Dawkind
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2000
- Messages
- 13,043
This is an 8" Tom Maringer Dagger in A2, circa 1980, and Serial Number 76. Tom is one of the very few Knife Makers that not only Signed, Dated and Serial Numbered his works, but also chronicled basically ALL of the knives he ever made, ie., Date, S/N, Style, Steel, Length and Handle Material with special attention given to his swords...they had two S/N's, one for 'Knife Number' and one for 'Sword Number'. A sword, by his definition, had to have a blade at least 18" long.
OK, enough on that...this Dagger is the first wire-wrapped handled knife ever listed[EDITED:The first wire-wrapped handle listed is #69, sorry]. It's non-takedown but sports a small copper habaki, the aforementioned wire-wrap, plus coined guard and pommel. The handle is delightful in that it is tapered and flattened towards the guard for easy indexing....Joe.
The thing is like a scalpel...the guy that bought it from Tom in the day, and I got it from, told me he'd cut himself on it when he got it out to take pictures.
The real kicker, and another 'Historic' part of my story is the sheath/blade-cover that it lives in. Tom wasn't the first person to use Kydex...theirs were two flat pieces riveted together...as a sheath material but he IS the very first to thermally-form Kydex into what amounts to the sheath/scabbard/holster Industry we have today....Tom WAS the very first making one-piece, thermally-formed Kydex sheaths and this is the Prototype for his legendary front-break should rig sheaths, what Ben Tendick is now making again.
I was thrilled to add this to my collection of Maringer Knives, Tom approved...when I sent him the pictures his reply was 'Wow'.
OK, enough on that...this Dagger is the first wire-wrapped handled knife ever listed[EDITED:The first wire-wrapped handle listed is #69, sorry]. It's non-takedown but sports a small copper habaki, the aforementioned wire-wrap, plus coined guard and pommel. The handle is delightful in that it is tapered and flattened towards the guard for easy indexing....Joe.
The thing is like a scalpel...the guy that bought it from Tom in the day, and I got it from, told me he'd cut himself on it when he got it out to take pictures.
The real kicker, and another 'Historic' part of my story is the sheath/blade-cover that it lives in. Tom wasn't the first person to use Kydex...theirs were two flat pieces riveted together...as a sheath material but he IS the very first to thermally-form Kydex into what amounts to the sheath/scabbard/holster Industry we have today....Tom WAS the very first making one-piece, thermally-formed Kydex sheaths and this is the Prototype for his legendary front-break should rig sheaths, what Ben Tendick is now making again.
I was thrilled to add this to my collection of Maringer Knives, Tom approved...when I sent him the pictures his reply was 'Wow'.
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