Bronze age antenna hilted knife

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

This is a reproduction of an antenna hilted knife from the urnfield period. It's based on an original found in Csóka, Serbia. It's 20cm long, made from 12% tin bronze and with a workhardened edge. I previously cast these in a soapstone mould. The mould was lost, so I made a model from one of the casts, where I had to undo the curve and thicken up the edge, so that I could cast them again and hammer them to the correct shape after casting. 

[Alan Longmire]

Pretty!  I love your bronzes.

[Brian Dougherty]

That is impressive.  If i understand your post correctly, that was cast straight, and then you had to forge the curve in?

[Karim]

nice work Jeroen

[SteveShimanek]

Beautiful....on the period pieces, would leather have been wrapped around the grip?

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

3 hours ago, Brian Dougherty said:

That is impressive.  If i understand your post correctly, that was cast straight, and then you had to forge the curve in?

Not completely straight, but the tip needs to be lower. Here you can see one of the stone mould casts in the mould, where you can see how much the tip curls up after hammering out the edge:

 

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

2 hours ago, SteveShimanek said:

Beautiful....on the period pieces, would leather have been wrapped around the grip?

Probably not. While a there is a lot of organic material preserved in bronze age burials, evidence for leather wrapped hilts is virtually completely absent from the bronze age (except for one sword). Absence of evidence of course isn't evidence of absence, but it works well without, so I keep them as is.

[Collin Miller]

Ooh, I love it! These bronze weapons have such graceful lines.

[Brian Dougherty]

1 hour ago, Jeroen Zuiderwijk said:

Not completely straight, but the tip needs to be lower. Here you can see one of the stone mould casts in the mould, where you can see how much the tip curls up after hammering out the edge:

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[Ibor]

Beautiful !!!

[Wes Detrick]

It is gorgeous work.  Like Alan, I love your bronze work.  How does it feel in the hand?  I am curious since I would imagine that the super round handle might role easily in your hand, especially if it was polished.  Is that the case?

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

6 hours ago, Wes Detrick said:

It is gorgeous work.  Like Alan, I love your bronze work.  How does it feel in the hand?  I am curious since I would imagine that the super round handle might role easily in your hand, especially if it was polished.  Is that the case?

Thanks! You hold the entire handle in your hand, including pommel. So the pommel prevents it from roling. With this one, two fingers go over the straight bit, the third over the pommel. I've got a reproduction of a larger one, where 4 fingers fit over the handle, but you still cover the pommel when holding it in a handshake grip. 

[Wes Detrick]

On 9/30/2017 at 5:36 AM, Jeroen Zuiderwijk said:

Thanks! You hold the entire handle in your hand, including pommel. So the pommel prevents it from roling. With this one, two fingers go over the straight bit, the third over the pommel. I've got a reproduction of a larger one, where 4 fingers fit over the handle, but you still cover the pommel when holding it in a handshake grip. 

Oh, well then.  I guess that solves the rolling in the hand issue.  With the seemingly large antenna in your hand, does it feel strange? Or does it force a certain kind of grip that is comfortable.  It strange to consider, since it is outside of what we normal modern ergonomics (or at least to my street dumbass idea of it)