Rune knife / Sgian Dubh / Athamen

 So, this is my take on "Adamas", catweazles knife;-)... looks a bit like a sgian dubh, which is great in my book. It was forged in a lightning storm, when Mr. Rothenberg´s knife was given birth, too... I then carved the runes into the blade. They read "GALD(r) Te (ju)" on the left, and "UBARWARI" on the right, presumeably meaning in Proto-Norse: "I work sorcery/I bring magic" and "I ward off Evil". The blade is some really funny file steel, that throws some rather weird sparks. It seems to have an extremely high carbon content and some cobalt in it, from the way it behaved when forged. First I fitted the handle. It is stag antler from an old lamp I got cheap on a flea market.

 Then I made a copper ferrule from a blind cap from the plumber´s  shop, and fitted it on to the handle.

 I glued the handle in place, and mind you, I even remembered to remove the excess glue in time, this time, that is;-)!

To cover the tang I used a decorative rune amulet disc I got from an arts  shop. Normally I am not a big fan of amulets that I did not make myself, but this one´s okay. It shows the entire old (proto-)Norse futhark . This inscription, albeit not in circular, but in spiral or Bustrophedon form was found on the INSIDE of tomb stones, visible only to the would-be burial, thusly maybe indicating a "magic" use of the futhark in this application. Since every rune has several "Kenningar", this leads to a very ambiguous reading and several connotations that can indeed have a sort of a meditational effect on the mind. By the way, this is the case with many archaic letter systems, the earliest maybe being Linear A, but also hieratic Egyptian, and the hebrew letter system, which also had a numeric connotation.

I want to do some carving on the handle or some other decoration, albeit preserving the antler´s natural appearance, and will make a sheath for it to fit into the ditty / crane bag project.