The Story of Caden’s Knot:

In the far northern reaches of Illantul the inhabitants are quite superstitious.  They carved the likeness of a Knot in all manner of objects, believing that those living under the knot’s image were tied to the gods and would be granted unnaturally long life.  One northern zealot, Caden, believed so strongly in the knot lore that he had the knot engraved into his family’s heirloom dagger.  Caden was certain that so long as he wielded the blade the gods would protect him as if he were no longer a mortal man. His revelations proved false when he fell in the first of the Northern border wars. But the northern gods are nothing if not fickle when intervening in the lives of men, and a decade latter Caden was said to have risen from his final resting place to avenge his own death in the second Northern border war.  Legend has it that any who fall in battle while wielding Caden’s Knot will one day be resurrected by the gods for the sole purpose of avenging their own death.  

Actual Design and Construction:

The blade was forged by Windlass Steelcrafts using 1085 high carbon steel. I altered the top of the blade where it enters the guard and added a fuller that runs three quarters of the blade’s length .  Etched into each side of the blade is the image of a knot that I designed in somewhat of the Celtic tradition.  The cross guard is fashioned from solid brass in the representation of a knot.  The handle is carved from a block I made from alternating pieces of West Indies Bocote and African Blackwood and sits atop of a brass spacer.  The pommel is a solid brass cap fitted to the end of handle and a threaded brass ball serves as the pommel nut to complete this dagger’s takedown design.

Specifications:

Blade length: 12 inches

Overall length: 18 inches

Hand grip length: 4.375 inches

Blade width at widest point: 1.625 inches

Guard width: 3.25 inches

Weight: 16.09 ounces

Balance point: 0.5 inches in front of the guard

 Sheath Construction:

The sheath is a traditional dagger design (wet formed to the blade with hand stitching down the back spine) constructed of 4-5 oz premium veg tan leather.  The body of the sheath is, stained black.  The leather throat is hand stitched to the body, running three quarters of the length of the sheath, and is tooled with the image of the same knot that I etched into the blade. The chape and the throat are both stained light brown with black antiquing over the entire sheath.