Hand-Forged Bollock Dagger, Steel Lobed Hilt

Yes, by the only test that defines the type. A bollock dagger is a dagger guarded by two rounded lobes at the base of the grip rather than by a crossguard, and that is exactly what this has. Everything else about the type varied enormously in period, from short stout blades to long slender ones and from boxwood grips to horn. What makes this one a modern interpretation rather than a reproduction is the length and the material of the lobes, not the arrangement of the hilt. If you are used to seeing the form at dagger size, the proportions here will look unfamiliar; the hilt itself is orthodox.

They are deliberately a pair, one historical and one not. The Bollock Dagger, Fluted Pommel is the period build: a 13 inch blade, lobes carved from the same block of timber as the grip, an integral flared and fluted butt, and no steel furniture beyond one small langet. This one is 17 inches with polished steel lobes swept to points, a faceted grip and a stepped steel pommel cap. Buy the period build if you are a reenactor, a strict collector, or you want the piece to be defensible to somebody who knows the type. Buy this one if you want the form at a size and a finish that no medieval smith would have made, and you would rather have the presence than the pedigree. They share a family and almost nothing else.

It is a workshop design choice and not a historical one, and it has one real advantage. On a period hilt the lobes are carved integral to the grip and stand proud on a short neck of timber, which is the weak point of the whole construction: a knock across the grain can shear a lobe off at that neck, and it is the most common damage on surviving examples. Forged in steel that failure is simply not available, and steel also lets the lobes be drawn out into the downward points you see here, which cannot be done in wood at all without leaving them fragile. The costs are that it is not period, and that it adds mass at the guard, which changes how the piece hangs in the hand. If you want the carved wooden arrangement, it is a free option on this listing and it is also how our period build is made as standard.

By its hilt it is a dagger, and by its blade it is arguably not. There is no agreed threshold, and the historical vocabulary is genuinely blurred: cinquedeas and large quillon daggers ran well past a foot, Scottish dirks sat around twelve to fourteen inches, and the line between a long dagger and a short sword was never drawn by anybody who used them. What separates them in practice is how they are held and what they are for. A dagger is gripped in one hand with no expectation of parrying, has a short grip and a guard that stops the hand rather than protecting it, and this piece has all three of those. We call it a dagger for that reason. Be aware, though, that legal definitions frequently do use a blade length figure, and at 17 inches this will be classed as a sword or a bladed weapon rather than a knife in a good many places.

So the hand can tell which way the edges are pointing without looking at them. On a single-edged knife the spine tells your thumb everything you need to know. On a double-edged blade there is no spine, and a round grip lets the whole thing rotate a few degrees in the hand without you noticing, which on a thrusting blade means the edges arrive at an angle you did not choose. Flats fix that: the hand seats on them the same way every time and the blade is indexed to the grip. It is the same reasoning behind the faceted pommel cap, which continues the flats to the butt so the shape is consistent from one end to the other. The visual effect is a happy side effect rather than the point.

That is the ricasso, a short section left at full width and full thickness and deliberately not sharpened before the taper begins. It does three quiet jobs. It gives the guard a flat shoulder to seat against instead of a wedge, which makes for a tighter fit that does not gradually drive itself apart. It gives the two edges a defined place to start, so the grind ends in a clean shoulder rather than running out into the guard where it cannot be sharpened. And it puts a small amount of unsharpened steel where a finger might end up if a thrust drives the hand forward. On a blade with edges on both sides, that last one is not a trivial consideration.

Both edges as standard. The section is a flattened diamond: a ridge runs down the centre of each face with four flat surfaces falling away to the two edges. That geometry resists bending in every direction, which is what a thrusting blade needs, and it is why you will not find a fuller on a dagger ground this way. The taper is long and even from the ricasso to the point rather than running straight and then dropping to a tip, which is what gives the blade its stiffness for most of its length and its fineness in the last few inches. If a double edge is a problem where you live, we will sharpen one side and leave the other blunt at no extra cost, and the piece looks identical.

We cannot answer that for you, and this is the piece in our range where the question matters most. Two separate provisions tend to apply. First, a great many jurisdictions treat double-edged daggers as their own restricted category regardless of size. Second, blade length thresholds apply on top, and at 17 inches this sits above the ordinary knife allowance almost everywhere, which means it may be regulated as a sword or a bladed weapon rather than as a knife. Import rules are frequently different again from possession and carry rules. Check all three for your own address before you order. If length is the obstacle, an 11 or 13 inch build brings the piece back inside far more allowances and costs no more.

On two points rather than one, which is the correct answer for a scabbard of this length. A single frog holds a short dagger fine, but a 20 inch scabbard hung from one loop pivots around it and swings, catching on everything and working the leather at the suspension point until it tears. Twin loops set apart along the body hold the scabbard against the belt at two heights so it stays where you put it. The throat is reinforced with a riveted panel because the mouth takes all the wear from drawing and sheathing, and the cross-lacing on the face draws the two edges of the panel together so the load spreads across the rivets rather than sitting on one. A strap over the grip closes it. Draw by releasing the strap first, then lifting straight.

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, producing a blade that holds an edge but stays tough rather than brittle. Toughness matters more than usual at this length, because a long thin blade loaded sideways is exactly the case where a hard, brittle steel snaps and a properly tempered one flexes and returns. 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 long thrusting blade was ever asked to do. What it will not do is stand in for a knife. The double edge means you cannot put a thumb on the spine or choke up on the blade, the fine point will bend if you lever with it, and 17 inches of polished steel is unwieldy for any ordinary cutting task. Most buyers display it or use it for costume and film work, and those are perfectly good uses. If you want something to work with, buy one of our single-edged knives and buy this because you want the object.

Close, but not identical, and that is the nature of forged work. The blade profile is drawn out by eye against a pattern, the diamond section is ground by hand, the lobes are forged and filed individually so no two pairs match exactly, and rosewood varies board to board in colour and figure. 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.