Ádám Bodorics – Purpleheart Trilobate Dagger

What is immediately striking about this custom dagger is it’s vibrant-hued and smoothly polished grip of spiraled Purpleheart wood which has been carved with great care. A closer look at the dagger yields more fine details, such s the evidence of the shaping of the guard and pommel plate by hand, as well as a raised and reinforced tip for the blade. The wood core scabbard made by András Mezősi has a very dark blue leather grip and copious amounts of handcrafted steel detailing gives the piece a lot of character. This is an excellent and unique way to finish off your ensemble with a superior, artisan-crafted dagger that you can prominently wear at every event. Included is a signed Certificate from bladesmith and artisan Ádám Bodorics which details his though process when creating this piece. Read on to see his thoughts for this dagger in his own words:

“Daggers took several peculiar forms in the 16th century. One of those forms is, in my opinion, a derivative of the rondel dagger. It’s most defining characteristic is the trilobate “cross”. Interestingly enough, the two arms on the “side” are sometimes not in the plane of the blade, rather they are offset from it towards the outside. The grip increases in cross-section towards the “pommel”, which might be flat or deeply dished, but almost always circular. The scabbards are often asymetrical in cross-section with theback being flat while the outside is well-rounded. Also, the scabbards are well-covered by metal fittings, which sometimes form a complete outer cover.

For my project, I took inspiration from a piece in the Wallace Collection. Since it has been tampered with in the 19th century, I didn’t even attempt a faithful reproduction, instead I only took a couple of ideas from it. The 307mm long sharp blade is hand-ground from 6150/51crv4 steel, heat-treated to 50-52 HrC. The cross-section is a simple diamond, with a subtle but noticeable reinforced tip. It is quite obviously not a great slasher, but it has rather decent penetration.

The “cross” is hand-forged and hand-filed from mild steel, just like the pommel plate. I skipped any kind of actual designing or layout for it in an attempt to maximize the hand-made aesthetic. The grip is hand carved and filed from purpleheart, which is the greatest deviation from any original. While technically Europeans could’ve had access to the tree by the mid-16th century, I am not aware ofany actual evidence of it.

The scabbard has a woodern core, a blue leather wrapping and mild steel fittings assembled with silver solder. A very simple and narrow belt is included, though of course it can be replaced by any kind of belt
as long as it fits the typical steel belt loop on the back.” – Ádám Bodorics