- Joined
- Oct 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,652
This isnt a knife, but it is militaria related and a good amount of forging was required to create it, so I figured I'd share it here, rather than just the blurb I put in the grinder. I finished a project I started a week ago, a historically accurate reproduction of a Scottish targe from around the time of the battle of Culloden (1746)
forged out everything for it except for the brass nails, but back then they'd have just bought brass nails from someone else who makes them anyways too. Forged the shield boss and the buckle for the back from brass bar and sheet stock. The only real historically inaccurate thing I did was that I used a T nut (which I didn't forge and thread myself) under the center boss rather than a lump of soft lead... the lead is historically accurate for the center spike to screw into, but I'd rather not deal with toxic metals =)
Stats, 20 inches in diameter, 7.5 lbs total weight, deer hide back, 5oz leather front, around 700 brass nails, 1/2 inch oak core. 9 inch spike, design is my own based on components from various historical targes in museums. The handle on the back is leather wrapped around a forged out metal handle, and handle and straps are held on without screw just like historic examples. This was my first time doing any leather work of any sort, so it's not the best, but I think it came out well.
and the back
I've got a bunch of deer hide left to make more, because I had to purchase a whole hide just for this one project. I'm going to be adding a step-by-step of my creation of the targe with pictures to my website sometime in the near future. I took over 75 pictures of the progress along the way.
forged out everything for it except for the brass nails, but back then they'd have just bought brass nails from someone else who makes them anyways too. Forged the shield boss and the buckle for the back from brass bar and sheet stock. The only real historically inaccurate thing I did was that I used a T nut (which I didn't forge and thread myself) under the center boss rather than a lump of soft lead... the lead is historically accurate for the center spike to screw into, but I'd rather not deal with toxic metals =)
Stats, 20 inches in diameter, 7.5 lbs total weight, deer hide back, 5oz leather front, around 700 brass nails, 1/2 inch oak core. 9 inch spike, design is my own based on components from various historical targes in museums. The handle on the back is leather wrapped around a forged out metal handle, and handle and straps are held on without screw just like historic examples. This was my first time doing any leather work of any sort, so it's not the best, but I think it came out well.
and the back
I've got a bunch of deer hide left to make more, because I had to purchase a whole hide just for this one project. I'm going to be adding a step-by-step of my creation of the targe with pictures to my website sometime in the near future. I took over 75 pictures of the progress along the way.
