Hi all,

I made a dirk for a friend of mine in my living history group. He is a MacGregor, so naturally I had to add some Gregarach symbolism. He suplied me with a blade and some lovely bog oak.

Early in the process the oak started splitting so I did all the work with a knife (apart from the tang hole).
So it's got two different types of braids. The typical three ply braid and one that's a two ply going through circles (seen on two dirks in the NMoS). The haunches has the typical three pointed knot. The haunches are wider at the back of the dirk then on the edge side to help give better control of the edge of the blade. The back side of the blade feature a twist that suits the S-shaped gimping on the back of the blade.
The pommel plate is a brass disc with an inscription reading "Draw me not in anger nor replace me without honour" (rather ironic that one). The pommel nut is a circular cross with small file marks too look like Scots pine, the MacGregor clan plant.
The blade features a long false edge and two inscriptions: "Bas agus buaidh" (Death or/before/and Victory) one of the Gregarach mottos and on the other side "Ard Choille", the Gregarach war cry.
The scabbard is tooled with celtic knotwork to fit the styles on the hilt and has a brass tip with some lines and some file work. It's preassure fitted, basically a piece of brass wrapped around the end of the scabbard with a stitch going through punched holes.
The belt loop is fitted with a brass ring so that the scabbard dances lightly around when you're walking or running instead of getting in the way.
The wood was treated with soaking in linseed oil and finished with a few coats of Danish oil. The scabbard was dyed brown and tan and finshed with black shoe polish to get the tooling to stand out a bit more and get the leather a bit darker to suit the hilt.

The owner of the dirk has huuuuge hands so the hilt also became huge. Blade length is about 13-13 1/2" and the hilt is around 5 1/2".

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Cheers,
Henrik

Nice work :)

Henrik...

Very nicely done. You have genuine talent.

Henrik, looks awesome! Perhaps someday you can make me one like this :cool:

Happy Holidays,

Chris

Terrific job, Henrik! :)

-Todd

looks very nice !
good work on the knots

Greg

Henrik....

Is that a McDonald Armoury blade?

That is fantastic work as always. I'd love to see you do a bit of stave-church carving (I have some old oak I want to make into a chair - jacobean or dark age??? Ah decisions) I'd love to have a go but have enough unfinished work on my plate without getting started on woodwork! Always assuming I could do it.

To my mind though, the early germanic knotwork is more interesting that Celtic/Gaelic, I know you won't agree - maybe its because our stuff's a bit more representational and the Celtic more ''spiritual''? Will have to ask Mel bloody Gibson! Anyway, we'd all love to see some more examples of your work. Bet you've got a targe or twa on the wall that would photograph well!

Henrik,

Awesome work the, my friend. Your work is getting better with every dirk you make -- not that any of your past work needed improving! I am curious if you have Vince Evans' recent book or photo CD on the carving of the dirk. If so, could you share with us how that was helpful?

Keep up the great work!

Chris

Stephen,
Thank you! I'd love to have a go at something like that on say a small knife handle sometime in the future. There are some Norwegian knifes that feature Norse knotwork that are just fantastic and I want to make something of the sort, but I dread trying to make something of the viking period as I feel my ken of that era is tiny.

Chris,
Thanks! I haven't got a copy of the cd or book, but the first dirk I made I looked at the pictures from his picturetrail and they were a great help. My methods, I think, are very different to his as are the tools used. All the carving I do is with a knife, which is a slower process, but the good thing is I can bring the handle and knife with me and carve wherever I go. The next time I make a dirk I'll try to make sure there isn't as an open space between the bands of interlace to get it even closer to the pieces I use as inspiration.

Cheers,
Henrik