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Post by Kilted Cossack on Jan 8, 2011 2:32:00 GMT
Gents:
After rolling these things around in my brain housing group for a number of years, I think I've concluded that my main sword interest is in European swords from the Renaissance on. (14th-17th centuries Anno Domini?)
While I like, let's be honest here, pretty much all swords if they're decent, my main interest in swords are the complex-hilted (schiavona, basket hilt, mortuary, multi-ring, etc.), "medium-duty" swords. You know, you still needed a sword, and you needed to be able to chop and slice as well as add field expedient buttonholes, but primitive/crude firearms were available, and they of course changed everything on the battlefield.
What's the relevance of this to daggers or knives? Probably nothing! But it might let you know the era I'm thinking of now.
I need dagger advice, just like the title says. Since this is SBG, let's set some "SBG-esque" parameters: cheap(ish), solid, passably historical, sharp. I'm figuring something off the rack, unless there are cutlers out there providing cheapish custom daggers/knives.
Any advice on style to pursue? My skirty side says "Just get a good Scots dirk and call it a day, laddy buck," but since I'm trying to pass for normal for a while, I'm wearing pants more often and it doesn't, you know, HAVE to be a dirk.
Beyond style, any pointers as to makers? I'm assuming the usual suspects will be in play----Hanwei/CAS, Valiant, Gen2, Windlass? More? Fewer?
Thanks in advance for any help/advice/pointers you can provide.
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Post by Bogus on Jan 8, 2011 3:49:30 GMT
It sounds like you want a main gauche--it's designed to be paired with a rapier but should work fine on its own (a 12 inch dagger is a 12 inch dagger no matter how you look at it...). Luckily there are quite a few to choose from since they're popular with the historical fencing crowd. A longish medieval-style dagger would probably work just fine too...KOA has loads of both. If you want to get your Italian on you could look into a stiletto, there are several cheap ones out there. I've had my eye on the Hanwei model for a while, though I don't much care for the handle. As far as makers, it's probably down to Hanwei and Windlass. Valiant has one or two medievals listed on KOA but they're not on the company website so I don't really know anything about them, and I don't think Gen2 makes anything small like that. Cold Steel makes companion daggers for some of their swords, but they seem to be a little hard to come by and possibly not worth it if you're not buying the matched set. Arms & Armor has some *very* sexy stuff for sale but they start at around $300, so probably not an option.
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Jan 8, 2011 3:57:08 GMT
I've never been much of a fan of the stiletto, and I'm not sure why. I can respect the purity of its stabby goodness, but somehow my taste runs more towards blades that combine cut and thrust options. Perhaps similarly, I prefer the cut and thrust complex hilt swords to the more purely thrusting rapiers (while, once more, recognizing the purity of the rapier's stabby goodness, etc.).
A close friend of mine has a Cold Steel naval dirk, and he is simply rapturous about it.
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Lunaman
Senior Forumite
Posts: 3,974
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Post by Lunaman on Jan 8, 2011 3:58:47 GMT
As far as budget Renaissance daggers, I don't think they get much better looking than the main gauche pieces made by Hanwei, like this one meant to be paired with their Torino rapier: TorinoMGBill Grandy gave a favorable review of the Gustav Main Gauche (most of them use the same blade) here on MyArmoury and since there's several styles to choose from you could pick whichever fits best with the rest of your gear. He did mention that the wire wrap became loose at some point, so maybe the bone-handled one is a bit more durable: After that I would start recommending daggers from Arms&Armor, but those are about three times the price, lol, and not really budget pieces anymore (but they're a steal compared to the sword prices).
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Jan 8, 2011 4:05:51 GMT
Lunaman: There are some discount A&A daggers, though, like the Medici! www.armor.com/dagg062.html Whether it's two and a half times the value of a Hanwei, dunno yet! I really like the looks of the Medici, and on the Hanwei side the wood hilted "Renaissance Main gauche".
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Post by Bogus on Jan 8, 2011 4:09:34 GMT
Oh yeah that reminds me, if I'm not mistaken DSA claims they're possibly going to revive some of their old rapier designs, which would presumably mean companion pieces as well. And there's also Darkwood Armory if you want something a little more custom-y but not a full on custom job...they let you pick a base model and specify all the features. They specialize in rapiers and AFAIK make good quality stuff, but like CS I'm not sure it would be worth it if you weren't getting a set.
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Jan 8, 2011 5:16:22 GMT
Bad Bogus! Bad bad bad! Bad dog! No bacon for you! Why, I would smite you if I could!
(I'm joking, of course.)
Here's the deal. I had been away for, oh, the better part of a year (I think), lost my desktop with a ton of saved bookmarks, and only recently drifted back into cold arms, and it had been ages since I thought about Darkwood. See, I've got this Hanwei Tinker EMSHS, just the blade, no guard no grip no pommel. Ah, but when I look at Darkwood, I see all kinds of neato torpedo possibilities.
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Post by Bogus on Jan 9, 2011 4:43:11 GMT
Well just be sure to check with them whether it will work or not...I ran into trouble trying to get a custom handle for a Hanwei rapier as apparently some of Hanwei's toys don't play well with others. I doubt it would be a problem on an H/T though.
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