Danish Neolithic Daggers

Between the years 2400 and 1500 BC, while the rest of Europe was well into the Bronze Age,  Scandinavia lagged behind because it lacked the ores for the production of copper and tin.  Therefore Copper and Bronze had to be traded into this region from the south, and flint remained the premier material for the making of tools for several more centuries. In their attempt to reproduce in stone what they saw in metal, the knappers of Denmark and Sweden produced some of the most complex flint objects ever made by man. 

In the flint inventory of the Late Neolithic are found square sectioned axes and flint daggers, the most desirable of these being the Type III and IV stitched handled daggers. I make these on a regular basis and can make the axes upon request. For more information on these objects see Best of Chips, the First Five Years, pages 7, 12, 21, and 73; The Best of Chips, the Second Five Years, pages 4, 24, 82; The Best of Chips, the Third Five Years, 48, 82, 150, and 153; Chips Vol. 16, #2, page 16. Also see my new book, DC Waldorf's Guide to the Flint Daggers of Southern Scandinavia and North Germany and my new DVD on Making the Type IV Danish Dagger in the Book and Video page. 

 Note: My daggers have become very popular with collectors in the US and North Europe. So much so that I am having trouble keeping up with demand in the larger sizes which can take up to a week to make. Since the loss of my wife I have even less time now, but will try to keep at least one or two pieces on this page for sale.  So, please keep checking back here. Also, don't forget to look at what I have done in the past by clicking on the DAGGERS SOLD page.

09 D-444.  Small Type III-B dagger made from Texas Root Beer flint. This was the first in a series of "stitched handled" daggers, and the technological predecessor to the Type IV. They were made toward the end of the Late Neolithic I, circa 2100-1950 BC. The stitching was done mostly with a copper punch and is on both faces of the handle with no side stitching or any around the pommel edges.  The pommel has residual cortex left from the outside of the nodule. This is a nice touch and shows that most of the original length of the piece was used when the dagger was made. This trait is found on many originals. The blade is percussion flaked with some pressure retouch around the edges. Length, 6 5/8 inches. Price, $225.  SOLD

09 D-445.  Small Type III-B dagger made from Texas Root Beer flint. The stitching was done mostly with a copper punch and is on both faces of the handle with no side stitching or any around the pommel edges.  The blade is percussion flaked with some pressure retouch around the edges. This is a very nice piece, the Root Beer flint looks a lot like some of the prettier varieties of Baltic flint that was originally used in the manufacture of these daggers. Length, 6 7/8 inches. Price, $225. 

03 D-321. Type IV-E dagger made from Flint River GA chert. This beautiful little dagger was made from a large spall of that rare material in 2003. It came back into my possession a couple months ago, but I can't keep them all! The stitching is of the single stage style I used to do before mastering the double stitching done on the originals. [Compare with the dagger below.] Thus it has a bolder center seam and finer stitching around the pommel and down the sides of the handle. Both sides of the blade are finished with pressure over percussion flakes.   Length, 6 inches. Price, $175.

09 D-447.  Small Type IV-E dagger made from heat treated creek cobble Burlington chert. The material has a lot of fossils and some crystal pockets on the blade which disrupted the flaking somewhat, other than that this, it is a nice little dagger having all the attributes of its bigger brothers. The front face of the handle has some nice stitching while the backside is flat with stitching around the pommel and down the sides of the handle. Both faces of the blade are finished with pressure retouch around the edges, as many were. Length, 7 1/16 inches. Price, $225. SOLD

TO SEE MORE OF MY DAGGERS GO BACK TO TOP AND CLICK ON DAGGERS SOLD!

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