Lady Élunia

from my collection of old photos

happy halooween

nice late 16th century type II.A-3 halberd on the left.

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Élunia @Mud_and_Blood

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Schematic 3D model of the ideal method of conducting a military campaign with wagons (Heerzug), depicted on folios 51v–52r of the Mittelalterliches Hausbuch von Schloss Wolfegg, compiled around 1480.

tyrovsti.cz/heerzug

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Part VI

"Post amara dulcia", or "After the bitter comes the sweet", seemed like a fitting inscription for this small dining knife. After engraving & cleaning it's complete. Very happy with how it turned out, really feels of one piece even though the knife consists of 22 parts.

Part V

The handle pieces & inlay were all measured slightly oversized so they can be filed to final dimensions and brought to a near finish by sanding.

Part 4

There are many recipes for cutler's resin. The ratio I landed on is 1 part bitumen, 1 part beeswax, 3 parts pine rosin, a few pieces of fresh pine resin if available, and maybe 1/2 part charcoal powder.

Part III

Surprisingly, most extant knives survive with their wood inlays intact. Unfortunately for me, knives with missing parts would be more informative. The most common type of inlay is with pain wood slabs but a two-tone checker pattern was also popular as I've done here.

Part II

The only research I've found about these knives is the short 1947 Dutch article "Gegraveerde Gotische Mesheften" written by J.W. Frederiks for the Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art. Because sources are scarce I've mostly relied on auction & museum photos

Part I

A little side project for fun and to test out my theory on how these late medieval knife handles were constructed. Such knives are found archaeologically across Europe, but are most concentrated around their probable points of manufacture in the Low Countries.

foraging

#1 has grown on me