Stiletto dagger

[Ed Steinkirchner]

Something I recently finished, monosteel 1085, brass guard and pommel, carved ebony grip, leather sheath with bronze fittings

The guard started as 1/4 x 1 flat bar that I turned the ends down on and threaded 1/4-20 then made the finials like acorn nuts. The guard was finished by filing to profile. The pommel was 1" brass freehand turned on the lathe and also threaded 1/4-20 to screw on to the tang. The sheath fittings were made from thick sheet bronze, shaped, and brazed together before finishing and polishing. The blade started as 9/16 round rod which was forged to shape then the bevels ground and file work added to the ricasso before heat treat and polishing.

[templehound]

That piece deserves more than zero replies in 5 Days....

regardless of the facts that this piece is actually not my taste I have lots of respect for the amount of the work

and how consequentlyYou made it according to the guard and especially the sheath....such sheaths can be real butt kicking devices.

As well as the fluted work on the handle and keeping it symetrical in all parts...!

I could imagine getting the brass a bit dirty with some patina and gun blue the blade....it will make it look more sinsister and mean...because this is a mean tool.

In my eyes polished brass( or bronze) always looks cheap, but not all people like it antique like me....we are only slaves of our taste.

Overall very well done!

 

 

[JHCC]

Missed this earlier, so apologies.  

Like templehound, this isn't quite to my taste, but I definitely appreciate the workmanship. The carving of the handle is really nice, and I'd love see a subsequent version of this with a line of twisted wire at the bottoms of the grooves between the reeding.

[George N. M.]

I agree with John and Templehound but have a few questions:  1) How did you construct the sheath?  Is it a wooden core with leather glued over it and, if so, is the seam on the back flat or sewn? 2) Why did you choose copper for the suspension loops?  Color contrast? 3) How did you form the guard and the pommel?  Hand filing? Lathe? Casting? And, 4) What was your inspiration for the decorative upper part of the blade?

Obviously, this is not your first rodeo.  Nice work.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Ed Steinkirchner]

Thanks everyone, it's a very "dainty" knife for sure and the style reflects that. Probably because the
persona it was made for is a lady

I do like patina myself especially more of a dark brown on copper alloys, occasionally black or green as well depending on situation.

To answer George's questions:
The sheath is all leather with a seam on the back and the fittings are bronze because that's what I had in the right thickness, and the loops are copper because I had no brass or bronze stock for them and they won't be seen with the belt applied.   The guard finials and pommel are freehand turned on the metal lathe and the guard itself is made from flat bar filed to shape before the finials were threaded on. The filed profile of the ricasso (I assume that's where you mean) was added because it needed some kind of simple detail there as it looked a bit too plain with it straight, so I just sketched on it with sharpie till something looked right!         

 

 

 

 

 

Here's some pictures of the back of the sheath to show the stitching and construction details

[Donal Harris]

 Beautiful work. 
 

Seen or not, I think you should have waited until you had something matching the sheath fittings rather than use copper.