Lots of Medieval Knives and Sheaths

[chuck123wapati]

2 hours ago, AlexOstacchini said:

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.

 

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  

Thanks i was wondering if sewing and forming them then using a blank inside the sheath when tooling them. Of course if it were metal it would have to be covered with plastic or something to keep from staining the leather. Your way sure works very well.

[fredk]

35 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

Thanks i was wondering if sewing and forming them then using a blank inside the sheath when tooling them. Of course if it were metal it would have to be covered with plastic or something to keep from staining the leather. Your way sure works very well.

Its possible that the original ones were formed around wood formers. afair in finds of 'Viking Dublin' several knife sheaths were found which were all about the same size and shape but the work on them was different,  suggesting that some sheaths were pre-made and you bought the one which fitted your knife the bestest

[chuck123wapati]

12 hours ago, fredk said:

Its possible that the original ones were formed around wood formers. afair in finds of 'Viking Dublin' several knife sheaths were found which were all about the same size and shape but the work on them was different,  suggesting that some sheaths were pre-made and you bought the one which fitted your knife the bestest

A guy learns something new every day. Thank you. i would think maybe also the knives were forged from cast ingots so would all would be about the same size and even very close to the same shape from each blade smith making this easier than we might think.

[fredk]

Ingots are possible but prior to the heavy Industrial Revolution (about 1740) blacksmiths in Britain used 'bog iron'. Iron ore rocks found on the ground surface in boggy areas. They smelted them in their own small furnaces using charcoal. The quality of the iron and steel varied quite a bit and it was regional, ie the iron a blacksmith in the north of England used was quite different to the iron just 20 miles away in Scotland. Archaeologist specialists can place an iron/steel blade to a region by its iron compound.

[chuck123wapati]

3 hours ago, fredk said:

Ingots are possible but prior to the heavy Industrial Revolution (about 1740) blacksmiths in Britain used 'bog iron'. Iron ore rocks found on the ground surface in boggy areas. They smelted them in their own small furnaces using charcoal. The quality of the iron and steel varied quite a bit and it was regional, ie the iron a blacksmith in the north of England used was quite different to the iron just 20 miles away in Scotland. Archaeologist specialists can place an iron/steel blade to a region by its iron compound.

Right as i understand the earlier smelting processes of bog iron, a typical hearth would produce bloom of about the same size every time as it would hold only so much ore so then after forging to get the impurities out they would have comparable size pieces of iron, my mistake calling them cast ingots.