I wanted to come up with something to mark the birth of my son and came up with this idea.
I was going to design a knife that I could have made for him to give to him on his
18th birthday. (He is now 7 months)
His name is Somerled but is known to all as the diminutive form of Sorley.
This is an old Scottish name. It is a fusion of Scots and Norse. The people of the west
highlands of Scotland who had this fusion of blood were known as the Galgael (the foreign Gael)
I therefore came up with the idea of a fully functional Sgian Dubh. A sgian dubh that
could be used as a bushcraft knife. I contacted Rob Millar of Castlekeep in Skye to make a
prototype of this for me. I wanted a full tang with a scandi grind, it had to look like a sgian dubh,
be functional and asthetically pleasing.
It was the fusion of scandi grind on a sgain dubh that inspired the name of Galgael.
Here are five pics, on of the original drawing and description, one with the Galgael next to a
plastic handled decorative sgian dubh and an F1 for scale and three of the Galgael.
I have already had a fine shower of sparks from it. Rob made it to fit in a sock so it is slightly
smaller and lighter than the dimensions I gave him. I guess I have to decide now that it will
not be small enough or light enough to be worn in a sock with the alterations that I want to
make it more functional. It will be a primarily a bushcraft knife with a Scottish identity. The
blade Rob has used is 3 mm, I would prefer 4mm. The handle is too short for comfort at the
moment and would need to be about 15-20 mm longer. The grip on the final edition will be dark.
However it is a beauty to look at and I am pleased with the progress so far. Enjoy the pics
despite my low quality photos and feel free to make sugestions.
I was going to design a knife that I could have made for him to give to him on his
18th birthday. (He is now 7 months)
His name is Somerled but is known to all as the diminutive form of Sorley.
This is an old Scottish name. It is a fusion of Scots and Norse. The people of the west
highlands of Scotland who had this fusion of blood were known as the Galgael (the foreign Gael)
I therefore came up with the idea of a fully functional Sgian Dubh. A sgian dubh that
could be used as a bushcraft knife. I contacted Rob Millar of Castlekeep in Skye to make a
prototype of this for me. I wanted a full tang with a scandi grind, it had to look like a sgian dubh,
be functional and asthetically pleasing.
It was the fusion of scandi grind on a sgain dubh that inspired the name of Galgael.
Here are five pics, on of the original drawing and description, one with the Galgael next to a
plastic handled decorative sgian dubh and an F1 for scale and three of the Galgael.
I have already had a fine shower of sparks from it. Rob made it to fit in a sock so it is slightly
smaller and lighter than the dimensions I gave him. I guess I have to decide now that it will
not be small enough or light enough to be worn in a sock with the alterations that I want to
make it more functional. It will be a primarily a bushcraft knife with a Scottish identity. The
blade Rob has used is 3 mm, I would prefer 4mm. The handle is too short for comfort at the
moment and would need to be about 15-20 mm longer. The grip on the final edition will be dark.
However it is a beauty to look at and I am pleased with the progress so far. Enjoy the pics
despite my low quality photos and feel free to make sugestions.
