My new Knife from the Port finds...

[Folkert van Wijk]

I don't know about you people but every time I buy myself a new book (about the Celts), I find inside a couple of items/pictures that do intrigue me every time I look at it. Just because it's awesome in one way or the other I don't know. Somehow when it comes to knifes, it's mostly the bigger ones... *wink* And then of course those are the ones I one day would like to have made for me...

Lately by means of this forum I found myself a smith (Robert Wimmers) who lives near from where I live... And he was willing to have a go at making such a knife for me. He also made it possible for me to witness the forging of the knife showing me that the Celts definitely knew what they where doing and where now in 2009 giving him a hart time trying to reproduce this one...

The one Knife I am talking about is number 223 from the Port finds and from the same region and time period as my Port helmet [url:1ko38fxh]http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/option,com_helmets/task,view/cid,96/Itemid,96/[/url], so this one would be a perfect combination and complete and compliment my Late Celtic outfit... Of course this one proved to be the most difficult one from the book to make and therefore was a challenge for Robert...

Never the less he succeeded and is willing to make more Iron age Celtic Roman or whatever period, knife or other weapon...

So to make a long story short here it is. Shown in different steps from the first forging to the final polished result and finely in his new environment...

Oh and as if you couldn't tell by now, I am very pleased with it!


The picture from the book...



















In the mean time also introdusing a one of the new members of the familie...
(but he is very quied..) *lol*







I quess these are enough pictures?

[Peroni]

Very nice Folkert!

I have one of Robert's 11" knives myself and it is beautifully made and extremely functional. (Damned sharp too!)

[jvrjenivs]

Indeed Robert makes wonderful knifes. Hope you'll enjoy your new knife! It's a nice piece and thanks for sharing all the pictures. Also seeing him working on the blade (and give it a try yourself) is awesome. Are you going to make a handle for it, and if so, what kind of?

[Folkert van Wijk]

Thanks guys for the reactions.

I think the handle has enough mass as it is to give a good grip. I always looked at it as a knife made only of iron.
The only thing might be some wrapping, but because it's such a unusual shape af handle, I think i keep it as it is, just to show the craftmanship that went into it... :wink:

[Magnus]

What period is that from? I have a need for a good camp knife like that...but wanted to try making my own out of some mild steel.

[Gobae]

Ah very nice!

It's interesting to me to note that your smith approached making the ring gripped knife the same way I've made mine. And, not surprising is that the ring therefore has square cross-section (just like mine) unlike the original.

I wonder if the round cross-section on the original is a result of corrosion/erosion, or if an additional process was used that we haven't figured out yet? Did your smith have any comments on that?

[Robert]

Salve!

Being the smith in question, yes, the cross section of the ring is square out of the forge, but that is mainly due to the fact that I started with a rectangular billet. I could have rounded the edges on forging (before hot-punching the hole), but chose to do the rounding as a secondairy proces with a file and a stone.
The fact that material is often lost by corrosion and that the rounded edges of objects should be viewed with some reserve is very well observed , I had the same discussion with Folkert on the edges of the handle, which I left more pronounced in the replica then in the original artifact, just for this reason.
The tricky part of this knife is really the transition from the handle to the blade, as this calls for material management to not displace too much metal in getting the curve, as this makes drawing out the bevel to the sharp bend next to impossible. As this was my first time with a Celtisch knive, we only just made it!
I presume the handle could have had a covering with a piece of fine, thin leather, stitched on with an overlapping cross stitch (for those interested how, see my posts on Germanic knives, although that is rawhide).
I like the way Folkert used my "in proces" pictures I do on a commisioned knife to show the subtle proces of tweaking and grinding. The first picture is actualy the one after the first correction in the forge and an initial pass with the stone to better judge the curve of the blade. In the last pictures, you can see the point has been filed down to a sharper taper to get closer to the original shape.

[Folkert van Wijk]

What period is that from? I have a need for a good camp knife like that...but wanted to try making my own out of some mild steel.

This one is La Tene III (100-0 BC) but ring hilt knifes have (as far as I know) been around from La Tene II (350 BC) to 100 AD?