Materials

True work done by hand

Each and every blade is forged, hardened and finished with minimal use of machinery and mechanical contraptions.

This naturally limits the size of my blades to a certain source material which is either a round steel rod with a cross section of 20 – 30 mm, or squared steel bars measuring 20 x 10 mm (or similar cross sections). The blade is forged into shape to the greatest possible extent. It is then ground, hardened and tempered according to its designated purpose. Fitting the guard and the handle are the final steps to a custom knife. As a final step, a hand-stitched leather sheath is provided if the customer wishes so.

Step by step – the genesis of a knife

I’ve summarized all due working steps in a small gallery. Have fun!

Step 1

It all commences with a jolly good cup of tea.

Step 2

Designing, hammering, hardening and grinding the blade not to forget hoping that it’ll do the job.

Step 3

The handle is drawn, pre-shaped and fitted to the tang.

Step 4

Selecting the proper material for the guard.

Step 5

Design rules! In this case desert iron wood is selected.

Step 6

Trimming the handle to a snug fit.

Step 7

The marriage! A "ménage à trois" to be precise.

Step 8

Temporarily screwed together for modelling the continuous outlines and smoothing the edges.

Step 9

Fine-sanding the wooden handle.

Step 10

Final treating of the wood.

Step 11

The very last polishing process with duct-taped blade.

Step 12

Riveting the tang, butts and bolsters, leather sheath.

Step 13

Everything’s done …. so am I.

Steel

I’ve worked with the following traditional non-stainless steels. BTW: With a little care they will not rust, but they may discolour or get splotchy when subjected to fruit acid.

This is compensated by a very fine and dense cutting edge which can be easily maintained and honed with minimal effort.

Pure carbon steels like C 60 up to C 105
Low-alloyed tool steels like 1.2510, 1.2519, 1.2833, 1.2842

Handle material

I’ve exclusively worked with natural materials i.e. indigenous and exotic hardwoods, stag horn and if need be animal bone.