Athames

Hi am new to the forum and looking at doing the courses .
One of the things i have done as a hobby is to make custom knives . I have been looking at making a custom Athame from copper but have found it difficult to find any information on making them . Does anyone have any advice or ideas as to what would be good to include in such an item ?
Many thanks
BB

Pretty good,aren't they? Very well priced too & yes I saw the Odin one, very unique & interesting design. Great stuff!!
Blessings
GW

Oooo - if I've found the same one you looked at - very nice!

I see an Odin one there too that I like muchly also.

Much love

Blaidd

Fabulous Grey Wolf, look forward to seeing photos!

Tansy
x

Just had to let you know...I managed to find something!!!!
Found a site called Baytree Interiors & saw an Excalibur style "letter opener" & it's just the thing!!!
Have ordered it anyway,not too badly priced either. Will let you know how it looks etc., when I receive it. Can't wait!!
Blessings
Grey Wolf xxxx

Hee hee I'm not sure my crafting skills could handle making an athame either!

There are a couple of quite nice and reasonably priced athame's on the Hecates Cauldron shop website (run by a friend of ours), the link is:

hecates-cauldron.com/store/index.php?route=product/search&keyword=athame&category_id=0

Tansy
x

Thanks Tansy, but I'll probably go for one of the first options, as I don't think my creativity would work too well with knives
Thanks anyway
Blessings

There are also some ideas for making your own athame on the Magical Tools section here - just in case you are feeling crafty!

T
x

Thank you Blaidd & Spiritcloud
At last I've had a commonsense response!!! This will be a great help to me, as I make my decision. Funny enough, I'd been thinking about maybe a letter opener or something like that.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the other tips too.
Blessings
Grey Wolf xx

Now she tells me I've spent gazillions on stuff and I could have bought really cheaply hahaha only joking when I started I did look at all the expensive stuff and thought that's too much so went for the cheapest and actually got my wand from the woods I visit daily and a ceremonial staff I had given to me next is robes, Glasto £300,, The States $49. plus $18 pp. says it all really brightest blessings Grey Wolf..... Mr Cloudy

Hallo Grey Wolf :)

I have a couple of things I use as an athame should I need to (but my personal style means unless I'm cutting something, I use my finger more often than athame or wand!).

Commercial athames, as you have seen, tend to be priced up simply because they are classed as an athame, but with a bit of inventiveness, you can find something that you absolutely love, but which doesn't hurt your wallet.

I have a letter opener that I often use (my athames are objects that lead a double life, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't rebrand an everyday object and use that purely for magical work). My letter opener athame is one I got from Myth and Magic, the pewter company that specialises in dragons etc, the ones with the little crystal somewhere in the design. My one has a dragon as a handgrip. I've had it for some years, but it didn't cost over £20, and was probably much less.

My other athame is my favourite kitchen knife. Cooks usually have their favourite tools to work with, and create a real bond with their tools. My kitchen knife is such a tool. It was only a cheap knife, one of the small sharp knives, and I've had it since my student days, so pretty much forever. And yes, I use it almost every day - and only occasionally in non-food creating magic

As with all the other tools of the witchy trade, keep your eyes and mind open as to what you can use. Ignore the expensive stuff aimed at the people with more money than sense, an expensive item is not going to be more powerful, although they may be pretty.

Look in charity shops, second hand sales, or even kitchen shops and stationers. Or camping stores, perhaps a pen-knife could turn out to be your athame. Wooden handled knives are nice if you want to carve/burn your own symbols into it - convention tells us that we should have a black handled athame - but that's just putting a restriction in place and we could miss our perfect athame.

At one point, I also had a little wooden sword, a child's toy I got from the Tower of London, that would have been used in the exact same way as an athame - as are wands. Wands are simple - it's pretty much find a stick and decorate (ok, it tends to be a bit more meaningful than that, but that's the basis). We've examples of what can be done in the Kitchen Witch shop.

Let us know how you get on, we'd love to hear.

Much love

Blaidd

Hi Folks
Would like some advice on purchasing an Athame. I've got myself in knots, searching on the internet for one. I can't really afford the ones I really fancy!!! Typical, champagne taste & beer income!!!
Can anyone suggest where I can find one REASONABLY priced please??!!
Also, do I have to have a typically stylised traditional Athame, or can I be inventive?
Any help gratefully received
Blessings
Grey Wolf