Ballock Dagger by Hanford Miller MS

HTMD

HTMD

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Feb 15, 2002
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ABS Mastersmith Hanford Miller has completed another historically inspired interpretation - this time it's a Ballock Dagger (or Kidney if you're offended by the phallic reference) patterned after a lowland Flemish original circa 1450-1460 which resides in The Wallace Collection (London).

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Vince Evans was inspired by the same original and built a very fancy version featured on p. 108 of Knives Annual 2011. Hanford's is less fancy but quite nice as well. The handle shape is obviously unusual but very secure and comfortable to grip. The scabbard has a rotating belt loop to facilitate the style of carry common in the day (tip up, handle down and forward - quick-draw style).

This blade style emerged in the very early Renaissance period, some would actually say prior to the the Renaissance period, which would have been Late Gothic for you art history buffs.

If I can find and scan it, I'll post a painting from that era showing some cool dudes standing around wearing ballock daggers. You can then see how they were carried.
 
pretty funny looking knife, until you look down and see it sticking out of your chest, no doubt.
 
Buddy,

That's a great photo.

I really like the fact that Hanford Miller MS is continuing to make knives such as his Cinquedea, his eared dagger, Scottish dirk, and now this Ballock dagger.

These designs look strange to many modern collectors, but they were all popular for a long time. It's nice to see a modern maker reproduce them them.

Jim Treacy
 
HTMD said:
orig.jpg
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Really progressive photo layout and crystal clear. Kudos to you!

Historical knives a can be an acquired taste, but they are always interesting to hear WHY they were built in a certain way. This, I'm certain, tells a story on this handle.

Vince Evans was inspired by the same original and built a very fancy version featured on p. 108 of Knives Annual 2011.
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Check that. Not in my 2011 Knives Annual. :confused:

Coop
 
I have been wanting to get one of these for a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. They were worn in "phallic" fashion, as much toward the front of the belt as possible, handle as straight up as possible, so as to look like, well ... you know. This knife eventually evolved into the Scots Dirk.
 
no doubt Hanford Miller MS has some major balls trying to bring this style back into fashion, in a world obsessed with political correctness.:D
 
SharpByCoop said:
Check that. Not in my 2011 Knives Annual. :confused:
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I'm looking at a photocopied page Hanford gave me featuring the Evans dagger and at the bottom it says on the left, 108/KNIFE GUIDE, and on the right it says ANNUAL 2011. Apparently it is part of a section on handles. I mistakenly took this to be out of Knives Annual 2011 but apparently it's from another publication. I'm :confused: too.
 
Looks like that publication originates in Canada. Anybody know?

Here's a scan of the painting I mentioned. It's from 1413-16 and is part of a calendar of sorts that was in turn part of a book designed to flatter a very rich man, in this case a despicable character who was also a major patron of the arts. Note the two prominent ballock daggers down front.
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BTW, the Limbourg brothers were around when Hieronymus Bosch was ramping up and Gutenberg invented printing with movable type. So it was in those times that the ballock dagger was popular in Europe.
 
HTMD said:
I'm looking at a photocopied page Hanford gave me featuring the Evans dagger and at the bottom it says on the left, 108/KNIFE GUIDE, and on the right it says ANNUAL 2011. Apparently it is part of a section on handles. I mistakenly took this to be out of Knives Annual 2011 but apparently it's from another publication. I'm :confused: too.
Click to expand...

Buddy, the Vince Evans Dagger is depicted on page 108 of the annual Blade Magazine "Knife Guide 2011".
 
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