[Sean Flynt]

Some of you might already know this, but the Hobby Lobby chain of U.S. craft stores offers a variety of cast iron/steel drawer pulls in various forms. $8 is typical, but these are regularly on sale for 50% off. Some of these are Oakeshott Type T variants that were common (in larger sizes) on German/Austrian swords of the early 16th century. I've seen the type used on daggers of that culture and period, too, so these knobs are good candidates for dagger projects. They might also work for some of the German longswords with very long, slender grips and small-ish pommels. They'd be excellent for sword canes and fantasy projects using epee and schlager blades, too. There are glass knobs for those interested in historical crystal pommels.

These knobs are painted, and the cast metal ones look like their cast resin brothers. The weight gives away the metal. These come with a threaded bolt that easily unscrews, leaving you with a nice pilot hole for drilling through the soft pommel. Cast designs (such as the starfish on one of these examples) is easily ground or filed off.

The paint is very thin, and easily stripped with a mild stripper (I used Citristrip). I suggest getting that paint off before grinding, drilling, rotary brushing, etc. You really don't want to inhale whatever is in that paint.