I used to have this saved in my favs, but lost it when the computer crashed. Thanks for posting this!

Dirks back in the day were often made out of a chunk of wood from the roots of a tree, probably because the grains of the root wood is less uniform than that trunk wood and made for a potentially stronger handle.
I need to make it out to the woods and find a downed oak tree or something

take care everyone

Iain