Shipboard working knife,malinspike and boarding ax

[Barbados Jack]

Mates;

I've been readin your articles and many of the books that you've suggested and found that the working knife and marlinspike were the most important tools a pirate/sailor could have. Can any of ye tell me where these might be purchased? I'm also in the market for a boarding axe and have had noluck there either.

thanks

[Black Deacon]

Wow, broad subject. For a working knife check out Beckwiths Blades he be a long time mate of mine. If you contact Harry or Cathy tell them Lloyd sent you and they'll be treating you right. What's on the site isn't everything they carry.

My latest Axe came from a local Blacksmith in the Houston Area. My oldest was made by Chris Poor at Arms & Armor in MN.

A working knife can be any scrap of sharp metal with a handle. Depends on the look your going for. I have several utility knifes found in different places. Me mum was an antiques dealer for 37 years. So she would by "lots" at auctions and I'd have to dig and sort through everything. One of my favorites was a handmade kitchen knife I found in the bottom of a tool box in one of the lots we bought. The back ridge is 3/8 of an inch thick, about a 4 1/2 inch blade and looks to have been hand filed and sanded. Has a very simple wooden handle. Holds and edge like a dream and is very plain. On another occasion I was diggin' around a pawnshop and found a knife in a junk display that had electric tape wrapped around the handle and crud all over the bald. Picked it up for $2. Got it home. Cut the tape of and started cleaning the blade. When I was done I noticed it had a round makers stamp and someone along the way had turned a single edge blade into an edge and a half with a grinder. After some research I discovered it was a Mussolini Dagger from pre WWII. Well the value of this piece was already destroyed so I hand filed the rest of the blade down into a leaf pattern and had a friend of mine make a handle for it out of coccobolo.

A marlinespike runs the same way. My suggestion would be to find a blacksmith locally or one at a Faire and just have them pound you one out. or you can check here Marlinspike

[Barbados Jack]

Ye are a gemtleman indeed sir;

Thank ye for the information and a full tankard to ye!

[Black Deacon]

Gulp... No problem.

[Misery]

as far as a malin spike goes you can probably get one made by a blacksmith relatively cheap.

Go to a boating supply store or even a wall-mart sporting goods section and you can get a cheap one most are on swiss-army type knives but one of those could give you the demensions you need for the spike and if you go though a blacksmith you'll have a custom piece with any handle you can dream up

anyway just a suggestion

[Barbados Jack]

Misery;

I've found an illustration of both the fid and marlinspike in my copy of " The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor. I thank ye kindly for your assistance. Now if I could find a boarding axe, or do most have that custom made?

[Bully MacGraw]

Marlinspikes are still made by Osborne. There is a fisherman's sully company in San Francisco that sells them. On the internet thier is a Canadian company that makes spikes. They have a web site