Knives and Daggers
In addition to swords I make a wide variety of knives and daggers, both period and modern.  Part of my goal when I started making knives was to make patterns of medieval daggers and knives not often seen at that time- namely Ballock Daggers, Baselards, Sax knives, stillettos and Rondel Daggers.  I still frequently make knives and daggers of these patterns, and a variety of 'every-day' medieval knives like Trenchers, Parers and Chaffers.  All are privided with period-appropriate leather scabbards.  Materials vary- blades are typically 5160, 1095 or O-1.  Handles are usually exotic hardwood with furniture in steel or brass.  Below are some examples of knives that I have made recently- strangely I am rather short of Knife Pictures- I will hopefully remedy this soon!  

Daggers deserve some special mention- the typical medieval dagger has a straight, stiff single or double edged blade with an acute point.  I believe that these weapons supplanted knives like the Sax in combat largely due to the wide-spread use of mail.   The stiff, narrow blade of the dagger lends itself well to attacking mail- the point will tend to catch in a single link and the edge or edges will shear that link if enough force is applied, allowing the blade to penetrate.  Of course Mail varied in quality and it is likely that not all mail could be penetrated in this fashion- but the narrow blade would still be useful in these cases to attack the eye-slits of a helmet etc.  Because these blades tend to be of narrow width and thick cross section even when extremely sharp their utility as a tool is limited by their 'bad' edge geometry- a good medieval dagger is a pretty poor knife!  Sources like Fiore's 'Flos Duellatorum' show the dagger used not merely for cutting or stabbing, but also being gripped across the flats to be used as a short 'baton' for trapping and controlling moves when in-fighting.  The origin of the term 'Dagger' is the subject of some debate- The Oxford English Dictionary says that it comes from the Middle English term 'Dag' meaning to stab or thrust; I find this origin susspect because there are references to the term dagger that if genuine predate the existance of Middle English.  I myself suspect the etymology of the term 'Dagger' is a corruption of the French De Guerre (originally in ancient French I am told that the G was not soft as in modern French) meaning 'of/for War-' certainly an apt description as these blades were good for little else!  In the 11th and 12th century Daggers were referred to by a number of names such as Coustel de Guerre, Cultellus, Cutiau a Pointe  or Cutiau a Tailler (describing, probably, a single-edged dagger.)  During this period such blades were considered a 'low' weapon and are not illustrated with or associated with knights- it is not until the 14th century that we regularly see illustrations or effigies of knights bearing daggers.  For more common soldiers however they were plentifull enough that in many illustrations of battles from the 12th century daggers are nearly as plentifull as swords- to the point that by the 12th century these weapons were so associated with foot soldiers that these troops were referred to as Coustillers- which term eventually took on a derogetory meaning.  Early (11th-12th Century) medieval daggers were typically single or double edged blades 8-10 inches long- though examples as long as 20 inches appear to have been in use.  These had a short, curved guard and the pommel often mirrored the guard- though sometimes the ends of the pommel were curled into circles.  At least some daggers of this period had ovoid or lozenge-shaped pommels.  Some even had circular guards like a rondel dagger, though with 'knobbed' tops rather than a second rondel forming the upper guard.


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