Hi All,

I have been comissioned to make 7 very truthfull replicas from the Royal Armouries as a joint venture between the RA and Bryan Tunstall of The Knight Shop. These will be iconic pieces from the collection of the RA and the absolute emphasis is to interpret the remains of the pieces where they are incomplete and to replicate them as they once would have been. This is of course an incredibly exiting project for me and gives me the chance to handle and replicate with full data and permission provided by the RA.

As the pieces are made I will post them up, but I can tell you there are some very challenging pieces and one in particular that I am both dreading and seriously looking forward to.........

The first of these pieces is an English dagger thought to be from the 15thC. The blade is 12"/30cm and has a hollow ground section with two 'false edge' areas. The guard and pommel are rather unusual and made in bronze and the grip is cord bound elm with a leather cord wrapped grip. The sculpting work was done by Matt Rowe. There will be no scabbards for any of these pieces.

I hope you like it.

Tod

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That's beautiful work. Can you post a photo of the original?

The decorative lines in the hilt furniture contrast very attractively with the smooth main bevel of the blade and the two " false edges " are visually a nice surprise and break up the shape of the blade to make it more interesting.

It looks to me that these false edges are really false in the sense of being rather obtuse in angle and not sharp or sharpenable and mostly aesthetic rather than functional as cutting edges, although they might serve some minor function if parrying a sword blade ?

Are these commissioned reproductions going to be exclusive to the Royal Armouries or are you permitted to make more ?

I would hope that you might at least be able to make knives/daggers inspired by these designs, but make them different enough in details and specific decoration, if you are not allowed to make close copies for sale ?

This is really a very interesting piece. Elegant, but also, at least to me, very mean looking.

I really admire your work Tod. One of these Days I will be unable to resist any more and have to commission a piece.

I do not have any pictures I am sure I can post, so you can see the original here http://collections.royalarmouries.org/index.p...=&pg=1

What is odd about the picture is that it looks like I have the false edges the wrong way round, but I can assure you I don't. A deceptive picture. Close examination also shows far more detail was originally there than shows in the picture and so this was put in.

I am not at liberty to expand on the nature of the project I am afraid Jean.

Thanks Mr Frank; I look forward to it.

Tod

Great work as usual Tod, and a very attractive piece. In league with the biggest UK distributor, with unlimited access to items kept in one of the most impressive collections in the country...this does not get any better for a maker I guess.

That's all well deserved. Congratulations and I will stay tuned for the rest...given the many many items worthy of interest held in the collection, I'm definitely excited to see more.

Julien

Fascinating stuff, I would call this dagger fantasy, if I didn't know it's actual antique. :eek:

Great work all around.

Bartek Strojek wrote

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Fascinating stuff, I would call this dagger fantasy, if I didn't know it's actual antique. Great work all around.

Definitely real!

Thanks for the comments.

Tod

I hope to have another dagger and short sword finished this week or early next so I will post them up with information as they are done.

In the mean time I have just finished sculpting the wax for the guard of Henry VIII's sabre. This sword is quite extraordinary; I just fell in love when I saw it and handled it. It is everything that a sabre should be, quick, light, menacing, wicked and flashy and so many other words too. The make up of the handle is also extraordinary and that will be shown in due course and I have not seen the like. The blade of course is all business.

I am so very excited about this piece I can't stop hopping up and down.

I am so scared of making this piece I can't scrape myself off the floor.

Lets see what happens...........................

Tod

ps one of the pictures was taken before the head was fully carved and the decoration completed.

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Oh I cannot wait to see how this one turns out! Sabres are favourite of mine and this is of course a very interesting and most beautiful piece.

AHHHH! I've wanted that piece since I first saw it! Fantastic to see you working on it!

I've wanted that piece reproduced for a long, long time. I'm thrilled you're doing such a faithful recreation of it! The guard looks fantastic.

Isn't the original thought to have had a cap on the grip? I'm curious to see what you'll do about that.

Does the fact that you're working in wax instead of doing it as a one-off mean you'll be able to sell castings?

Sean Flynt wrote

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Isn't the original thought to have had a cap on the grip? I'm curious to see what you'll do about that.

I had a good look at the grip and saw no evidence of this at all. The handle is formed of two scales that are larger than the tang underneath, so that the tang will fit up through the guard and allow the handle to be larger than this would otherwise allow.

the handle scales are wood and I think Oak, but they were originally covered with a tight woven fabric. There is no evidence of what this looked like, but it did not look like an underlayer and there is no structural reason to do this that I can see, and so I think the grip that showed was in fact fabric covered.

Tod

Incredible project, I am really looking forward to seeing the other pieces. Exact reproductions of original pieces are what I just love so this is quite exciting!

With the first dagger that was posted, is it just me or is there some copper inlay on the original dagger?

Thanks! I don't remember where I read that the piece had a cap, but it's a good reminder about not believing everything we read.

Craig Johnson wrote

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I have come across a couple of pieces that were fabric covered. One, a dagger, had a nice tightly woven cover but a bland tan color. The original color had faded away completely.

Of course there is also the Spanish one that belonged to a prince or a noble I think that was in his coffin - shown in Records. Anyway the point is made that there are few around now.

Craig Johnson wrote

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The obsession we have today for leather is something I think the high end user of the past would have seen as a bit low end

I totally agree. It was a workaday material and though very useful for so many things, the look of the leather itself was likely not sought. I will make a knife scabbard now and look at the curves and shapes, the way it can mould and hold its shape, the mottled colour of the dyeing and the high polish after waxing and, with some colours, the attractiveness of that colour and I like it all for its 'honest simplicity'. I suspect our forerunners would look at it and think 'wasted opportunity'.

If it stopped moving, it was decorated and in the moneyed end of society the more expensively the better and that is likely to have been true for material usage too, so why not an Italian velvet or a chinese silk Damascus brocade or a Turkish gold thread fabric. If it wears quick - so what? money sorts that out.

Tod

I have seen some grips covered with velvet.
-Lush :-)

For what it's worth, this MIGHT depict a fine cloth binding ca. 1330.

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