The Quest for the Wooden Dagger

After playing through The Witcher 3, it's only natural to go straight into building a forge and start making swords, am I right?
So I started researching equipment and watching youtube videos about forging, and I came across one piece of very useful advice.

"Everyone wants to jump right in and make a sword but this is one of the most advanced things you can do with metal"  

Hmm sounds about right.

The advice continued, which recommends starting with a simple wooden dagger.
That way you learn shape, form and how the individual parts fit together.

I'm thinking, "Well, early game in Skyrim you learn to forge a few basic iron daggers so this is a perfect place to start."
I had a day off work so it's an ideal time to give it a go. There were limited tools scattered about the place and the only wood available was a hardwood off-cut from the newly installed deck, and some pine kindling for the fireplace. I measured and marked out the rough shape onto the decking scrap.

The decking board was a tad too thick, so had to split it in half using the old hand saw. After all, I didn't want to end up filing and sanding 6mm of material. This was difficult to do neatly with no bench vice or guides, but with a little patience it worked out fine.

I used the hand saw to roughly cut the shape, and old rusty files for the blade.
Honestly I really should get some new quality tools, but no time now. Must make dagger.

The Blade, looking more like a dagger, I cut a guard out of a piece of scrap, which I totally mangled, but it's a learning process. Better to mangle the wooden ones before moving onto steel. I also made sure I had nice rounded corners where the tang meets the blade for strength, something I learnt in my time building signs.

Despite the mangled guard, it still fits nicely, although not super tight.

I originally wanted to add a fuller down the centre of the blade but I really didn't know how. I would like to avoid the use of power tools but for this I had to resort to using a grinder with a 'flap disc' to cut the basic concave scoop, then sand the rest by hand.

Now for the hilt. I was never intending on making a separate pommel for this basic piece so I made the hilt as one. For this I used a piece of pine kindling from our wood fire pile. Rough as guts and I don't have a lathe. So hand carving it is.

Once I drilled the hole (again with a power drill) I began the blind task of carving. Blind I say as I have NEVER carved wood before. Ever! Which turns out to be quite relaxing, as I was completely unaware of the 2 hours passing by. I used a Romanian steel knife I had laying around in the toolbox for the task.

I just couldn't work with those old rusty blunt files any longer so went off to the hardware for some new ones. I had a limited budget so just grabbed a cheap pack which contained a few various large files and pack that had 5 or 6 tiny ones. After 2 hours of carving and filing its starting to look more like a dagger.

Another hour or so worth of sanding and fitting, I glued the pieces together and left to dry overnight. The next morning I applied a final coat of oil and the project was complete. I'm quite happy for a first attempt. I've used techniques I've never used before which took a lot of forethought and patience. I mangled a few things but I'm now aware of the process for next time. The blade is nice and straight which was honestly the hardest part. Plus, it's sharp enough to slice paper, which was a surprise, so caution is advised.

Quest of the Wooden Dagger: Achievement unlocked. 🏅
Total Time: Around 12 hours over 3 days. 

This project was originally documented on my old blogger site - July 2015 as part of the RPG-IRL project. Since then I went on to make full size stage prop swords, hardwood and forged steel training swords. I joined a HEMA club and trained in 14th Century German Longsword, and later onto The Montante, and dabbled with Iberian Rapier.