A knife for Louise

I just finished this knife, that I made for Louise. She will need a knife for her new viking-job, so I made one from another knife that I had.

I have been looking a bit at knifes from the 9th and 10th centuries, and found some nice examples from Sweden, that I really liked. They have wire wrapping around the handle and some were found in womans graves. So I thought that that would be just the thing for Louises new knife.



I used beech wood for the handle and brass for the end plates and wire wrapping.
The blade was made by my good friend Jesper.



The wrapping is made as a "common whipping". A type of knot where you draw the knot itself under the wrapping and cut of the edges.
I am not sure if the wire wrapping on the excavated knifes were done this way, but I wasn't able to find any info on this anywere.
The whipping works just fine and if it is made tight enough it will surely stay in place.



Here is a picture of one of the original knifes. This one is from Gotland. From a female grave (grave 503 at Ihre, Hellvi parish, Gotland). 9-10th C.

I got the picture from this site: Dark age recreation company
There are also some examples of knifes with wire wrapping in the collections of Historiska Museet in Sweden.