Lots of Medieval Knives and Sheaths

[Tugadude]

It is work like this, both leather and metal, that keeps me excited about making things with my hands.

[battlemunky]

Excellent!

[AlexOstacchini]

Thanks for the nice comments all

13 hours ago, fredk said:

Whilst everyone else was looking at the Girona jewels, and the guns, I'm looking at wee scraps of leather!

13 hours ago, fredk said:

At least your steel is better than the samples tested in that book.

I can certainly relate to this! Visited the museum of London not too long ago purely to look at whatever rusty old knives and sheaths were on display- not very many it turns out but still a very interesting trip for me. In terms of the steel I am feeling my way a bit and don't have the skills to pull off a forge welded laminated blade but hopefully one day, so it's nice uniform monosteel in the meantime! 

11 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

Very interesting the way you / they put the seams down the center of the back. 

9 hours ago, kasota oak said:

Seams down the back are standard for Scandinavian puukko and leukus.  Did you use/make sheath liners?

Yes fairly unusual to modern eyes, I suppose it is one method to protect the stitching from being sliced without the inclusion of a welt layer. There are some originals with side seams but a lot less common I think.  Other than the the two large knives these are all unlined, which I believe was the norm. 

7 hours ago, Tugadude said:

It is work like this, both leather and metal, that keeps me excited about making things with my hands.

Cheers, me too! I enjoy projects which involve a few different skills, though I sometimes worry i'll end up as a bit of a jack of all trades master of none..! 

Alex

[Rossr]

Clean work both the knives and the leather.   I can only hope to obtain this level someday.  Keep going I can only imagine 10 years down the road what u can build.

 

Best

Ross 

[Sheilajeanne]

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing!  I was wondering why very few of the knives had tangs or hand guards, then saw where you said most of them were for eating. Yes, of course, in medieval times, they only had knives for eating. The fork is a more modern invention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork#:~:text=Although its origin may go,barjyn was in limited use.

Beautiful workmanship!

[fredk]

23 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing!  I was wondering why very few of the knives had tangs or hand guards, then saw where you said most of them were for eating. Yes, of course, in medieval times, they only had knives for eating. The fork is a more modern invention: 

If you look at the set on the left of this picture, back row, light brown handles, the small narrow blade is the ancestor of the fork

On 8/6/2020 at 2:54 AM, AlexOstacchini said:

 

[chuck123wapati]

11 hours ago, AlexOstacchini said:

Thanks for the nice comments all

I can certainly relate to this! Visited the museum of London not too long ago purely to look at whatever rusty old knives and sheaths were on display- not very many it turns out but still a very interesting trip for me. In terms of the steel I am feeling my way a bit and don't have the skills to pull off a forge welded laminated blade but hopefully one day, so it's nice uniform monosteel in the meantime! 

Yes fairly unusual to modern eyes, I suppose it is one method to protect the stitching from being sliced without the inclusion of a welt layer. There are some originals with side seams but a lot less common I think.  Other than the the two large knives these are all unlined, which I believe was the norm. 

Cheers, me too! I enjoy projects which involve a few different skills, though I sometimes worry i'll end up as a bit of a jack of all trades master of none..! 

Alex

So do you sew or form the sheath before tooling or after? 

[Sheilajeanne]

Thanks, Fred!

[fredk]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

So do you sew or form the sheath before tooling or after? 

A very good question

I should have thought of that one  

[AlexOstacchini]

7 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

es, of course, in medieval times, they only had knives for eating. The fork is a more modern invention: 

7 hours ago, fredk said:

If you look at the set on the left of this picture, back row, light brown handles, the small narrow blade is the ancestor of the fork

Yup, all eating knives other than the big ones, though I suspect general utility pieces also. Certainly not weapons in any case, or at least not designed to be. 

I believe Fred is right on this, this is called a pricker and I think the general consensus is it was a multi functional fork/awl/sharpening steel. While it does go to a diamond cross section, the edges are not sharp, only the point. Here is a better image of that set.

 

7 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

So do you sew or form the sheath before tooling or after?

My process for these was to form them first, then unfold them and do the tooling while the leather is flat. It can't lie completely flat of course as it is stretched and distorted from the forming, but enough to carve in the designs, and in fact I find the stretch marks help for marking out the borders. Then dye, then stitch. There are probably better ways of doing this and I'm sure this will change as I make more,  so open to ideas for improvement! 

Alex  

Edited August 7, 2020 by AlexOstacchini