Hand-Forged Bollock Dagger, Fluted Pommel

It is a dagger whose guard consists of two rounded lobes carved at the base of the grip rather than a crossguard. That single feature defines the type; everything else varies. Blades run from short and stout to long and needle-pointed, single or double-edged, and hilts were made in boxwood, walnut, horn and bone. It was in continuous use across England, Scotland, the Low Countries, Germany and Scandinavia from roughly 1300 to 1600, which makes it one of the longest-lived weapon forms in European history. It was also genuinely common rather than aristocratic: the excavation of the Mary Rose produced them in quantity, carried by ordinary crew.

Because of the obvious anatomical resemblance of the two lobes, and the name is not a modern joke. It appears in period inventories and there is no evidence medieval owners regarded it as anything other than a plain description. The Victorians, who catalogued most of the surviving collections, found the word unusable in print and substituted "kidney dagger", which is why both terms are still in circulation today. Modern museum practice has largely gone back to the original: the Royal Armouries and the Wallace Collection both use "bollock dagger" in their catalogues, and so do we, because it is the correct term and because collectors search for it.

No, but one becomes the other, and this is the most interesting thing about the form. The Highland dirk is a direct descendant of the bollock dagger, which arrived in Scotland with the rest of Northern Europe and then stayed in fashion there long after the Continent had moved on. Over the 17th and 18th centuries the two lobes shrank, migrated upward and were absorbed into the swelling of the grip, until they survived only as a pair of gentle bulges near the top of a dirk hilt. At the same time the blade became single-edged, frequently cut down from a broken sword blade, the grip acquired the interlace basketweave carving everyone associates with the type, and the scabbard gained pockets for a byknife and fork. So if you look at a Georgian dirk and a 15th century bollock dagger side by side, the family resemblance is there in the hilt profile and nowhere else. This piece is on the bollock dagger side of that line: double-edged, lobes fully formed and separate, no interlace. If you want the dirk end of the story, we forge those to commission.

Probably not, and it is better to say so now. Formal Highland dress calls for either a sgian dubh worn in the hose or a full dress dirk worn at the belt, and both have an established appearance that this dagger does not match: single-edged blade, straight interlace-carved grip, flat pommel cap often set with a cairngorm, and companion knife and fork in the scabbard. Turning up with a bollock dagger will look wrong to anyone who knows, in the same way a 14th century sword would at a Regency event. What we can do is forge you a proper dirk or sgian dubh to commission, and if you like the carving on this hilt we can carry the same hand into that piece.

One piece, and yes it matters a great deal. The lobes, the grip and the flared pommel are all cut from a single block of timber bored and shaped around the tang, with no pommel cap, ferrule or collar fitted anywhere. That is how the originals were made and it means there are no components to work loose. The trade-off is that the timber has to do all the structural work, and the lobes are the vulnerable part, because they stand proud of the body of the grip on a short neck of wood. The grain must run along the length of the hilt so that each lobe is supported by continuous fibre; if it runs across, a knock can shear one off at the neck. It is worth knowing as a buyer's test on any wooden hilt of this shape. Look at the grain lines on the photographs and follow them: they should run from the blade to the butt and continue visibly through the lobes rather than crossing them.

It is a langet, a small fitted steel piece at the shoulder of the blade, and we should be straight with you: it is our smiths' addition and not a period feature. Bollock daggers do not have guards. The absence of one is the definition of the type, and no surviving example we are aware of carries a langet like this. It is nicely made, with three filed lines at the centre and an asymmetric sweep, and it does the dagger no harm structurally. But if you are buying this for historical accuracy rather than for looks, order the build without it. There is no extra charge and no delay.

Both edges, as standard. The section is a flattened diamond: a single ridge runs down the centre of each face and four flat surfaces fall away from it to the two edges. That geometry is chosen because a thrusting blade is loaded from unpredictable directions and a diamond section resists bending in all of them, where a flat blade with a fuller is stiff in one plane and flexible in the other. It is also why you will not find a fuller on a dagger of this kind: there is no material in the middle of the section to remove, because the ridge is the middle of the section. If a double edge is a problem where you live, we will sharpen one side and leave the other as a blunt false edge, which changes nothing about the section or the look.

We cannot answer that for you, and you should be careful of any seller who claims they can. What is worth knowing is that a great deal of knife law treats "double-edged" as a category in its own right, separate from blade length, so a dagger sharpened on both sides can be restricted in places where a single-edged knife of the same size is completely unremarkable. That applies in parts of the United States at state level, across much of Europe, and in several Australian states, and the rules governing import are frequently different from the rules governing carry. Check both for your own address. If the second edge is the obstacle, the single-edged build costs nothing extra and is a phone call rather than a problem.

The chape is the fitting at the point of the scabbard, and it is the one part of a scabbard that earns its keep. The tip of the blade bears against the bottom every time the dagger is sheathed and every time it is worn, and leather alone wears through there long before it fails anywhere else. Ours is cast in brass and engraved with foliate scrollwork over a fluted shell motif. The body of the scabbard is wet-moulded rather than sewn from flat panels: the leather is soaked, formed around the blade itself and allowed to dry to shape, so it holds the dagger by fit along its whole length instead of relying on a retaining strap. That is how a medieval scabbard was made, and it is why a well-fitted one can be worn point-down without the blade falling out. It also means a new scabbard is stiff at first and loosens slightly over the first few weeks of use.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, the same stock our smiths use for kukris and swords, forged down from leaf spring in the Nepali tradition. It is oil-quenched and then tempered back, which produces a blade that holds an edge but stays tough rather than brittle. Toughness matters more than usual on a thrusting weapon, because a thrust that lands off-line loads the blade sideways and a hard, brittle blade snaps where a tough one bends and comes back. It is not stainless and it will take a patina with use.

It is forged, hardened, tempered and sharpened, so it is a functional weapon rather than a wall-hanger, and it will do everything a dagger of this pattern was ever asked to do. What it will not do is stand in for a utility knife. The double edge means you cannot put a thumb on the spine or grip the blade to choke up, the fine point will bend if you lever with it, and the polished finish marks if you look at it. Most buyers display it, and that is a perfectly good use for it. If you want something to carry and work with, buy one of our single-edged knives and buy this because you want a bollock dagger.

Close, but not identical, and that is the nature of forged and carved work. The blade profile is drawn out by eye against a pattern, the diamond section is ground by hand, the hilt is carved individually and rosewood varies board to board in colour and figure, so the lobes and the fluting on your piece will not be a perfect match for the ones photographed. What does not vary is the specification: length, steel, section, heat treatment and sharpness are held to the same standard on every piece. Our kukri machete page sets out in more detail what can and cannot differ between two blades from the same bench.