Today we check out a story from the shop. One of our crew, the talented Thomas, has always had an interest in the type of things we make. Recently we worked to restore an item from his past with a connection to the shop then and now.
Thomas "When I was 12 or so I somehow convinced my dad to buy me a dagger exactly like this from Arms & Armor at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. A few years later my brother stole it and sold it. Now, many years later, I work at A & A and got my friend Mark Black to make me a new one."
The reborn dagger on the anvil (image is a bit foreshortened)
This style of dagger is one that we sell a great deal of at the Renaissance fairs. They are based on surviving examples of medieval combat daggers. While the single edged knife was more common in period than the specialized combat daggers, these double edged weapons, often with sword like hilts, are the iconic vision of knightly belt daggers in much of popular culture.
Thomas with the blade many years after his brother's transgression.
There are several versions of this style dagger that we craft in our shop. In this case we combined some elements to match what Thomas remembered as the piece he got. As this was probably sometime in the early 90's our pieces have evolved some but it is very close.
Here are some of the most popular daggers of this type that we sell today as part of our stock items.
Tudor Dagger
Knightly Dagger
Crusader Dagger
14th Century Dagger
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985