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09-22-2008, 09:34 AM | #1 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: The Deepest Forges of Ered Luin
Posts: 746
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A Dwarven Knife?
Greetings,
I make knives as a hobby and have been giving thought to this question for a while now. I thought this would be an excellent place to get ideas. What do you think a dwarven knife would look like- something for both fighting and field/utility? We know what an elven one is supposed to look like already: but what about the dwarves? We know they already made swords, as Narsil was originally made by the dwarf, Telchar, during the First Age. Knives are such a basic tool that it's inconceivable for dwarves not to have made them. As you can see from the above picture, my imagination is colored by the works of WETA Workshop, which did all of the props for the LotR films. WETA showed a dwarven love for angles instead of curves, which carries over into my own thoughts on this subject. I'm not a big fan of tanto points. Though it's conceivable for dwarves to develop them, I grow weary of the ubiquity of Japanese blades. Knives like this just scream "Japan!" to me and I don't like it: Tanto points could be rounded just a bit, giving something akin to the large, Finnish wilderness knife called the "Leuku": I like this basic look. However, while the dwarves like angles over curves, they do like to embellish their weapons (look at Gimli's axes- not very ordinary looking at all!). The Leuku is a bit plain to me, but could always have some kind of additions put on. (continued below)
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09-22-2008, 09:35 AM | #2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: The Deepest Forges of Ered Luin
Posts: 746
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Perhaps the dwarves might have had something much more complicated, yet still utilitarian, like the Pit Fighter, by swordmaker, Michael Tinker Pierce:
For some reason, the Tom Brown Tracker (as seen in the film "The Hunted") has something dwarven about its basic design to me, with its double-edges and bevels. But this knife is a bit too faddish for my tastes: What do you think? Any ideas on what a dwarven knife would have looked like? Please, put up pictures if you have something in mind.
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Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depression in the world consciousness. |
09-22-2008, 04:50 PM | #3 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: The Deepest Forges of Ered Luin
Posts: 746
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Anyone? No ideas on what a dwarven knife would look like?
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Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depression in the world consciousness. |
09-23-2008, 02:38 AM | #4 |
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: The Shire (Staffordshire), United Kingdom
Posts: 273
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Tolkien's dwarves were craftsmen (should that be craftsdwarves?)
A good craftsman has a different tool for each task so general purpose knives would not be favoured by dwarves. Gimli said, "Dwarves make light of burdens", so the extra weight of a whole set of different knives would not be a problem. As craftsmen, dwarves would prefer well-made, simple, functional tools but they were also obsessed with gathering wealth. I imagine that every dwarf would carry at least one fancy, (though still functional as a close-quarter weapon), bejewelled dagger, the most expensive he could afford, to show off his wealth and status. . |
09-23-2008, 02:59 AM | #5 | |
Fading Fëanorion
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: into the flood again
Posts: 2,947
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09-25-2008, 12:27 PM | #6 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,735
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Angrist immediately pops into my head when I think about dwarf knives (pity Tolkien never elaborated on the subject), and I like your idea of dwarves liking angles more than curves, we can definitely see this in their architecture accomplishments. The second to last picture that you have there reminds me of something a dwarf would use: something that can do multiple tasks.
I'll look deeper into this and see what I can find.
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