Tod's Stuff Inlaid Knife
Original: England, late 14th to early 15th century
We know from period art that belt knives were common for medieval men for basic tasks from eating, to cleaning game, to everyday chores. Many knives and their scabbards ended up in trash deposits in London, often along the River Thames. Leo "Tod" Todeschini created this knife utilizing features found on surviving English knives of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, making a historically plausible piece that is still unique.
This knife features a boxwood grip with an octagonal cross-section and twelve decorative brass rivets. The butt plate, with the tang peened over its truncated pyramid, is also of brass. The steel blade is inlaid with twelve brass
Xs and Tod's maker's mark and its spine features decorative diagonal lines and squares.
The leather sheath is colored red and features a thong used for tying it to your belt. It is tooled all over and covers the blade and half the knife's grip. The tooling consists of a dragon, diagonal lines, cross-hatched, and a herring bone pattern. Like the rest of the knife, it incorporates features from various surviving scabbards.
Inspired by surviving knives and fragments from the banks of the Thames River housed in
The Museum of London, Dept. of Urban Archaeology.
See our
hands-on review for more information on this knife.
Overall length: 8.75"
Weight: .2 pounds
Blade: 4.875" long; 1" wide tapering to .5"
Grip and pommel: 4"
Maker:
Tod's Stuff of Oxford, United Kingdom.
This item has been retired from the collection.
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