delving deeper with dirks

[Dale Seago]

Does anyone have close-ups of dirks they own or even just dirks they like?

You can see the handmade dirk (13.25 inch blade) I wear hiking, camping, and just generally wandering around town whenever I'm kilted on the left side of the page at my website.

[CMcG]

You can see the handmade dirk (13.25 inch blade) I wear hiking, camping, and just generally wandering around town whenever I'm kilted on the left side of the page at my website.

That is a sweet looking knife! How are you dressed and how do you wear that dirk when you're just wandering around town?

[Dale Seago]

That is a sweet looking knife! How are you dressed and how do you wear your that dirk when just you're wandering around town?

A couple of typical examples:

Summer: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1199617140

Cooler weather, different shirt and leather bomber jacket (balmoral tucked under strap on left shoulder). Actually this was a January night, taking a break with a friend outside the Edinburgh Castle Pub in San Francisco: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1199617140

[CMcG]

A couple of typical examples:

Summer: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1199617140

Cooler weather, different shirt and leather bomber jacket (balmoral tucked under strap on left shoulder). Actually this was a January night, taking a break with a friend outside the Edinburgh Castle Pub in San Francisco: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1199617140

Given that your dirk is not all gilded and covered in gems, it seems to work with the outfits you've linked to. I guess knife laws in California must be more relaxed than in some other places though!

[Dale Seago]

Given that your dirk is not all gilded and covered in gems, it seems to work with the outfits you've linked to. I guess knife laws in California must be more relaxed than in some other places though!

It's a Jacobite-era style weapon, not a Victorian or later style piece of masculine bling; you could literally shave with it. Where I live, carrying/wearing it openly is entirely legal apart from certain "no-brainer" areas such as courthouses and other government buildings, and schools. Carrying it concealed, however, is a crime -- not that that's likely to be an issue with this piece. :-)

From an article I wrote a decade or so ago on weapons and fighting methods of the Highland Scots:

The dirk occupies a unique niche in Highland culture and history. Many Highland Scots were too cash-poor to buy a sword, but virtually every male carried a dirk - and carried it everywhere! If in Japan the katana was the soul of the Samurai, in Scotland the dirk was the heart of the Highlander. In many warrior cultures oaths were sworn on one's sword. Among the Gael, however, binding oaths with the force of a geas (involving dire supernatural penalties for breaking such an oath) were sworn on one's dirk. The English, aware of this, used the custom against the Highlanders after Culloden: When Highland dress was prohibited in 1747 those Gael who could not read or sign an oath were required to swear a verbal oath, "in the Irish tongue and upon the holy iron of their dirks", not to possess any gun, sword, or pistol, or to use tartan: "... and if I do so may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and property, may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without burial in a strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred; may all this come across me if I break my oath."

[Woodsheal]

Here's one of mine - a late 1600s type. I haven't worn it with modern garb yet, but after looking at Dale's cool pics I can see myself doing so!

[CMcG]

I haven't worn it with modern garb yet
<snip>

Does that mean you wear it with historical garb and might have a photo of that? Thanks for posting the pic of your dirk

[Dale Seago]

Here's one of mine - a late 1600s type.

Simply elegant!

[Taygrd]

Both of those are beautiful dirks. I think those early styles are the most elegant and functional. Simply magnificent!

[Woodsheal]

Does that mean you wear it with historical garb and might have a photo of that? Thanks for posting the pic of your dirk

Oh, I could bore you with dozens of pics of myself in period garb! But, here's one that shows that dirk - and my lovely wife, too: