[Dan D'Silva]

Hello again.

As my plans for various projects have evolved, this little dagger blade has wound up orphaned. I'd like to hilt it in mid-18th-century style, if there is such a thing when we're talking about this style of blade. I'm aware of plug bayonets that date to early in the century and naval dirks from the end, but currently the closest thing I know of from the middle is the single-edged whinger. Can anyone point me to other examples?

[Dan D'Silva]

Oh hey, I also just found the exact original that the Crazy Crow New Orleans dirk -- which is where I got this blade and the crossguard of my sort-of-smallsword from -- is based on.

https://www.abebooks.com/AMERICAN-PRIMITIVE-KNIVES-1770-1870-Minnis-Gordon/31458659461/bd

The author says that he "would expect this example to have been made in the later 1700's."

[Glen A Cleeton]

There were plenty of Mediterranean daggers in southern Europe. Here is a dagger I adopted that represents Italy, as an everyday knife.






http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29211Cheers

GC

[Dan D'Silva]

Hi Glen! Thanks. I was aware of that style but it slipped my mind. There's something very visually appealing about the very streamlined dagger with no quillons or even no guard at all. That's one reason I always liked akinakai and those Glen McClain whingers with the super-compact guards. I've even been toying with a fairly ahistorical idea, sort of a ballock dagger but with a more subtle design that's halfway toward a whinger (now I'm getting used to working the soft brass bar stock from Crazy Crow, making a guard like this ought to be possible). I'm not sure I could quite manage an Italian dagger with this blade since it seems like it needs a sizable ricasso, but I tried to use some inspiration from the style in designing this one's grip.

The other idea that occurs is basically a little cuttoe with a shortened blade, since there's at least one example from early in the century, I know a few cuttoes had double-edged blades later on and the "knife reground from broken sword" is not unheard-of historically. Though, when I put the guard and blade together, the guard looks oversized (which I also feel about the original Crazy Crow dagger).

Now I check Withers & Capwell, they show a stiletto that's supposed to be early to mid-18th century. But the blade I've got is much too broad for that style.

[Dan D'Silva]

I'm going ahead with the archaistic design. Just needs a proper oak grip and a scabbard now. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as an 18th-century ballock dagger, but I just like it so much for the reasons I've already mentioned that I can't resist. Besides, Armlann Gaidhealach should know all about older weapon designs. Also it occurred to me long ago that a whinger is just a slight modification of a single-edged ballock dagger. If you compare some of the ones with metal guards in the ballock dagger spotlight to some of the whingers with more compact guards like this one, you'll see what I mean. However, I'm fairly sure the more traditional ballock guard would be more comfortable against my knuckles when held in a saber grip.