Has anyone seen these Dirks in person? are they decent?

[Hipbilly]

I was poking around the internet for a "regimental" dirk (the sort with chow tools included), and found THIS on eBay. After a quick google, i also found they offer one like THIS, but it's not on eBay therefore not very easy for me to purchase... It seems to be a decent knife, being advertized as High Carbon Steel, but I cannot find ANYTHING on who makes it, rockwell hardness, fit & finish, etc etc etc... For $130, i wouldn't expect too much, but I'd hope it would be on par with the Windlass and Cold Steel dirks.
They carry some well respected products, but they also carry the costume grade ones seen here and there...
I'm probably going to take the plunge for education's sake, but I figured I'd ask ya'll first.

I like the blade shape and overall styling on the earlier model, but I like the vertical mounting of the knife and fork better.

Here's the eBay one:


Here's the other:

[ShaunMaxwell]

I like the styling of the hilt on the ebay version (which seems an earlier style than 19th century... More like 18th century), but the sheath and utensils don't appear to be of the same period style as the hilt. If you aren't bothered that it's almost certainly ahistorical, why not? (Caveat: I'm scarcely knowledgeable about period dirks, but recently went through an online search for a Jacobite era-style dirk and learned a tiny bit in the process. I'm sure others who know more will weigh in!)

As for the quality of the blade, I wouldn't bet on it being high quality. That said, it seems unlikely that you'll use it for anything but wearing to Burns' nights, etc. or hanging it on the wall, so that's probably not a deal breaker.

I finally gave up on finding anything commercially made that was period accurate and commissioned one.

Let us know how it turns out!

[Hipbilly]

As for the quality of the blade, I wouldn't bet on it being high quality. ......it seems unlikely that you'll use it for anything but ........ hanging it on the wall....

Well, yes and know. If I can sharpen it enough to slice a watermelon, It'd be OK, but I really prefer all my blades are properly tempered, high carbon (or equivalent) steel.

I did find that they are "Hand made with EN-45 Steel", but I've also found that alloy is popular for theatrical blunt blades. I'm OK with it coming dull, but I'm NOT ok with them having skipped the heat treating process.

I did finally find the "Victorian" style one on ebay for the same price (~$180 shipped), but I'll probably get the older (18th Cent.) one. Worst case, I'll put a new damascus blade on it and have decent settings on a decent blade.

[Hipbilly]

Well I ordered the "older" style. I'll let yall know how it looks!

[Dughlas mor]

I`ll be curious to see what you think. It was not uncommon on early 18th century dirks for the knife and fork to be mounted side by side. For the price, that dirk doesn`t look too bad, I hope it works out well.

[OC Richard]

I've seen these on Ebay but not in person. They look much nicer IMHO than other Indian dirks I've seen, at least in the photos.

The style and proportions have an authentic "old" look to my eye. The ones I saw on Ebay looked a bit different than the ones posted here, in that the Ebay ones looked like the sheath was a bit too large for the other stuff, and the little knife & fork looked too thin.