Dudgeon Dagger

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This ca. 16-17th c. dudgeon dagger is a bit outside our period, but if you will indulge me for a moment, there is a link.

The dudgeon dagger form was a bridge between the medieval ballock dagger and the later Scottish dirk, with which most of us are more familiar in its fully defined 18th c. form.

The dudgeon dagger was a favorite of the 16th and early 17th c. border reivers who roamed the border marches between Scotland and England, surviving in the invasion path of armies from both sides of the border by stealing cattle and offering their blades for hire to the highest bidder. When the Scottish and English crowns were united in 1603 under James VI (Scotland)/ James I ( England), the lowland border reivers had outlived their usefulness and many were forcibly removed to Ulster Plantation to inhabit lands seized from rebellious Irish Catholic noblemen (presumably to help keep the rest in check).

Roughly a century later, many of these same Ulster Scots (my own ancestors included) fled increasingly coercive policies and economic hardships in Ulster for North America, Where Ulsterman James Logan (trusted secretary of William Penn), welcomed them as a frontier buffer with the increasingly restive Native population. By one estimate, 250,000 Ulster Scots emigrated through the port of Philadelphia alone between 1717 and 1775. Perhaps more than a few brought with them a treasured family heirloom dudgeon dagger?

This one is a composite based on a couple of surviving originals. It has a 10 inch double-beveled, diamond-shaped blade entirely hand forged to shape from 52100 steel round bar stock. The handle is a 5 inch piece of bog oak, with a threaded and peened through-tang construction and 1084 steel pommel cap.