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.

Another Santoku

This is another santoku using the stainless damacus san mai blade from Jantz. These blades are really nice. My wife and I both really like the one that I made for her. This one is made with stabilized box elder burl from AKS that has a bit of rare red spalting in it. The burl pattern is a bit different than most of the other box elder burl that I have seen. I think that it really works well with the knife.

Small Damascus Fishing Knife

This is a small fixed blade fishing knife that I made for my dad. The blade, from Jantz, is damascus carbon steel and is about 2 1/2" long. The handle is exhibition grade curly maple with a manzanita root butt cap. I split the maple block down the center to make a mitered tang handle. Rather than trying to hide the seam where the wood was glued back together, I accented it with a layer of maple veneer sandwiched between layers of wenge. I used a single mosaic pin to finish things off. The knife is small but feels good in the hand. It's a fairly different style for me but I really like the way it came out.

Another DDR2

Here is another DDR2 that I recently finished. This one was a custom order which was a new challenge. I used the stainless bolsters that came with the kit this time. I dovetailed, polished and jeweled them. The liners are also polished and jeweled. The scales are from a piece of wood that I found that I believe is walnut. I laser etched the zebra wood backspine as requested. This was something new and I think that it came out really well. I filled the etched area with superglue to seal it and keep it from collecting dirt. Superglue is a great filler for checks, cracks and holes in woods. It cures clear and can be worked down easily.

Santoku

This is my first fixed blade. It's a santoku that I made for my wife for Christmas. The blade has a VG-10 core wrapped in 16 layer damascus. It's a japanese made blade that I got from Jantz supply. They carry a whole line of these blades and it would be fun to do a whole set sometime. The handle is made from stabilized maple burl and I custom fit it to my wife's hand through a series of prototypes. I set a blue topaz gem in each side of the bolsters. This was my first time to try setting stones and I found out that it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Stainless probably isn't the easiest material to try setting stones in for the first time though. My friend Thomas McGuane (the knife maker) etched my wife's name in the blade for me for a final touch.

Knives 5, 6, and 7

Here are a set of DDR2 knives (again from knifekits.com) that I did simultaneously. They are all done from the same kits so they all have the same basic designs. The kits come with their own cast steel bolsters which I did not use. I made new ones out of three different materials. I also reversed the angle at the bolster/scale interface to change the look of the knives somewhat. The bolsters are all dovetailed, the screws are all file worked and the liners are all jeweled. I also made my own backspines for all of them. Each backspine is embellished differently.

Check out the photos of these knives on the knifekits.com website!

Knife #4

Here is knife number four. This one is a Spyderco Viele 2 production knife that I customized. The only thing on the knife that I left alone is the blade. I took the original G10 scales off and made my own out of manzanita root. It's a little hard to see in the photos but the manzanita is a beautiful deep red burl. Manzanita root bulbs are full of cracks and voids so you have to spend quite a bit of time filling them with superglue. The results are well worth it though.

I made a brass backspine and file worked it with a rope pattern. The original knife didn't have a backspine at all so I made this one up to replace the spacers that were there.

I jeweled the false bolster and the pocket clip and polished the pivot screw. I also jeweled the liners. For the jeweling on the liners, I did stripes rather than the more traditional geometric pattern of circles.

This knife also holds my first attempt at file working screws. File working screws is difficult and time consuming when you are first starting out but once you get a rhythm going they go much faster. They really add an extra touch to a knife.

Here is the third knife that I did. I didn't get around to taking pictures of the second before I gave it away. That's how it goes sometimes. Anyway, this one is a GX6 kit from knifekits. The handle scales are chokecherry from my parents' place. This one also has a lot of file work and is my first attempt at jeweling.

My First Knife

This is the first knife that I finished from a kit. I used an FL-005 kit from knifekits.com. I threw away the handle scales that came with it and made my own from cocobolo. I also did extensive file work on the frames.