Sgian Dubh dimensions

**12stones** · 12th September 21, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by Recon1342

I will post a thread when I’ve completed it.

Hint: hopefully it's a step-by-step thread that shows the sgian being made from start to finish. ;)

**Recon1342** · 12th September 21, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by 12stones

Hint: hopefully it's a step-by-step thread that shows the sgian being made from start to finish. ;)

I can post a how-to.

**Ninehostages** · 12th September 21, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Recon1342

That one looks amazing. I think you mean pommel to tip, though; unless you’ve a really long leg that can wear a 7” blade.

Right you are ... pommel to tip. Handmade from tool steel (intentionally kept blunt as the Clan Wars are over, now) that was then vinegar etched to give a coat very much like anodizing. The handle is wild grape vine and epoxy. The vine strands are situated for a "perfect" grip of thumb and fingers.

My other sgian dubh is made with steel and brass form the WWI cruiser Emden that was run ashore by HMAS Sydney during the Battle of Cocos in the Indian Ocean. My dad bought it from a villager who was making small knives from the wreck on their reef during WWII when he patrolled there in his PBY Catalina. The sheaf and handle are made from coconut wood. I have no picture. I will dig it out of it's safe place and take one, some time soon for you.

**Recon1342** · 12th September 21, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by Ninehostages

Right you are ... pommel to tip. Handmade from tool steel (intentionally kept blunt as the Clan Wars are over, now) that was then vinegar etched to give a coat very much like anodizing. The handle is wild grape vine and epoxy. The vine strands are situated for a "perfect" grip of thumb and fingers.

My other sgian dubh is made with steel and brass form the WWI cruiser Emden that was run ashore by HMAS Sydney during the Battle of Cocos in the Indian Ocean. My dad bought it from a villager who was making small knives from the wreck on their reef during WWII when he patrolled there in his PBY Catalina. The sheaf and handle are made from coconut wood. I have no picture. I will dig it out of it's safe place and take one, some time soon for you.

That’s neat! I love personal items with history behind them…

Mine will be fully functional… living in rural Idaho, I often have need of a good blade.

**Ninehostages** · 13th September 21, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by Recon1342

That’s neat! I love personal items with history behind them…

Mine will be fully functional… living in rural Idaho, I often have need of a good blade.

Ships are made out of mild steel so the blade from the Emden is too soft to be a proper knife. Dad used it as a letter opener even though it looks meanish. I can put a razor edge on my vine handle one and the steel is hard enough to work steel with it but it is pointless to do so and both the Scottish community and law enforcement community around here take a dim view of people carrying weapons for no legitimate reasons. It's not done.

**Ninehostages** · 15th September 21, 09:38 AM

This is the SMS Emden knife. Emden was chased all over the Indian Ocean by HMAS Sydney during WWI before being destroyed and run up on the coral reef at Cocos Island, south of Sumatra. This knife was fashioned at Addu Atoll in the Maldives (soon to disappear under the sea, forever) but it was from the Emden ... the only source of such steel and brass in the region. Both places were within the patrol ranges of Canadians, Brits, Australians, South Africans and Rhodesians during WWII and this sort of object, literally made by villagers may have been their only cash income. (The Americans were absent from that part of the globe but were extremely busy just to the east of it.)

It measures 8-1/4" tip-to-pommel which was pointed out earlier is a bit long. I'm 6'-4" and I can pull it off. It was never meant to be a sgain dubh but the provenance and nearly proper size have compelled me to use it now and again. I'm a Veteran and that's the sort of get-together where it comes out. I will use it sparingly because of its family value and it is also pretty delicate. That's a coconut wood sheath.

VERY mild steel ... ships should never be built out of the hard, brittle stuff unless it's part of armour belting. Steel issues from the same decade that Emden was built have been implicated in the rapid sinking of both Titanic and Lusitania when it was found that very cold water made thee steel brittle and more subject to shear failure. Anyway, there it is ... authentic Kruppstahl.
Kleiner Kreuzer Emden.jpg
Emden knife.jpg