Tantos and Bush Swords

I had a couple of finished up tantos go out to a good customer recently.  He's been waiting for the shorter one for a while, and picked up the longer one, which I had forged as a demo of using my power hammer dies, when I posted as available on Instagram.  The shorter one is forged from 80CrV2, with a 9 1/2" blade.  The longer one is 5160, with a 12 1/2" blade.

I did a bit of a variation on my usual wrap with these, matching a wrap I had done on a chopper for him last year.  Over a foundation of neoprene is an underlay wrap of white bleached hemp cord, with tan paracord for the overlay.  And, of course, tan Kydex.

 

He sent me a video of him hacking up a large pumpkin with the longer tanto.  Made short work of it.  :)

And this bush sword was one that I had forged a while back and had the customer disappear on me.  It was kicking around the shop for a while until another customer bought it as his first custom blade.  It's forged from 5160, with a blade length of around 15" - 16" and an integral socket handle. 

 

I had made a Kydex sheath for it, but the customer also got a leather sheath with baldric rig for it from fellow knifemaker Luke Swenson.

 

Nice little detail on the leather, Luke!

 

And a couple more bush swords in 80CrV2 steel, with integral socket handles, black paracord, and 16" blades.

 

 

 

And black Kydex.