Damascus Dagger

Here is my first attempt at a dagger. I did a number of new things on this knife so it was challenging and a good learning experience for me. The blade is about 5" long and is high carbon damascus. It was hand made in Idaho by Grand Leavitt.

The guard is a sandwich of brass and aluminum held together with nickel silver pins. I file worked the aluminum center and polished the whole thing to a mirror finish. I like the softer look of the polished aluminum over the cold shine of stainless for this application.

The handle is ancient kauri wood. This wood is the oldest workable wood in the world and has been radio carbon dated to around 50,000 years old. It was found buried in peat bogs in New Zealand and is now mined for use in fine wood working. The extreme age of this wood makes it an interesting conversation piece. It has a depth and glow that doesn't show in the photos but that gives it a very unique look and feel. Apparently, the wood was mineralized to a certain degree without being petrified while it was buried in the peat and that adds to the glow. In any case, it is a very beautiful wood and it fun to work with. I split the handle to make a mitered tang fit and accented the joint with wenge and maple veneer stripes. I used a manzanita root spacer and butt cap and finished it off with mosaic pins.

I also made my first wooden sheath for this knife. It is bird's eye maple, again with a wenge and maple veneer stripe and manzanita cap. It is made to be a presentation sheath so there is no belt loop or clip. It has very smooth and clean lines and has a nice friction fit on the blade.

Over-all, I think that this is my best work to date. It was a fun project and I am looking forward to doing more presentation fixed blade knives.