Aras Dagnir - A Long Knife of Mirkwood
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:08 am
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!
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!