This custom crafted Bauernwehr by specialist bladesmith Ádám Bodorics is a fine way to complete your landsknecht kit with a unique and fetching blade suitable for war and camp. The tough and rigid blade of well tempered steel is sharpened and mirror polished – the blade also has a very thick blade spine to ensure it has outstanding durability. The bolster and riveted nagel are steel and the grip is a composite with a hidden and riveted blade tang surmounted by grip scales of ebony and completed with chiseseled brass framing strips. Included is a wooden scabbard which is bound in leather and throrougly embellished with brass. Included is a utility byknife and pricker which neatly fit into integrated slotted compartments on the scabbard. A certificate of authenticity is included and signed by Ádám. Below are Ádám’s own thoughts on his custom creation:
Bauernwehrs, the dagger-sized relatives of Messers, took a variety of forms utilizing several different construction methods. Details on this set place it firmly into the middle of the 16th century in style.
The blades are forged and ground from 80crv2 high-carbon steel, heat-treated to 54-56 HrC. A shared feature is the heavily tapered tang surrounded by a chiseled brass strap, which detail is taken from an unpublished original studied in a private session. The Gabon ebony grip slabs sit on the frame, with the gap between the slabs and the tang filled with adhesive. This method is taken from surviving frame-hilt sidearms of this and later eras – as it seems universal to frame-hilt pieces from the areas of modern-day Poland, Turkey and Iran, I don’t believe more Western pieces would be constructed differently. All grips
are secured by tubular rivets which are peened, as I have no trust in simple pins.
The principal blade has a short false edge and simple filework on the spine. The bolsters are decorated with filework with the vestigial guard taking the shape of a stylized flower. The Nagel is also fileworked with diagonal lines, matching the scabbard’s finial. It is peened on the other side of the bolsters. The byknife has a simple flat triangular cross-section and brass bolsters with simple geometric decor on it. Normally I find it easier to rivet on the bolsters first and grip slabs after, but thorough study of a surviving frame-hilt knife showed tool marks clearly showing a different order of operations, so this time
it was grip slabs before bolsters.
The pricker is also heat-treated, making it somewhat usable for honing, but my experience and the number of un-heat-treated originals strongly imply that they are much less specialized tools. In a pre-modern setting, without all the comforts we are used to, having a pointy, stiff but non-sharp piece can have a variety of uses from simply punching holes to undoing stubborn knots in arming points. The sheath has goat parchment linings for each blade, which are covered and held together by vegetable tanned leather dyed black by iron-acetate. For bonding the pieces and layers I only used hide glue. The entire piece is reinforced and decorated with a hand-wrought brass sheath frame. While these and similar frames are somewhat rare in reproductions, there are multiple surviving originals ranging from even simpler ones in iron all the way to the sculpted and gilt ones on Holbein daggers. A rather eye- catching detail is the strap around the mouth of the bypiece subsheaths, emulating the puff and slash style of period clothing. While most of the originals I’m aware of in this style are on daggers, there’s plenty of evidence for it’s use on Messers and adjacent sidearms. For suspension, there’s a pair of brass tubes on the back for a leather thong for vertical carry on a belt. The frame is held in place by friction provided by the tight fit around the sheath.
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