Blank blades?

[Nighthawk]

Hey Piper- you have a link for that eBay seller? I did a search and can't find them.

The use I want is primarily for reenactment, but I also want something functional. I'd like to be able to pull my dirk an behead a trout when I go fishing. Let's see how many people I can horrify...

[Piper]

Can't quite figure out how to make a link to the site work (I'm a bit of a Luddite). I just did a search on e-bay this morning for "dirk blades". Came up with several knife listings in the auctions, and 3 blade listings in the "e-bay stores", all from "ancientarms_etcetera". That's the outfit that was mentioned earlier. I've bought their sgian dubh blades in the past, as well as some of their large dirk blades, the ones they list as "Big Sam".
I made them up with an eye towards using them at reenactments, but mostly wound up giving them out as prizes in the Highland Games that I run at some of the Rendezvous. Eventually I'll make myself a proper early style (mid 18th century) dirk, either at the forge or by stock removal from an existing blade.

[fortcollinsjerry]

Not having seen that many scottish dirks out of the sheath, I'm wondering how many were sharpened or ground to shape on the back. I noticed the dirk blades offered by Atlanta have an edge along the back about half way from the point.

[Piper]

That's actually a false edge, running about 3" or so back from the point on the spine. You could bevel and sharpen it if you've a mind to. The blades Atlanta offers are of the Mole pattern, like the etched blades you get at Highland Shops, or from e-bay. The earlier blades were of a long triangular shape, sharpened on one edge. Museum replicas offers an example that they list as an early style dirk for around $95 (but it can be had cheaper elsewhere). According to what I read, they were a direct decendant of the old "ballock dagger"

[Thorin]

Hey NightHawk,

I've had limited experience but have been very happy with the blades I've gotten from lochnessorigins.com (Moderators is this acceptable? Just trying to answer the question) Where you have a choice of stainless steel or Damascus for sgian dubh blades - I'm not sure if they do Dirks - but its worth checking out.