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I found this blade interesting. Larger handle to blade relationship that the real Smatchet but not that far off. Much much shorter though, more like a dagger.
D.
Bill Harsey
07-28-2010, 08:57
Debo,
That design pre-dates the smatchet by quite a bit.
jhorrigan
07-28-2010, 15:08
ya'll don't know what the hell ya'll are talking about. My great great great great great grandad made them out of limestone.
JOHN 15:13
Force has no need where there's a need for skill.
haha. :)
Well we should make one out of steel or something. Especially since we are going to be living down the road from eachother soon.
Bill, tell us about the history of that design.
D.
BlackHills
07-28-2010, 19:06
It looks more like a sgian dubh to me.
Roguish Lawyer
07-28-2010, 19:48
Did someone say SMATCHET? Where the hell is NDD?
BoyScout
07-28-2010, 20:52
It is called the DAG. It was one of the trade knives offered to Indians. Most of the ones I have seen had a little longer blades. I think Cold Steel sells a version.
Bill Harsey
08-03-2010, 10:11
It is called the DAG. It was one of the trade knives offered to Indians. Most of the ones I have seen had a little longer blades. I think Cold Steel sells a version.
There's a little more to the story than that.
jhorrigan
08-03-2010, 12:59
well tell us, mighty one.
Bill Harsey
08-03-2010, 19:14
well tell us, mighty one.
Ok, ok...
just back back from long trip into the Steens Mountain wilderness, unpacking gear and all that stuff.
If memory serves, the "dags" were traded to Native Americans as iron lance points.
The uniqueness each dag came from the Indians fashioning their own handles and sheaths thus turning the lance points into big daggers. Handles were made from a variety of materials, wood and bone being the ones I've seen. The various pin patterns were the choice of the maker.
The Reaper
08-03-2010, 19:31
Ok, ok...
just back back from long trip into the Steens Mountain wilderness, unpacking gear and all that stuff.
If memory serves, the "dags" were traded to Native Americans as iron lance points.
The uniqueness each dag came from the Indians fashioning their own handles and sheaths thus turning the lance points into big daggers. Handles were made from a variety of materials, wood and bone being the ones I've seen. The various pin patterns were the choice of the maker.
Great answer, Bill, thanks for sharing.
TR
Rumblyguts
08-03-2010, 19:38
It looks like some dags have notches just behind the blade while others don't. With that, can one then assign the blades with the notches to be meant more for the native populations/trading whereas those lacking the notches were meant more for the "westerners"?
BoyScout
08-03-2010, 21:11
Ok, ok...
just back back from long trip into the Steens Mountain wilderness, unpacking gear and all that stuff.
If memory serves, the "dags" were traded to Native Americans as iron lance points.
The uniqueness each dag came from the Indians fashioning their own handles and sheaths thus turning the lance points into big daggers. Handles were made from a variety of materials, wood and bone being the ones I've seen. The various pin patterns were the choice of the maker.
Thanks, a little more info than what's been taught around here.
My then current girlfriend bought me an Al Mar smatchet when my team was setting up security at the Zakho House in N. Iraq in 1992. I hated bothe shealth and the handle so I "fixed" them. The shealth was constructed by a friend in El Paso and I did the handle out of white oak in the MWR wood shop. You may notice the handle has a strong resemblance to the WWII German daggers. This was not intentional but because of the increased size for the smatchet it is actucally very confortable for my hand. I carried this "knife" for the last years of my career and was quite happy with it.
One story that goes with the knife; When my team returned from doing the B-H CSAR mission we were immediately put into an exercise so we could get back to our real mission: training.... Anyway, we had a new CSM, famous for the comment "you guys are fat and out of shape and thats why so many people are hurt on jumps" who after saying this promptly broke his leg on a fun jump with the Germans. During the exercise he was out of the cast so he came out to watch a live-fire. Noticing my knife he came up to me and asked "is your knife big enough?" Not realizing his sensitivities were different than mine I asked " Didn't they tell you about me?" He replied "No". I then said "Oh, I have a little d**k". He hardly spoke to me for the next year!!!
MVP
Bill Harsey
08-04-2010, 08:36
MVP,
Nice job on the handle! Great story.
Where the h*ll were you when I had to prototype that? :D
Bill Harsey
08-04-2010, 08:37
It looks like some dags have notches just behind the blade while others don't. With that, can one then assign the blades with the notches to be meant more for the native populations/trading whereas those lacking the notches were meant more for the "westerners"?
No.
ThXX Bill,
I'm not sure who made the kydex sheath, a friend of mine borrowed the knife and had it made by someone he knew circa 1999/2000. Kind of think it was blade tech. Although heavier I prefered the leather verison.
SS