Tod's work is amazing, I have a stiletto dagger and a brass mace both from his TodCutler range and I couldn't have been more pleased with them. For the price I doubt you'd find anything better.
Love seeing Tod's handiwork in videos. For those unaware, Tod has a RU-vid channel of his own where he's lately been doing some really neat experiments with crossbows.
I've been wanting to pick one of these for a while but been on the fence. Your review literally helped me pull the trigger. And red was a good choice. Thank you!
My experience with Tod's daggers (I own 4 of them) is that they are amazing quality for the price. The sharpening is not the best in my opinion, but it's also very cheap - my take away from it is that if you can't put an edge on semi sharp dagger then go for it (i go for it because I would mess the blade up), just be aware that if you want real cutting edge you might have to sharpen it yourself. Interestingly, folding and eating knifes usually come with much finer sharpness
Yeah, I’ve been very impressed with Tod’s work. I’ve a stiletto and quillon dagger, both handsome as heck. The point on the quillon dagger is *wicked*-like a needle.
Just ordered the new brass handled one! I had my eye on the bronze handled one you mentioned but recently saw this new addition. Can't wait to feel it!
technically a dirks just a very long knife, its like the lange messer, its called a sword, but its name translates to "long knife" dirks are often labelled as short swords, which is upsetting as its a utility knife
as a scotsman i love our blades design, on the dirk it just makes sense, thick spine where the main chopping action is, and finer tip for thrusts and general blade usage, choking up on the spine will give fine control for feather sticking, which makes sense, they were designed as multi purpose utility blades, you could hunt, prepare, and cook wild game with just the knife
I have finally taken the plunge and ordered a Breughel Messer from Tod. I don't need a dirk as I have one with a Jack Adams blade and the hilt and scabbard made by myself.
That's the "cheap" one??? That's fantastic! Who, on a "budget" product, would take the care enough to reflect the false edge on the back of the blade on the tooling on the scabbard leather? No-one. And they're only £112, dirk AND scabbard. Which for a totally hand-made product is superbly well priced!!! Grab one before they go up to what they should be selling for, I say. I always hankered after a big 8" Bowie knife. Until someone bought me a Cold Steel Dirk. Not that I'm in any way a violent person, but if one were caught in a knife fight, you'd pick a dirk over a Bowie knife ANY day. Superbly comfortable in the hand, with a nice disk pommel to stop your hand falling off the back. And a big 12"+ blade with a wicked point, and stout enough to be able to hack through 1/2 thick branches with ease. People say that they were made from broken sword blades. I'm not saying that never happened, but if the reproductions I've seen are anything to go by, this can't be the case. The re-pros (mine included, and the Todd's one by the look of it) all have 4-6mm spines which are far too thick for the forte of a sword blade. And given that they were meant to be tools as well as fighting knives, the thick spines make a lot of sense. Wish I could afford a Todd's one myself.
The quality control is a bit all over the place in my experience, sharpness varies from blunt to acceptable, the dirk and seax (though the seax is a partially tang which has led to cracks and will I think lead to the handle breaking after much heavy use, that said it also makes the authority and manoeuvrability excellent) are the best showings out of my collection by a pretty wide margin.There are issues with bending (literally with the hands despite being quite thick, if on the back of the belt sitting immediately to a butt shaped dagger), rusting and poor fittings\fit and finish, with one loose blade. That said good luck finding stuff of better quality within the price range.
On the web page, no information on the type of the steel (just "carbon") and no information on the blade's hardness in HRc. As for Cold Steel comparison, nothing can be worse than Cold Steel specimen. Also, cutting test would be nice.
yeah im guessing its some c45 type of european steel.. that is .45 percent carbon... used in mower blades for example... and im guessing theyer made in the czech republic and then "todd" is sort of "assembling" or finishing them in the uk.. based on the fit and finish and techniqies used there no way he made any of these items.. the sheaths are the same too.. czech made for sure... nothing wrong with any of that.. those czech makers make better things than anyone in the uk can... and not just for the price. better material quality ect.. infact id say EVERY czech manufactured article is better than the uk version in 2021. be it a pair of scissors or a sock.. but he should say that he dosnt make these.. ive asked and hes just ignored my question... rude.
the grinding is very minimal.. thig blade wgich needs alot of work in it to make it accyrate.. hence tge lower price.. i spend 20 minutea grinding mine down to a fine edge like the originals.. you can stab it into an oil drum.. but that takes time hence lower price... hardeness is ok.. about 50-52.. softer than an original.. but still ok.. i have an origibal 1600 scottish example i aquired on evay as a "letter opener" for 20$ and tge two are very similar.. the origibals habdle is narrower and more dainty and the disc is a little bigger.. the hilt is flatter and the grip on my original is not round upt quite flattened.. the blade feels much harder... i have sharpened it (previous owner had done so already) . the brass fittings are much finer (the original one i have os a dofferent style slightly.. the hilt is brass as are the two "bollocks" but the brass is hollow with wood comming inside sone way and probably bound with pitch.) but everything in his daggers is relatively accurate, construction, material ect.. just the grinding of the blade is very obtuse. the original feels much better in the hand. andvecause of the thin edge it feels much lighter.. even though its not that much in actuial fact its that the weight is taken out of the blade a bit making it just feel much better.
I should say that mine bauernwehr from Tod is very nicely done but come with the worst sharpening that ever saw on knife. And to add extra to insult I payd extra to get it sharp. Require regrinding basically, very disappointed.
