[Alec Cawdor]

What type of Bollock dagger would an English Archer have carried? (Circa 1400-1450)

Would it have been double-edged or single-edged?

Any brass/bronze fittings, or plain wood?

[Craig Peters]

I think the myArmoury article on the subject probably does the best job of answering your questions:

"...By 1400 an evenly tapered double-edge blade became popular and by 1450 the double-edge blade became slender with a thick diamond cross section that sometimes included a ricasso...

...In its earliest and simplest form, the ballock dagger hilt was made of a single piece of hardwood such as ebony, rootwood, briar, heather root, or holly wood without any metal parts. The lobes which formed the guard were large and well rounded while the pommel terminated in a bulbous knob. The grip might taper toward the pommel or the guard. Eventually other materials were used for the hilt including horn, ivory, bone, and in much later designs brass and even agate. By the beginning of the 15th century these simple hilts started to include metal plates as reinforcements on the top of the pommel and in between the ballock lobes and the blade. This form continued throughout the lifespan of the ballock dagger.

In the early years of the 15th century another style of ballock dagger appeared and continued to be used alongside the original form. While the lobes at the guard remained the same, the grip swept upward into the form of an inverted cone, ending with a flat butt which was usually capped by a metal plate. Sometimes this plate was engraved with geometric designs."

Just as an fyi, I'm not sure that there's much indication an archer would have carried a dagger that was different from those of a man-at-arms or knight.

You can read more here: http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_spot_bd.php

[Alec Cawdor]

Would an archer have more likely carried a Rondel dagger?

[Tim Jones]

I'd be inclined to go for a single edged, relatively stout blade as it doubles up as a utility knife. I can use my bollock dagger for splitting wood if I don't have hatchet. Double edged blades can only really be used in war.

As a general rule, the longer and more slender the blade, the more likely it is to be in the hands of someone higher up in the social hierarchy.

[Eric W. Norenberg]

[Leo Todeschini]

This whole area of man A has this and Man B has that is very tricky and probably can't really be resolved as a formulaic answer.

Archers could be signed on for a season, or be professional full time. As a signed on archer you probably take what you have, as a professional you have time, money and inclination to buy more specialised kit and indeed get exposed to more variety through geographic location and spoils.

As a signed on guy from Burford or wherever, you may have your civilian dagger that is likely to be a single edged bollock dagger, or as Eric says a baselard, or even possibly a quillon, conceivably even a rondel you liked the look of at last autumns fair. As a professional you may have the bollock that has served you well for years, a quillon, baselard, rondel or some other military form; to be fair you see effigies wearing bollock daggers. In a nutshell I think you cannot say who has what, just that in certain circumstances some things were more common than others.

I am having this very discussion with a customer at the moment and I keep saying 'pick a profile for the guy you are interested in and choose a dagger that suits him' I don't believe there is a solid answer to this question.

If I was portraying an archer of say 1400 I would choose a single edged bollock dagger with no guard and a sheet metal pommel cap (mainly because I like them) a simple sheet metal chape. What I would really like though is a baselard, partly because I like them, partly because they were common, but mainly because people always overlook them. I think they are not chosen by reenactors because they are expensive compared to bollock daggers and bollock daggers generally capture the imagination more. However Eric is completely right in that some daggers are more use in certain circumstances and a single edged dagger always has the edge in camp work (pun intended).

Tod

[Robert Leach]

The hypothetical archer could also loot anything he liked from enemy dead, I'd assume.......