Some thoughts on a breed - the Yatagan blade shape

 On a recent fair in Marburg, I got myself a cheapo Laguiole, and it rides in my pocket quite frequently now. Having a carbon steel blade, it´s razor sharp, and while it has the one shortcoming all Laguioles seem to have (the blade makes contact with the back spring when closed), it also has one advantage many Laguioles share. Originally being a sort of backlock mechanism the spring has a propriety called "cran forcé". Similar to a backlock, there is an indention, a small rounded cavity in which a rounded nub on the spring fits. This makes for some added safety due to the resulting higher degree of stay. I have used it to make my snacks in the office, due to its civil appearance it does not make my colleagues jump for shelter crying "HE `S GOT A WEAPON!" :-P It´s a nice knife and adds atmosphere to any meal.

But so does this one. It´s a Hungarian shepherd´s knife, which I got cheap, as well, on the Jagd und Hund expo. Contrary to the Laguiole, the blade does not make contact with the spring, when closed. It has not an indention in the blade´s root, but the very special layout of the handle together with a stiff spring makes for a safe handler, too, when used for reasonable tasks... 

Seeing both types of knives pared I could not help noticing the strong similarities of the blade shape. It is called a "Yatagan" shape.

Now the Yatagan was a knife or short saber of Turkish make. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatagan shows you some examples. These blades have a very sleek and slender recurve blade . I would rather call the Laguiole and the shepherd knives´blade shape somewhat of a clip point, but it is clearly evident that there also is at least some evidence. For instance, the Laguiole, native to the Massif Central of France, most certainly derives from an Arabo-Hispanic (or "Mauric") predecessor of the Navaja and the Navaja folding knife of the 19th century. The Yatagan was also common in Hungary... et voilá: There also was a strong influence of Turkish culture, being a commonplace amongst Historians.

The message is simple: France and Hungary are quite a distance apart. But there´s still a lot they have in common, apart from humble blade shapes.

Look to what we have in common... and enjoy your snack. ;-)

Flea market find - Nuba dagger

 On the flea market in Schwelm, where I worked as a member of the organisation team, I found this treasure; a real tribal dagger, which I guess might be a Nuba dagger, for i have seen similar designs. It came with a beautifully and skillfully made leather sheath. The handle is some hardwood which I have not yet identified.

 The blade is fitted into the handle by a simple hole, and it looks as if it wasn´t glued in, but simply NAILED... dead ugly, but these knives have to work, and the knife looks like it has seen quite a bit of working-no petty art knives here;-).

 The blade is excellently tempered and skillfully forged spring steel with a thickness of about 1,2 mm. Try tempering that selectively without warping, and selectively tempered it seems to be! The blade carves mild steel rods but is flexible to boot. The edge had some dents close to the handle which might be due to bone contact or simply rust.

The backside of the sheath is skillfully sewed together. There is a plaited knot to secure the handle.

The best part is, it cost me 3,00€.*ggg*

Tribal knifemaking with four-year old kids;-)- the works of Kai Bernhardt

 Now some of you might be vaguely familiar with this weird brute*ggg*. I use him as a ram when I forgot my keys... head first, that is*ggg*. Kidding aside, this is Kai, arguably one of my best mates, and he really got the blacksmithing bug. On Friday he worked for the Kindergarten where his mother works. The institution is under threat of being clossed down for lack of rentability and needing some rapairing. So the staff set out to raise funds to rebuild the house and work against closure. They organized a spontaneous Chrismas fair on the street. For 10 € donation you could eat and drink as much as you wanted, and the kids could do some forging. Hats off to this guy. He came directly from work (repairing railroad wagons, in an 8 hour shift) to go on smithing. Not many people would do that or even be capable of it!!! I want to express my deep respect for that.

 The forge cracked when he put it in the car, but he made the best of it, repaired it, and, boy, did it roar!

 Forging with four-year-olds is not for everyone. Not every smith, even if he´s a good one, can achieve this. Kai did it with:

2 hammers
a block of D 2 steel for an anvil
a block of wood
3 tongs
and a forge consisting mainly of dirt and junk.

 The homemade mulled wine was delicious, and I have to admit I had quite a fill;-).

 Proper man food;-) delicious homemade salads, BRATWÜRST *ggg* and meat kebab sticks, plus bread, hot mulled wine, punch, hot cocoa and a load of great and friendly people. When Kai had his much-needed break, I took over and helped him out so he could eat something and have a chat.

 Kai brought some leather for me... perfect, thanks, bro!

 Many of those kids were a bit reluctant at first, but quickly warmed up to the work.

 Chatting beside the Chrismas tree...

 Giftware galore...

 To the left is Manuel, who currently is on a tutoring programme with the Kindergarten. Kai repairing the forge, which nearly fell apart. In my opinion that makes for even a greater achievement, making do with what is at hand and being able to work under the worst conditions imaginable.

 This is a knife Kai made. It has an ancient Martiini or Iisakki Järvenpaa  blade that has never quite seen production and was made by Rudolph Broch in Solingen. 1.4110 steel, 57-59 HRC, birchwood burl and is that beechwood? 

 Two "viking" style (better: Birka Vendel-age style) knives and a Leuku blade from spring and file steel.

 A ritual knife he made for his girlfriend (cruel gurrrrl*ggg*), Marie. 1.2842, has yet to be tempered. Below is an EDC / neck knife design, that supposedly is 1.2842, too.

And last but not least, a Seax blade I made from an old billhook and gave to him as a present some -is that four years?- ago. The handle is yew.



When I finally drank my last mulled wine and said goodbye, it was already quite late. It was a great evening with great people for a good cause. I sincerely hope that the Kindergarten will be saved by the effort.

New sheath for my little Hadseax

 I had no decent sheath for one of my favourite knives, and I had the privilege to have an unreally great crafts evening with the friend of my soul, and I grabbed the opportunity to make a half(:-))- decent sheath at last. The knife helped a lot, and I liked it. It´s always kind of a reality check how good your designs work when tooling leather, It works well, so I guess I got one thing or the other right:-). The sheath is untanned, wet-sculpted leather. The knife design is a bit complicated to make a sheath in this style for it to hold it in properly. I sculpted a groove and made an inlay into it. How it works when the sheath has seen some use remains to be seen. The sheath has yet to be tanned, and the stitching´s a bit sloppy as usual.

Had other things to look at and to distract me*g.

But it keeps the blade in and out of harm´s way.

A total of the knife and the sheath. I braided the belt loop. I´ll maybe give you a tutorial on that later:-).

Study of a real tribal design - Syrian Kurdish dagger with (supposedly) a Wootz blade!!!

 On Sunday, I got this dagger from Khalil, and thought I´d share it with you;-). It has a mild curve to the blade, the two edges are symetrically ground in a somewhat conical shape. The edges are purposefully blunted to be sold legally on a flea market, but not much. There are two fullers hand - carved into the blade. The handle is made from Coral, emaille, buffalo horn and brass into a rooster´s shape. The sheath is handmade from thin hardwood and copper. The copper is meticulously hammered into shape and then brazed.

 The rooster´s comb is made from red Coral. The handle shows some worm "corrosion", but no deep cracks and can easily be restored.

 The backside of the sheath features two loop hangers for a suspending chain. The sheath is made to be carried behind a belt or sash.

 This is an engraving (upside down) showing its origin in the Arabian language. I will provide you with news on this knife I want to to some research on!

 The well - preserved blade. I have a suspicion it might be Wootz steel, because I mildly etched it and it showed some strange "milky way"pattern.Cannot tell for sure, for I did not clean nor polish it first! A Mora knife cannot carve its edges, and a file has absolutely no effect either, but some tiny parts are softer than others. Those parts are too small to be due to bad tempering of spring steel or the like. I am not at all sorry about that!;-) And even if it´s spring steel, it´s a great knife! The bolster is bronze with a high copper content with a red patina.

The engraving on the sheath. I like this a lot, and I want to have a try at a metal sheath, too.











This knife cost me 18€.