Grey Skies and Custom Knives

Looks like we'll be having rain again for the weekend. Old news. But when I look hard, I find beautiful things in the grey... subtle shapes of colors against the pale sky, misty fog in the morning, and of course those mornings are good for sleeping in! I'll be doing some of that, I think, this weekend, and also eating popcorn for supper... my sweetie left bright and early this morning for a weekend knife show in Pennsylvania.

I thought I'd show a few of his custom knives here... in hopes that he has a good show and comes home inspired and motivated to create more of his wood and steel goodies. He does all of this work by his own hand, from cutting the blade, shaping and grinding it, to the wood handles to the engraving and silver wire work. Some of these have Damascus blades which are made by forging together hundreds of layers of steel (a day-long process over a hot forge involving heating and hammering the steel til you think your arm will fall off!) to create a beautiful pattern. Lots of people think these blades are etched, but they are not. The pattern goes all the way through the steel. Sometimes I help with the design... you may be able to pick out which ones I designed for him, and sometimes I help in other ways with beads. He's a very talented man, my husband!

This is his newest knife... a D-Guard Bowie with silver-wire inlay on the handle, copper accents on the guard, and a mirror finish on the ATS-34 steel blade...





This is a dagger with a French Ivory handle adorned with a blue faceted topaz and a Damascus blade...



Here's a Gentleman's Bowie with Damascus blade...



And arrrghhh... a pirate's knife... Captain Jack with mirror finish blade and bone handle



The Autumn Skinner with accents of copper and amber...



The Arizona Hunter with accents of brass and turquoise...



Copper Hill with beautiful olive wood and Damascus blade...



And one final photo... an engraved tomahawk with maple handle... guess who did the beadwork?



You can see more of his knives and learn further details at his website here... and of course, a custom handmade knife is an excellent gift for the man in your life!