Benjamin Mabry wrote:I'm working on a minor in Classical Studies and out of curiousity (and more a whim than not) I picked up a reproduction of a pugio dagger. I've read a great deal on this forum about the prevalence of sword-shaped lumps of steel on the market right now, and I was wondering if the same applied to knives and daggers. Was a historical dagger merely a metal wedge of small size or were historical daggers, like historical swords, made to a standard which modern reproductions do not stand up to? Thank you.
Much of the situation would be linked to the period, but also to social and economic status. For the medieval lower orders, functional forms of iron or steel edged dagger would have been valued. Even if the manufacture may have been a little crude. Have to consider (in Europe) that until the last few centuries many people did not have metal eating utensils or plates. Accordingly a mixed use implement like a dagger, would have been prized. It also wasn't uncommon for daggers to be made from swords which had been broken or unfinished parts. So the poor did have weapons although less ornate or less well made. Yoemanry, another condition, because although of the lower orders, some did make a fair piece of money (looting or otherwise), and would have been positioned to benefit from battlefield pickups. (The Welsh who hired out to the English armies, especially in the 100 years war period, were very well know for their dagger work. The aristocrats who hired them often disliked them, and those they fought hated them...dying by a Welshman sticking his dagger through gaps in the armor was just so offensive...being murdered by the lower orders and all) Plus the armament industries of the time would have been quite happy to sell them to those who could pay the toll...those that couldn't got the pointy bits of lesser quality.
Aristocracy, obviously higher qaulity as both a weapon and marker of status. . That was part and parcel of the armour plated aristocracy (although they were administrators as much as soldiers).
For both groups, another factor would have been the giving of tontine daggers/knifes recalling pacts which had been made (they gave these at weddings, land transfers, leases, and etc) In general these were kept as a reminder of that bond, and probably not used for either bread or blood. Also there would have been some daggers made for the more obtuse spiritual beliefs of the time....these kind weirdly enough, are still in use. Although I do not know if the goings on espoused in the grimoires would have required a battlefield weapon (having drawn blood) or one which had been unsullied .
As for modern daggers, many are of fairly high standards of manufacture. And probably relative to income, much easier to acquire than in the earlier period.
And some earlier types of dagger, such as rondels, couldn't have been that hard to make. And perhaps (excepting such as warding daggers) the distinction between a knife and a dagger may not have been that marked.
The problem with modern swords, is that these are a limited use item for a limited market. Those who study the art are a fairly small population, and so the money is in the clunky bits of pointed steel for hanging on walls. And obviously the making of a good sword is a more complex business than a knife or dagger, especially given there has never probably been a point where the salient techniques for making the smaller weapons have ever been set aside.
