Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Please allow me to humbly introduce Aras Dagnir, or Hart's Bane in the common tongue. She is the newest addition to my equipment, and has so far served me faithfully. She was forged by Josh Davis of Davis Reproductions (https://davisreproductions.com/). The long knife was based on a bauernwehr from the 15th Century in the Landesmuseum in Switzerland. The main knife has a blade that is 15" long, which makes it a formidable weapon in its own right, and all of the metalwork was made of 6150 carbon steel (a similar steel to the steel of the high-late medieval period). The by-knife is 8" total, 4.5" of which are the blade. The pricker was usually used to hold meat while cutting it, as a type of early fork; but for rangering it doubles as an awl for fabric and leather. This set is extremely robust and I haven't had any issues with it or cause for concern.

The filework, mallorn nagel, and leather tooling was all custom designed by Josh and I: the scales are made of antler. All these design choices were made to emphasize it's place as an (elvish) huntsman's blade. I've created a little name poem in Sindarin and transcribed it below. In the common tongue it is "Hart’s Bane is my name. A sturdy blade for the hunter in the wild." I didn't get it etched onto the blade, mostly to appease the medieval reenactors I go to events with But I have plans to incorporate it into whatever box or bag I keep it in. The belt and all of the fittings in the last image were made by my good friend Aurora Simmons (http://www.handmaderevolution.org/). She does some amazing work and is in the process of making me a new belt with custom fittings to match Hart's Bane (I'll do a post on it once it is finished).

Sorry for the low image quality of this post, These pictures really don't do it justice. I had a lot of issues with image compression. Also the last two images should have been rotated but for some reason they are not. Sorry!

Oh my word, that is a lovely thing! You went all out.

I'd never thought about an eating pricker doubling as an awl. Makes a lot of sense..... hrmm....

Elleth wrote:I'd never thought about an eating pricker doubling as an awl. Makes a lot of sense..... hrmm....

I've also read where folks have suggested using one as a marlinspike - no bad thing to have in a hobby involving as much cordage as this one does.

That’s a lovely piece. You’re a lucky owner! Have you gotten to do much cutting with it?

That looks amazing

Very nice! In particular I love the leaf guard - would be nice to see how that works in use! Wonderful!

Taurinor wrote:

Elleth wrote:I'd never thought about an eating pricker doubling as an awl. Makes a lot of sense..... hrmm....

I've also read where folks have suggested using one as a marlinspike - no bad thing to have in a hobby involving as much cordage as this one does.

So far I have used it as all three and it works beautifully! It's a very handy thing to have in this hobby

Ursus wrote:That’s a lovely piece. You’re a lucky owner! Have you gotten to do much cutting with it?

Thank you Ursus! I have actually. I was able to take off a pine branch (about the size of my wrist) with just two cuts. It almost doubles as a small machete for processing small wood. I was only able to do a little bit of batoning with it, but it worked well. It is a very practical stand-in should I lose my axe in battle and need to flee into the Wilds.

Very nice!