Dagger Making Process

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I posted this in Greg's Dagger thread, but in order not to sidetrack his WIP, I thought it would be best to make a separate thread.

A dagger is about the most iconic knife shape there is. A well made dagger is the epitome of a good knifemaker's skills.

The making of a dagger has many more facets ( bad pun) than a simple hunter. When planning one, look at as many photos as possible, and see what appeals to you in them. Make notes, and when ready, draw out your plan.

Things that make a dagger look great:
Thin and sleek
Curves
Well shaped point
Perfect bevels/ridge
High quality handle materials - Ivory, MOP, Burl
Guard/quillion/bolster
Damascus
Embellishments - Engraving, scrinmshaw, inaly

Things that make a dagger look bad
Fat and rounded blade
Too angular a shape
Sloppy bevels,ripples,wandering ridge line
Too big a handle
Poorly shaped or no guard/quillion/bolster
Cheap or poorly finished handle materials
Poor or scratchy surface finish
Serrations, spiked pommels and guards, skulls, etc.

Here is a tutorial not specifically on the methods of making a dagger, but on the process of making one:

Dagger Process Tutorial:​

Plan it out all the way. Don't put a mark on the steel until you have the whole project worked out.

Draw it out. Make sketches of the knife and draw in the details. These should be full size and have every detail the knife will have.

Don't forget things like the guard, or bolsters. These will have to be fitted as the work progresses. On a simple stick tang dagger, a thick bolster/guard combo works well. On a full tang, you will need to rivet on extra metal to make the bolster/guard. Just leaving the tang metal sticking out won't work well at all.

Cut out the sketch. Make several copies and cut one of them out.
Sand the blade stock absolutely flat and to 120 grit.
Glue the drawing on the steel and cut/grind the profile. When done take off the drawing.

SCRIBE A CENTER LINE DOWN THE EDGES - I can't stress this enough on a dagger. There are just too many curves and angles to try and eyeball the edge.

Mark the steel to match the drawing. Use a good layout coating, like Dye-chem.

Look at what you marked and decide if there is anything you have missed or want to move. Now is the time to do that. Once you grind the steel away, you can't add it back.
Use a straight edge and scribe the center ridge line from ricasso to tip. It rubs off during the filing and sanding too easily otherwise.

Use a grinding jig. The clamp on shoulder jigs used to get straight shoulders when filing/grinding a stick tang are almost a necessity for getting the ricasso and plunges right on a dagger. Clamp it in place and check that it is dead straight. Tighten the bolts well. Check again.
If you will do a lot of daggers, make a plunge filing jig that is just wide enough to fit the blades you do. 1" wide is usually plenty. Use two 1/4"X1"X2" pieces of 1095 and drill and tap the holes for 1/4-20 bolts, about 1.25" apart. Harden it in fast oil, temper at 450F.

Use a file to set the plunges, and work down the bevels from all sides slowly. It should meet down the centerline you drew with a straight edge when laying out the blank.

When the bevels almost meet, switch to either sanding by hand on the edge of a surface plate and wet sandpaper, or on a good flat platen on the grinder at slow speed. If you don't have a speed control, and/or aren't proficient at power grinding....do it by hand. Nothing looks worse on a dagger than rounded and ripply bevels.

A note about shaping the blade:
The bevels should be straight and flat. The ridge should be laser straight. The edges should be even width and follow the center of the blade side. The way that this is made to all come together is that the taper of the blade thickness has to match the taper of the width. If the blade was left un-tapered, the tip would have a perfect ridge but the edge would have the same thickness as the ricasso. Taper the blade down as you work to file the bevels. It is better to have the edge vary a bit in thickness than have the bevels wobble. A good practice is to leave the edge at the tip a bit thick. It gets reduced in the final steps and sharpening. Too thin and it snaps off easily.


Sand from all four sides and when the ridge line almost meets at the center, switch to a finer grit. The trick is to have it finally touch at the 400 grit step.

The edge should NOT get sharp when doing the bevels....which is hard to avoid. I usually make the dagger blank a little fatter than I plan on ( especially at the tip), and have to constantly take a stroke or two on the edge when it gets too thin. The final edge thickness and blade width seem to end up right this way.

Double check everything, and if it is all good now remove the shoulder jig.When you have more experience, you can remove it after the bevels are filed, but on the early daggers, leave it on as long as possible.

Flatten the tang again to remove the dye-chem. Look the blade over carefully from every side. If all is right, drill the tang holes and bolster holes.

HT the blade. Use all the best methods you have to avoid warp and twist, as well as controlling scale and decarb.
After HT, soak or etch the blade to remove any scale, and sand the blade to check for flatness. If any adjustments for warp or twist are needed, take care of all that now.
Sand the tang and ricasso to 400 grit.

Rivet on the bolsters and pre-shape them as needed. Wrap the blade in several layers of tape when doing this, as one bad move with the grinder could put a divot in your bevels.

When the front of the bolster/guard is sanded to 400 grit, untape the blade and do the final sanding just as before. Go slow and make the bevels FLAT. The edge should come down to pre-sharp while doing this. Don't let it get sharp yet, though. Sand to the final grit and do whatever other treatments are needed.

Tape up the blade well again, and fit the handle. When the handle and bolsters are completed and polished,untape the blade and clean up everything. Check it all again, and if OK, wrap the handle with a paper towel and tape over the towel.

Do the final sharpening carefully to make the edge. A dagger isn't a slicer, so a steep edge secondary is what you want.

 

[Salem Straub]

Good stuff, Stacy. Makes me want to go grind a dagger. Something I thought to add: when hand-drawing things that need to be symmetrical, such as a dagger or throwing knife blade, or a large guard face, or a sheath pattern, I like to first draw one side of it carefully. The rest can be sketched in lightly to aid in balance when drawing the detailed side- but ultimately I cut the profile of the fully drawn half and, using a straightedge, fold it onto the other side of the paper. Using a sharp pencil (so the second half does not end up appreciably larger) I trace it, then unfold and cut the rest of the drawing out.

I use this method to do things like lay out nice octagons for the ends of wa handles, too. It's a good trick.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

Something that I think is frequently overlooked is controlling the taper of the cross section of the dagger. Often, a dagger has a long pointy tip which, if the center cross section isn't maintained, can result in a thin weak point which has no place in a stabbing weapon. You can steepen the angle of the grind towards the tip to leave a stout strong center section at the point. Looks better with the deeper grind at the tip too, which otherwise is gets pretty shallow there. What I'm talking about is hard to visualize, is this making any sense to anyone?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I agree. A thickener tip will last longer.

You can either increase the angle of the bevel toward the tip, or make the secondary bevel wider at the tip. The latter is easier for a newer maker. If using power equipment and you have become very good at flat grinds, changing the main bevel angle can be don quickly ( but screwups are hard to fix).

What I do in some cases is to flatten the tang and ricasso, then flatten the blade portion and put in the distal taper at the same time. There should be a facet line right at the ricasso. Do this on both sides. The amount of taper is decided by taking half the blade thickness less the edge thickness. If the blade is .220" thick, and you want a .030 edge before HT, with about .010 more at the tip ( .040 at the tip), then .220 - .040 =.180. Half that will be taken off each side in the taper, so lower each side .090 at the front of the bar. The simplest way is to center scribe a .040 center and taper to those lines with the other end of the taper at the ricasso. Once the taper and the ricasso have been set, mark the blade for the profile and center ridge. Profile, leaving a bit of extra to trim as you go. Done right the bevel can all be at one angle ( easier to grind/sand) and the edge at the tip will be .010" thicker than at the ricasso. The secondary bevel will take care of this invisibly, and make for a stronger tip. You may still need to slightly roll the bevel at the tip to make it meet the edge right. But, since the bevel is so narrow at the tip, it is pretty easy to push around.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

What are your thoughts about balance and the use of a weighted pommel? I think it is generally accepted that fighters should be fairly light and lively, and if you've had the good fortune to handle some of the Mastermith's Bowies some of those big honkers are surprisingly light and lively, though tip heavy. However, daggers are not used for sweeping cuts, they're generally used in a thrusting motion. Many of the good daggers I've handled have often had a fairly neutral balance due to the use of a guard and a stout pommel. Can anyone speak to the functional aspects of weight and balance in a dagger?

 

[Fred.Rowe]

A martial view would be to have the pivot point of the blade centered in the hand. Its the tip that needs to move up and down, side to side, when looking for an opening to thrust.
A training technique used to develop the skill of placing the tip of a thrusting weapon on target was; holding a 4 foot long light weight pointed shaft
in one hand, attempt to stab the tip into a moving one inch target, using only the wrist to move the tip. It teaches you a lot about balance and weight of a thrusting weapon.

Good stuff Stacy, I'm going to print this out for reference, Fred

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Fred,
Interesting that you would mention that technique.
I had an old fencing partner back in the 60's who met an Italian during WW2, while in Italy. They were both fencers, and when training was discussed, the Italian said when he started learning, they would bandage his sword arm to his side so it would only move at the elbow and wrist. Then he would take a foil and try to poke a small paddle the trainer would move around. It taught eye/hand coordination and fast wrist technique.