my first acceptable knives

[Dabbsterinn]

so, i recently went on a forging seminar and there i learned how to make a knife which, atleast in iceland, is called elf-lady knife, i think it's because in the viking era, some men weren't exactly gentlemen, so some women carried these kind of knives for self-defense, i think a similar tradition was in sparta?

anyways, the larger one is made from a car spring, pretty nice, first attempt at making this knife, i think it turned out OK, the second one, the one with the twist, im not entirely sure what kind of steel that is, but it's good i think, i managed to harden it fairly well, it works, that's what matters to me, i'll probably re-heat it, smoothen it out a bit and harden it better, i don't think i managed to harden all of the edge, 

if anyone knows whether this design has a different name or has one, please let me know

[Gundog48]

Looking good, you'll want to try and work on reducing your hammer marks which will come in time. Giving them a go over with a wire wheel would also make them look a lot nicer! I've also seen them called 'woman's knives', although you'd be surprised how civilised Viking society was compared to how they are portrayed. They were incredibly advanced technologically and were some of the best traders in the world- they were also very clean compared to Europe at the time!

[Steve Sells]

good start.  now get to work with the files and lets see them finished

[Dabbsterinn]

i intend on keeping the black firescale on them, i love the colour in that, but yea, i'll be making some silvery, shiny knives in the coming future, as soon as i get more coke, then i'll probably stay a few days at my forge and make knives, among other things that i should probably put up here

[Dodge]

By finish, I think steve meant the cutting edge. Leaving hammer marks yields a cool finish but without a cutting edge, a knife is more or less useless. Even a stabber/dagger tends to need some sort of edge and sharp point, but these shapes appear to be cutters. Keep up the great progress :)

[Dabbsterinn]

you're right dodge, those are actually just intended at decorational knives, now a thing to compare my most recent work (will upload some of it soon) in case i need a confidence booster,or emergency butterknives

[Stefflus]

Good to see you're up and running!

Now, the elf-lady knife, does that translate to "álfakonuhníf"?

We call them both "kvinnekniv" (women's knife) and konekniv (wife's knife, but this could be a norse heritage where kona=woman).

 

And where does the elves enter into this?

Our myths are a bit different than the Icelandic, we call these people "underjordiske" (subterraneans) or "huldrefolket", and they behave somewhat differently. But to call a knife elf-lady knife made me think about one particular myth concerning these people;

-If you were lucky enough to spot them and their livestock, or someone who was taken by them, and wanted to break the spell to save the one that was taken, or to steal some of their cattle, you could throw steel over it -usually your knife. (Or a silver coin, but that has nothing to do with knives ;)

[Dabbsterinn]

i think the elf part is just to make it sound more fancy, and we have very similar or even the same folklore about elves, it's a really interesting subject, 

and due to the grammatical rules of icelandic, the correct term in that context would be álfkonuhnífur

[Stefflus]

It's gonna take me a while to get the grammar down.. :wacko: