Home made Targe, Dirk, Sgian Dubh and Sgian Achlais

[Guinness>water]

Hey all,
over the last couple years I've become very interested in all things Jacobite(specifically the 45). After pricing all of the things I would like to have I found out I wasnt having any of it unless I won the Lotto or made it myself. Due to the unlikelyness of the first option I figured "what the heck, Highlanders made a lot of this stuff with little resources, I bet I can do it too". So I got to it, learned how to harden a blade, temper it and even got a little crazy with decorations.

You'll notice the heart theme. When I was in the Army(101st Airborne, 502nd Infantry), our regiments symbol was a black heart. We wore a patch on our helments and painted it on our HMMWVs. I have seen a lot of "Jacobite era" stuff with hearts on it so it seemed destined.

On to the pictures........

First, is my Dirk.





End cap made of brass. Hard to see but its a heart.




Next is the Sgian Dubh. Nothing reall spectacular about it but figured I'd show it.




I'm really interested in the Sgian Achlais. I have seen several on the internet and just had to have one.



Should have mentioned that all of these knives are full tang. I think I may have made the first full tang Dirk! I have never seen another, any way.
I bought the steel at Home Depot, it was about two inches wide and fairly thick. Seemes to be fairly high carbon steel as it will hold a good edge after hardening. I drew the shape onto the blank steel and then cut it out with an angle grinder. Hardened it, tempered it and then sharpened. A lot of work but also a lot of fun.

More to come..........

[Guinness>water]

This is my Targe. Its the second one I've made. This one is made with 3/4 inch thick regular ol' plywood. I colored the leather with olive oil and brown shoe polish. The boss is made from a sheet of brass that I hammered into shape using a candle base. It was in perfect shape until I had to use it to defend myself from my daughter and her wooden dirk. Ha!



The back is covered in deer hide. I put a piece of tartan under the hide where your arm goes to work as padding.



If anybody has question on how to make these things, I can point you to some good info or at least tell you how not to do it.

And, just for the heck of it, here is a picture of me in my breacan an feileadh that I wore to chuch yesterday. I sure like wearing it but dang is it hard to figure out. Got some pretty funny looks but its worth it.

[KiltedDixon]

I like the Targe, particularly the back of it. All good stuff.

[Tobus]

Thanks for sharing these photos!

I noticed that your targe has a strap, presumably for carrying over your shoulder. I've been thinking of doing the same on my (future) targe project. Either that, or making some sort of other attachment point where I can hook it to a baldric. Is a carrying strap normally seen on a targe? I haven't looked at enough of them to know.

Also, since you used 3/4" plywood, I was wondering what you thought about the weight of it. Does it seem overly heavy? Would you mind putting it on a scale and telling me how much it weighs?

[Guinness>water]

Tobus, yes that is an over the shoulder carry strap. Most of the Targes I have seen or read about had a strap to allow the user to carry the Targe when not in immediate use.

The ¾ inch thick pine plywood is way too thick and heavy. I don’t have a scale but imagine this Targe weighs about 6 or 7 pounds.

Targes were originally made by glueing two thin sheets of oak together at a 90 degree grain angle. This made them light weight while still remaining strong. The first Targe I made was with ½ inch thick oak plywood, found in the cabinet section of Lowes. They come in 2’ by 2’ squares which leave little to waist after cutting the circle out. They are easy to cut and very easy to hammer the tacks into plus is a little more historically accurate. Oak plywood is much better.

I wasted numerous tacks with the pine plywood before pre drilling the holes and then I had to put glue on the tacks to keep them in there.

[Guinness>water]

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