Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Ok, This is a knife I've been working on for way to long. Not forged, but cut down from a mid-60's army chef knife.
It's a Baurnweir, which mean's farm defense, in German. It's essentially the 14th-17th c. German Yeoman Farmer's machete. It's a large knife that's good for chores and defense, but not quite a sword. Other than its size, its characterized by a finger guard called a Nagl and usually bottom guard, which I have dispensed with.

Here's a typical Baurnweir.



More pics and details later.

Wow, that's a whopper! How thick is the spine? I like where this is going, interested to see the finished product.

Very cool!

I can't wait to see how (and the sheath) turn out!

... I take it that's a need wallet it's sitting on?

A few more shots of the Nagl. Having dabbled in German longsword a bit, I had assumed that was on the thumb side of the knife, which it is not. (I thought this might facilitate adaptations of Lichtenaur's thumb grip for a smaller weapon. )

The original blade is so hard I couldn't drill additional holes to set the Nagl rivet style, so I ended up forging the Nagl, and welding it on. Luckily this doesn't seem to have messed with the hardness of the rest of the blade. The bolster was then cast around it in pewter.

Elleth,

Thanks, yes, that's my need wallet, Which is nearly done save the buckles.

I've teased the sheath a bit, it's a pretty standard 14th wet formed sheath, based on a few examples from the MOL Knives & Scabbards book, Adapted for the Nagl. This is my historical sheath, as opposed to the Seax sheath I'm still fighting with for rangering.

Udwin,

The spine is pretty beefy, nearly a 1/4"

That looks like its going to be amazing

And finally images of the full knife and scabbard.

That looks great! I especially like the shape of the blade and the work on the sheath looks great as well. The slot for the Nagl is a nice adaptation of the traditional seax sheath!

My goodness - that looks fantastically workmanlike! I'd not realized it was so stocky in back. Very cool!
Pardon if you already addressed it and I've missed it - but are the handle scales bone?

And might I ask what the arms/devices on the sheath are?

Very very very cool!

Zaskar24 wrote:That looks great! I especially like the shape of the blade and the work on the sheath looks great as well. The slot for the Nagl is a nice adaptation of the traditional seax sheath!

Thank you, one other Baurnweir sheath I've seen has done something similar, but there the slot is only an inch. This isn't the Seax sheath, (That's going to look like this).

It's more related to 14th century throated sheaths out of Britain. Like the knife, it's not period, but made so I can have it in the background for more historically minded events without being to jarring.

Elleth wrote:My goodness - that looks fantastically workmanlike! I'd not realized it was so stocky in back. Very cool!
Pardon if you already addressed it and I've missed it - but are the handle scales bone?

And might I ask what the arms/devices on the sheath are?

Very very very cool!

Yes, the back is nice & chunky. One of the reasons I was drawn to the Army cook's knife. Also I should address the shape of the blade. It's not period for my normal reenactment, 14th c., but fits just outside the standard shapes, which can get pretty straight. Once again it's my idea of Northern design edging into the territory of high medieval with a migration era twist.

I haven't talked about the handle scales yet, they're Caribou antler.

Finally there are three devices on the back of the sheath, I'll get a better picture of them. The top & bottom aren't intentionally anything. They're just vaguely heraldric, and Inspired by the arms on a scabbard from MOL's K&S. The middle one is my cult of Narsil arms (the same as my avatar), which in period heraldry is fortuitously a Curtana.

That leatherwork is great

Beautiful work. Absolutely beautiful.