Adam Bodorics – Francois Dussack with Scabbard – Light Version

This Dussack is part of a very limited supply of these short swords we have from artisan Ádám Bodorics of Landsknecht Emporium. These are some of his high quality project pieces he creates for exploring the tools of defense and war of the 16th and 17th century. His scholastic approach in researching woodcuts, illuminations and museum examples coupled with his skill brings historically informed pieces to life that are rarely seen as production pieces. 

The Francois Dussack by swordsmith Adam Bodorics takes the inspiration for its design from a 17th century woodcut illustration of the French pirate François l’Olonnais. His sabre-bladed Dussack as shown in the illustration would have been a excellent weapon for combat in the tight confines of a ship boarding action and ashore in a colonial port raid. It would be quick, agile and handily capable of vicious slices, deep cuts, and suprisingly deadly thrusts. The 1684 illustration only imparts so much information, so much was left to interpretation and Adam filtered that interpretation through his own experience of handling and inspecting period original Dussacks. This culminated in the creation of two different interpretations which are available separately; the “light” and “heavy” models.

The light model shown here is optimized for being a sleek, swift and high-velocity striker; Its blade starts thick at the base for durability and its distal taper thins radically to a thin and flattened main cutting portion at its tip and main striking area. Its a sword that will slice into a target with startling ease and pass through with minimized resistance. Multiple fullers – as seen on the illustation – reduce unneeded weight and the false edge is sharpened to match the keenly sharpened blade. The blade is crafted of 6150 high carbon steel and expertly tempered.

The hilt for the light version does not have the thumb ring to not only to slim down the profile – but also to allow for a wider variety of gripping styles for a level of grip adaptability as befits the situation. The clamshell gives excellent hand protection and is fitted onto the crossguard with a matching slot for the blade tang which was reinforced with silver soldering. The wooden grip is wrapped in tight leather of fine quality for a tactile grip. Adam took care to achieve a fine weight and balance by making the pommel hollow – as seen on many originals. The blade is strongly peened over a spherical peen block to solidly mount the blade and hilt. The sword is matched with a wood-core scabbard which is overlaid in black leather and fitted with a brass chape and locket. Adam took care to emulate the method of attachment for these components by reproducing the method he has seen on period originals of forged U-shaped pins which anchor the brass into the wood and are struck flush.

An excellent performance cutting piece, this Dussack is full of handcrafted character and evidence of hand tooling methodology that all serve to more closely replicate the appearance and feel of the historical originals.