Sometimes in life you see things that you wish you had never seen. You can't unsee them. They haunt
you/ They stay with you. This could well be one of those things. Think carefully before you watch on.
Hi it's Tod from Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and today we are going to talk about this.
Well you can't see it at the moment, but it is the first dagger that I ever made and it is frankly
horrific, that's what the pixelation's about. But the other thing is it's a bollock dagger. Now you
history people out there you're going to know what a bollock dagger is, that's fine. Some of
you people out there are thinking I'm just making it up or I'm using rude words. No bollock daggers
really were a thing. Big medieval joke from about 1300 through to about 1550 and they really were
daggers that looked like, to put it bluntly a **** and balls. Brilliant joke 500 years ago,
still funny now obviously and they really absolutely did get the joke,
because this dagger here is the bollock dagger and you can see what I mean. Here
where you've got a couple of balls and the handle coming up. Quite why we did that,
no idea at all, I've got a couple of films about it with my theory. But
they absolutely knew what they were doing with it and so actually you'll see portraits where people
are wearing these daggers at the front here poking out between the the sides of their coat, they knew
what it was, you'd also wear them wearing it on a belt or in a pouch things like that. So bollock
daggers really were a thing and just look at this picture sequence they were absolutely everywhere.
But also the rest of this film is going to be about some really nasty work that I've done.
It's not often you'll get a craft person who shows the world their nasty work, but before we
go on I'm going to show you some good work, just so that we know that I can do it. So here are a
couple of Tod's Workshop bollock daggers. Nice small one here from about 1450, really suitable
for wearing in a purse or you know gentleman's dagger around about town and then a three-lobe
bollock dagger here. A little bit later, French. I don't know they like three balls for some reason.
Tod's Workshop pieces. My other company Tod Cutler does racks of bollock daggers as well,
different periods, different kinds, so you know come down to the site, check them out have a look,
they're all lovely but let's get on with the nasty bit. Before I show you this thing,
I have to explain how it came to be. So 27 years ago a friend of mine, talked to a friend of his,
who had seen this really funny thing in a museum that he'd come across called a bollock dagger.
Well I didn't know about them, you know I really didn't and so I had a description from a man who
hadn't seen it either, who had a description from somebody else who'd never seen them before
and it came to me like uh like Chinese Whispers or like broken telephone,
whatever you want to call that game and the result was this.
How about of that
What a thing
Yeah it's nice isn't it?
You can't unsee that; I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I don't even know what to say,
I'm speechless. Hi I've interrupted the film for another Tod Cutler related interesting fact.
Late 15th century mid-status bollock dagger. Now they started life, bollock daggers started life
as poor people's things, utility items, but they ended up being suitable for merchants and even
Kings. Anyway you'll find this and loads of other knife related pieces on Todcutler.com Back to the
film. I'll give you a critique of the piece in a minute, the first thing, the elephant in the room,
the bit that we cannot ignore is it really is a penis with a blade sticking out the bottom.
Now the thing is I could have.... this is pre-internet, I could have gone down the
library got some books out, gone to a museum, I lived in London for goodness sake you know,
I really did, it wouldn't have been a problem. But I'm quite impetuous about these things and
I heard about it on the Saturday or the Sunday at some re-enactment, I came back on the Monday,
workshop full of tools doing special effects at the time, I could just make one there and then. So
none of this research stuff, I don't need any of that, don't need to go and look at any pictures,
I know exactly what it is. It is as described to me because I believed this guy you know, it is
a penis with a blade sticking out the bottom and that is what I made. I don't know it is so grim,
it is just so grim that is why it looks that shape. I did no research at all, I got it through
Chinese Whispers, broken telephone whatever you want to call it and that is the result.
Well it's actually quite a well-made piece because as I said I was making,
I was working in special effects at the time so I was used to making one-off pieces, making things
I hadn't made before and having to make them well. So actually we have a sheath here which is
made of oak, two parts of oak bonded along the seam line here which you can barely see,
it's a nice bit of work. The chape here, I made, obviously is a turning and then squashed
it down to fit. Quite nicely done, not really period correct, none of its period correct.
Some weird sort of mouth to the scabbard here with these two little sort of frog studs on it;
I don't know what I was doing there. And then in the very early days of knife making, it's
something you can discover is that this hilt is too heavy and it tips upside down. So I made it,
I wasn't expecting to anticipate that, so then what I had to do was basically move
the hanging loop way up here, so if your hanging loops were up here I needed some way to fix it,
so that is why I ended up with this lovely... uh stud on the end there. I'm sure you're piercing
people out there know what that's called, I don't know what it is myself and to make sure that that
was stiff, because again I'm pre-empting things, it actually has got a little bit of brass rod
or something in it there so so sewn into this. Which is, in case you're curious finest kangaroo
leather I seem to remember. We have some brass rods sewn in. Now the blade, I didn't actually
know anybody at the time who knew anything about blade making and again I knew I didn't have any
blade steel and I just wanted to make a knife so this is finest mild steel and there we are.
But the thing is I suppose there is a a story here, which is that I have moved from, well
from that, to pieces like that are a little bit more historically correct, a little bit finer,
a little bit nicer. But that's the thing, we all start somewhere. And so I do actually get
emails relatively often about how do I begin? How do I do things like you do? Whatever it is.
And there is a simple truth to it. You've got to start making and you've got to never stop.
Just make and make and make and I don't know how many bollock daggers I've made now since this one,
200, 300, 400? and then also all the other knives as well that have gone with it. So that's how you
become better at what you do. You just got to do it, there is no shortcut, there is no other way.
Well thank you very much for sitting through what was probably a very traumatic experience,
because like I said at the beginning. "You can't un-see that".
But thank you very much and I promise you I will never, ever make a film on something that
repellent again. But just to make sure, turn your bell notifications on, subscribe to the channel,
come to the websites, check out what we do, help us survive. But anyway, see you again soon. Cheers