Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Kit knives

Sometimes I have a customer who wants a knife blade that they can put their own handle on: a custom kit knife. These are a couple that I have done. Both customers ordered a forge finish on the blades.

This is a seax and flint striker, forged from leaf spring and file, respectively. I also fitted up a copper guard for the seax, although it ins't pictured. Both guard and tang got left over-large so the customer could shape them down to fit the handle he made.




This was a Bowie that was recently commissioned from me. It, too, is leaf spring, quenched in vegetable oil and given a differential heat treatment. The guard is copper electrical bus bar. I like using salvaged materials when it makes sense. :) He plans a slab handle of worm-eaten but still solid American chestnut.