This design is based on this 15th century rondel dagger found in the Metropolitan Museum. A close runner up was the a rondel dagger found at the Wallace Collection.
I experimented with the design and made a few small modifications, but given that this dagger is supposed to be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing, I went with a simpler design.
The overall shape was cut with an angle grinder from a lawn mover blade, but still had to be forged to its final shape and heat treated
The bevels were roughly formed with an angle grinder, and steadily sanded using several different grits of sandpaper until I finished it with a piece of 400 grit paper, which gives it a nice satin finish.
The rondels that give the dagger its name are plain carbon steel cut from 14 gauge plate, however I would not recommend anything thinner. I polished them to a 240 grit, but gave them their finish with a wire wheel. The handle is made from the heartwood of red cedar. I drilled a hole all the way through and heated the tang. I then did what is called a burn-through, where the tang burns a hole in the handle to give it a tight fit.
The handle was shaped with a simple belt sander and polished with sandpaper, steel wool, and a scotch-brite pad. I finished it with oil to bring out the deep red color. The rondels were given one last polish with steel wool, and then blued with gun bluing and oiled for the blackened steel look.
For the final assembly, I used two-part epoxy, then cut off the excess tang and peened it down. I blued the peened end of the tang, then gave it one last coat of oil.
I made the sheath out of leather, and did not add a wood core. To do this, I made a wooden blank of the blade. I then soaked the leather and sewed to it around the blank to form it.
After that I died the leather red, but I also used and antiquing gel to get that rich mahogany color, as well as make the small amount of tooling I've added become more visible. I then added a satin finish to protect and seal the leather.
One problem with rondel daggers is the fact that the center of gravity is in the handle rather than the blade. To help the dagger hang, and protect the end of the leather, I made piece called a chape. I used a rod that I use for forging arrows and hammered a piece of 16 gauge metal around it. A small piece of square stock is welded to the tip and filed decoratively.
The last piece was a throat. It was also a piece of metal wrapped around a form which I then welded a loop to the add a leather cord for attaching to a belt.
Private message received from a reader...
"I see a lot of talent there! Study of some metallurgy and machining/welding processes are skills that are in huge demand these days. I don't know if that's what you're interested in but your skills at this age certainly point to that being something you'd enjoy and would be very good at! Knife and tool making is a very specialized skill that I've always found really interesting. Design and development of tooling and dies for manufacturing are huge too, on top of the skills to run the machinery (lathes, mills, forges, etc.) to make that stuff." ~Kevin
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