Olive knife, or don't get cocky with wood

I've done a few knives now, I think more than a dozen. I've worked with paduak, walnut, oak, ash, and a few others. When my friend Mark showed me a piece of olive wood in a bargain bin at the local Woodcrafter I went for it. I then proceeded to become that wood's b!@#$.

Olive has beautiful grain, a lovely warm color, amazing feel when polished up and amazing smell. It is gorgeous. It works by hand pretty well, and I now know why all the sources I have since found for it are in the turning sections of wood stores and online catalogs. That beautiful grain makes cutting the stuff into scales for a scale tang knife interesting. I had a customer who wanted a knife with an Italian feel. My wife suggested I use the Olive, and I thought perfect! This is what happened four times, including after I had it scaled and polished up ready to go out for a deadline.


As you can see the wood cracked. A lot. It split on the grain very easily. After much swearing, running out to buy another block of wood, and throwing one of the broken scales violently in my garage (its the one NOT pictured), I got it to work. By cutting the scales thicker than I normally would and trimming down after they had been mounted I was able to get a clean and stable piece on the knife. After sanding and polishing this stuff looks gorgeous. Mark was right, it cleans up brilliantly. The grain stands out and it is warm and soft to the touch.

Here's the final product:

With flash-


and without -


Sheath is black veg tan and is going out the door tomorrow, in time for the customer's needs.

It's Been a While

It's been quite some time, but I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. School and work do a number on free time unfortunately, but I'm itching to get another couple projects off the ground. I figured in lieu of some grandiose research thing, I'd break down what I've been up to lately.

I'm well on my way to producing several pairs of cut cloth stockings/hose in wool; one pair blue, one yellow, and one gray (which will be overdyed with dark green or black to produce a "poor black"). A brief overview of their use was detailed in one of my previous posts. The goal is to fully phase out the knit stockings I have, as the kind that I had been wearing, though wool, aren't quite correct for the late 16th century. Some kinds of knit wool stockings were probably worn, but they were dissimilar to what's available at a reasonable price (let alone on a college student's budget!) I wore the cotton stockings that are favored by the reenactment community for several years before I saw the light and shifted to wool. Now I'm at the next step. We all have to start somewhere and the trick is to continue learning, improving, and moving on rather than just sit at "good enough" or fall into the thinking of the "ten foot rule" or worse when working with the public.

Also on the list is making a new doublet, but I can't quite decide what to make. It'll definitely be "early period" for Elizabethan (1560's-mid-1570's), but the material is the big choice now. I can do a dark brown worsted wool, a white linen canvas, or an unbleached linen canvas. I love the undeyed white wool one I wear now, but it's approaching the end of its days... I work with armor a lot and I'm afraid of destroying a nice white linen doublet with rust and grease right away. We'll see.

Last month I began building a six board chest (with a lot of help) in the style of the late 16th-early 17th century. My woodworking skills are...bad...to put it lightly, so things will go slow and sloppily for some time, but I'm very excited to finally have an awesome box to lug around all my junk in. It should be done by the summer.

I've also been commissioned to sew a 16th century Italian suit for a good friend of mine. I'm thinking a black worsted wool doublet guarded and trimmed with black velvet to achieve the textural contrast often seen in portraiture, with slashed/pinked black wool breeches. I'd like to line the doublet with some good Italian fustian, face the collar and possibly other smaller areas with some white silk satin I've got, and use hand-worked black linen thread buttons. I think that if it turns out the way I'm picturing it, it'll give off a sort of an rakish feel to it- perfect for the sort of man he portrays.

Lastly, I've been trying to brainstorm a topic for in-depth research. Last year I looked into the myth of detachable sleeves in doublets in 16th century Western Europe and the uniforms of the trained bands (militia) of the city of Bristol at the time of the Queen's visit in 1574. I'm at a loss. I have a small project going about the truth behind "lace-up" men's body garments from the same time period, but I want something epic. If you have any ideas or suggestions for topics, let me know!

Anyways, I'm off for now. What sort of projects do you have lined up? If you need sources for anything, I'm sitting on a mountain of them, so post up here if you need some help finding information to get you going.

Best,

-Dan

Mary Rose Knife Recreation

For sale is a walnut handled version of knife #81A0847 on page 147 from Before the Mast.



Another nice simple utilitarian knife with a lobed handle. The rivets are copper, and the handle is finished with danish oil.


Leather sheath will be dyed to buyer's preference. Total including shipping $65.

Flair Hanger with Hardware

The hardware for the cut out hanger is all set. Heather's suggestion of an angular pad hook works really well, and I love the contrast of the bright hardware versus the dark brown/red of the leather.



I decided to use the new buckles I cast from the 16th century original as the buckles for this one and I really like them I'm going to use them as the basis for a complete set of hanger hardware for the future.


It needs a little bit of clean up and then its ready to go. If anyone is interested in picking this one up let me know!

Some new castings

I've been doing some pewter casting lately to add accessories to my 16th Century equipment. Little things like buckles and buttons, as well as attempts at medals and pins. I say attempts because those haven't worked so far. The buttons and buckles however, have.

My wife and I worked on doing some roughs of different buttons from finds ranging in dates from 1300's to the early 1600's. After doing the molds and getting everything set here is the first picture of the small button suite, not cleaned up yet.


From left to right we have:

1. Ridged Cone - 16th C
2. Pyramid - 16th C
3. Ball - 14th-17th C
4. Lantern - No providence
5. Acorn - 16th C
6. Shallow Dome - 14th-17th C
7. Cross - 15th C

I also very pleased to have purchased an original 16th century buckle from Talbot's Fine Accessories. I made a mold of it and the first result is great. I plan on using this on belts and hangers.



So some other fun stuff I've been working on. I've got some larger buttons ready to be cast in the next day or so as well.

16th Century German Knife - Finished, with Sheath

Finished up the clean up on the German knife and added a sheath. Sheath is made from a double layer of 2-3 oz oak tanned leather, stitched with waxed linen thread. I dyed it using Tandy Leather's Mahogony oil based dye and buffed out with some beeswax. As much as I hate to I'm going to be putting this one up for sale shortly on a couple of forums. Cost is going to be $65 shipping included to the US.

Elizabethan Woman's Girdle

Woman's clothing confounds me. It is this mystical set of garments that shapes and moves bits around and has whale bone in it, expensive stuff has pearls sewn into it, and all other sorts of chaos. When you look at artwork you see high status women wearing not a traditional belt, but a jewel encrusted delicate work of art that follows the lines of their clothing and drops down the front showing off wealth, station, and possibly even holding a small book or knife.


My wife Heather and friend Shelly like making jewelry and paternosters (medieval and renaissance prayer beads), and decided to try their hand at making what the 'in crowd' of the renaissance called girdles.



Their first attempt is a bronze colored waist chain that comes to a foliate style hub.


From the hub comes a length of green pearls (yes real ones), polished stones, and quartz.



It is really pretty. They are trying to do more for an event coming up in a couple of weeks, and if this is any indication of how they will turn out, they will be very impressive.