[JE Sarge]

Oops. Dropped an addition here and meant to drop it in another thread. Sorry for the mixup!

Nice swords, btw...

[Chad Arnow]

Here are a couple of images of my new sax by Tod's Stuff. I just chucked the sax on my scanner, so they're not the best.

[Ben van Koert]

My new ebony bollock dagger with silver fittings and gold accent:




And my new purse, based on Olav Goubitz's research in 'Purses in Pieces', made by a friend.

I'm very pleased with the endresults, and how the purse and the dagger complement each other!
I can recommend Tod to anyone, and I'd love to order from him again anytime.

[Chad Arnow]

Here's the latest addition: a medieval knife by Tod's Stuff. The grip is boxwood, the pins and butt plate are brass. The steel blade is inlaid on one side with brass X's and Tod's mark is also inlaid in brass. The spine of the blade is decoraed with lines and dots. The scabbard's decoration is based on one on page 117 of Knives and Scabbards. The blade's decoration is based on one on page 87 of the same book.

I didn't give Tod much direction. I just asked him for a knife appropriate for the late 14th and early 15th century and with a whittle (through) tang. He made a bunch of knives and let me have the pick of them. The rest were brought to a show. Some sold and some may still be for sale.

[Jeremy V. Krause]

That knife is really something Chad!

I like it very much- the different design elements really come together beautifully.

THanks for sharing!

[Chad Arnow]

[Chad Arnow]

Perhaps I'm the only one silly about knives these days, but they fascinate me. So much so that after buying the knife above, I bought a second one from Tod.

This one's grip is also made of boxwood. The peen block/cone is brass and the blade steel. The decorative dots on the grip are made of soot and glue. The scabbard is based on one in Knives and Scabbards.

[Chad Arnow]

My latest acquisition. A replica of an English/Scottish dagger from the late 13th century said to have belonged to Alexander Balliol, Lord of Cavers, cousin of King John I of Scotland.

This dagger is likely now in a private collection but was published in a Peter Finer catalogue a few years ago. The original:



The replica is by Tod's Stuff. It has a steel blade, pommel, and guard. The shield is silver, set with actual red enamel. It's soldered onto the pommel. The grip is boxwood treated with linseed oil. The rivets are tubular copper.

I bet now people can see why I was asking about John Balliol's nickname and about daggers with octagonal pommels.

I'll do full reviews and writeups for the site later, but I thought people might like to see this. I'm pretty happy with it.

[Ed Toton]

[Jonathan Hopkins]

Chad,
That is a really nice dagger. I love seeing less published items like the Balliol dagger tastefully reproduced. The Peter Finer catalogs really are a treasure trove. Great choice!

Jonathan

[Chad Arnow]

[Darrin Hughes]

This dagger was one of the work in progress pieces that I had a look at when I took a sword round to Tod recently for a scabbard fitting. It's always interesting to see how these come together. Very nice.

[Taylor Ellis]

I really like your collection Chad, I don't think I've seen a better assembley of repro medieval knives and daggers actually.

I think you'll really like my next aquisition.

[Chad Arnow]

[Taylor Ellis]

[Chad Arnow]

Armed (okay, a little pun intended) with info from this topic, I picked up a knife and pricker set from Bohemond. For $35, they're pretty nice. There are some grind marks on the blade, but I don't mind them. The grips are bone with hollow copper rivets. They came with a sheath (not pictured).

Yes, they're stainless steel blades which some people will hate. Consider though that the nicely blended high-carbon non-stainless steels that most makers use are themselves pretty far off from period materials. As long as I'm not getting a historical material anyway, I might as well benefit from the extra hardness and corrosion resistance.

[Gregory J. Liebau]

I've noticed that lately you've been getting a lot more knives and daggers than swords... Is it because you feel you've got enough swords already, or simply need to diversify your collection some? I didn't take time to go back and read a lot of the commentary so if you already made mention of any reasons for the transition, forgive me! The last few pieces you've got here are very nice. I've yet to own a knife or dagger, while they really are much more handy than swords...

-Gregory

[Chad Arnow]

Gregory,
Interesting question. There are several factors at work.

1) Space. My stuff all goes in a display cabinet which has room for about 7 swords plus knives and daggers. I have 7 swords. That leads me to:

2) Sword quality. My swords are from Albion, A&A, and Armour Class. I'm happy with them all. If I were to add a sword, I'd need to sell something I have to make space. So what I'd add would have to be something really good. Which leads me to:

3) Cost. Any swords better than what I have will cost more. Even if I sell one to finance the next, I'd still be looking at a bigger cash outlay than I can do. Which leads to:

4) Cash flow. For about 3 1/2 years, I've been operating my collecting habits with zero money out of pocket. That's because I have no money. So I sell things from my library and collection, etc. to finance other items. It usually means I have little chunks of money to spend at a time and it's tough to predict if more money is on the horizon. That leads to:

5) $$$. Knives and daggers (even custom ones) generally cost less than good production swords. Plus:

6) Knives and daggers were worn by many people even if they couldn't wear a sword for financial or legal reasons. They complete our picture of the medieval man. They were everywhere. And they come in some really cool varieties.

So it's a confluence of my financial situation, interests, and space limitations. But I'm getting to the point where I have most of the major knife and dagger forms represented. So what's next? Armour?

[Chad Arnow]

Just for fun, here's a scan of the knife and pricker in their scabbard.

[Gregory J. Liebau]