catalog, my brain is flooded with a ton of project ideas. Now I have one with some direction and motivation to boot. So thanks to Sean and everybody who's contributed so far! Happy

Sa'ar Nudel · Posted: Sun 27 Dec, 2009 12:50 am Post subject:

I would love to see the result. It seems like today, the expensive swords of the past are all around, but the venerable humble knife of everyday use has been somewhat neglected. I work myself on two knife projects (larger model, chopper-like) - knives are finished and await scabbards.

Sean Flynt · Posted: Mon 28 Dec, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject:

This one is still sitting on the shelf since I split a grip scale setting the LAST tubular rivet. I was so excited about getting the rivets to work on the first try that I applied too much force. Sad

Ordinarily I'd just quickly make another scale and start again but by this stage I had learned so much that I wasn't keen to revisit the project. I think now that if I wanted one of these medieval skinning knives I'd get the "modern" carbon steel version (there was a link around here somewhere) of the traditional design. It'd be easy to make tubular rivets, brass or steel shoulders, scales and a sheath for that and have something much closer to a functional medieval knife. It wouldn't be as thick as some of those that inspired my project, but the curvature would be right, and that's more important to the proper functioning of the knife. I still love these knives, and I still have a Windlass bowie blade to try, too. Big Grin

Josh MacNeil · Posted: Tue 29 Dec, 2009 4:42 pm Post subject:

Sean - Finished or not, it would be great to see the progress from the last images you shared. Did you ever end up trying to file the spine to get a bit more curve to the blade? Also, which Windlass bowie blade do you have? If you're not planning on finishing this one, would you mind sharing some of your research materials for the project? Thanks.