Sgian Dubh in Scottish Blackthorn and Bog Oak – sharpened, kilt knife, Scottish gift, wedding gift, groom gift, best man gift, mens gift

The Sgian Dubh is a ceremonial dagger that is traditionally worn (tucked into the sock) as part of Scottish Highland dress along with a kilt. The translation in Gaelic is knife or dagger for “Sgian” and black for “Dubh”.
I have made the primary outer handle of this Sgian Dubh from some local Blackthorn. I harvested this particular piece of Blackthorn when i was in Ullapool and it has been slowly drying for about 7 years. Very slow drying is required due to the hardness of the wood as it will crack to pieces otherwise if dried too quickly. I have had a bit of an obsession with this wood since starting my wood journey some ten years ago. There is no other Scottish hardwood that is as steeped in mythology and folklore as Blackthorn. The plant itself has numerous medicinal uses and of course the Sloe berries are used to make and flavour Sloe Gin. The wood is the hardest indigenous wood we have here in Scotland and for this reason was the wood of choice for the Irish Shillelagh. Colourwise the wood is a light creamy yellow often with tones of green and reddish brown with mid brown streaks.
I have combined the Blackthorn with some Scottish Bog Oak. I have been very aware of this materials existence for some time now but have been waiting to secure the right piece. This particular piece came from Muir of Clunes, 12 miles South West of Inverness. This is quite a rural, verdant and quite thickly wooded part of Scotland. My contact for this wood excavated quite a few pieces and had a very small section scientifically aged, it came back at approximately 5000 years old! To put this into context, this is when, slightly further down the road, Stonehenge was starting to be assembled. Bog Oak is created when the tree is buried in a peat bog and the wood is preserved by the acidic conditions. The wood is stained dark brown to black by the tannins in the acidic water. There is a fair amount of wastage of the wood until you get deeper into the piece. In its raw state it smells like a mix of rubber and organic material, not in any way rotten or decomposed. Working the wood is somewhat challenging, quite splintery very much like Snakewood or Ebony and is number 80 in my list of worked Hardwoods. Finished, the wood is at least as hard as fresh Oak and finishes to a fine lustre. Colour is predominately black with dark brown that has a deep iridescence and looks almost identical to Indian Ebony. As far as the ultimate Scottish Sgian Dubh wood (black wood), this is pretty much it although it does have the monopoly on colour as no other Scottish wood is quite so dark.
For a professional finish i have used some African Blackwood as a centre to lock the knife tang and scales together. All the Blackwood i use is FSC 100% and comes from community-managed forests in Tanzania, 100% of the revenue from wood sales goes back to the local people involved. This true Rosewood has a beautiful grain, jet black streaks intertwined with dark iridescent brown. It also has a high natural oil content that makes it very resistant to moisture. African Blackwood is a very traditional wood to be used in the making of Sgian Dubhs fitting the bill perfectly for a “Black Knife”. The wood is extremely hard and finishes to a high lustre.
To finish and protect the handle I could not use polyurethane varnish as this would turn the antler yellow. So in this case i first apply a sealer of Shellac and Cellulose Thinners only to the wood centre, this brings out the colour. Then i apply two types of industrial wax, the same as used on my antler kilt pins. This gives a hard wearing finish and an attractive sheen not dissimilar to a polyurethane finish.
The blade is Stainless Steel and measures under 3.5″ to comply with UK knife laws. I have sharpened the blade of this Sgian Dubh.
It comes complete with an attractive embossed black leather sheath and a black presentation box.
The Sgian Dubh measures:
Overall Length 175mm x Width 28mm x Depth 12mm
Blade Length 85mm x Width 25mm
As with all my pieces i have applied my company logo “UBC” with pyrography, in this case on the bottom rear of the handle.