Review: A Dirk from Boar's Tusk Armoury

**Ethan Evans-Hilton** · 19th March 12, 05:39 PM

Greetings folks! Very excited today as I had some lovely surprises waiting in my mailbox today. Stumbled upon a fantastic chap up in my favourite region of the US, the Pacific Northwest ( I miss it every day!) who does some truly fantastic knife smithing! I have been hunting around for easily ten years for a Scottish dirk but not just any dirk. Something truly unique and one of a kind. I am very proud to present my first dirk from Boar's Tusk Armoury (https://www.facebook.com/BoarsTuskArmoury), in Spanaway WA. Boars Tusk is owned and operated by Bob Powell, a truly talented smith producing some fine work indeed. It's a 16th century Piper Dirk. The blade is hand forged 5160 spring steel, the hilt is a English walnut with German silver fittings. The blade is 9 3/4 long 1" wide and the back is 3/16ths thick with a straight taper grind, 15 3/4 inches overall. Along with the dirk I picked up a sexy little bodice dagger for my lovely lady with a gorgeous purple heart handle! I Highly recommend Bob. He was great to deal with, fantastic communication and turn around. I know I’ll be going back for more!

**BudTX** · 20th March 12, 11:23 AM

Beautiful work indeed.

I procured a Cold Steel mass-produced dirk a while back, and it gets comments. Yours is a work of art.

**tulloch** · 20th March 12, 11:34 AM

Very very nice. Congratulations. That is something you should treasure for life.

**NCMC** · 20th March 12, 06:50 PM

Ethan,
I agree that he does great work. I have been looking at his knives for a few years now.
He lives down the road and always has some good looking merchandise.

**Ryan Ross** · 20th March 12, 08:13 PM

Interesting... that thing's got a HUGE handle on it!

None too 16th century, I don't believe.

Interesting work, but I'm not sure of the history...

**Woodsheal** · 26th March 12, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Ryan Ross

Interesting... that thing's got a HUGE handle on it!

None too 16th century, I don't believe.

Interesting work, but I'm not sure of the history...

The grip is a somewhat elongated late-18th C. style. "Dirks" in the 16th C. were still basically ballock daggers. This image shows the progression from late 16th to late 18th C's in dirk configurations: