With Christmas coming i have been trying to spend as much time in the shop as possible getting knives finished and ready for sale. This one is another hunter i just finished up last night and took some quick photos of today. This one is 8.75 inches long, in 80CrV2 with forge finish ricasso area and cork belt bevels. The handle is wenge wood, with a .250 accent spacer of blaze orange G10, which is actually brighter than the picture shows. The sheath is 8-9oz leather dyed dark brown and tooled with a random pattern i created by stamping the hell out of it with a small tear drop shaped stamp. I really like the way the stamped areas stay lighter than the untouched areas, no matter how much you dye it. This is probably one of my favorite sheaths i have completed. For those that have not worked with wenge, its not much fun. When sawing, filing, or using very course belts, its splintery as hell, very similar to unstabilized palm, and you have to make sure to remove material away from the grain rather than into the grain to avoid tear-outs. Conversely, this wood also burns quite easily. Its quite hard, and when using high grit (or moderately dull) belts you really have to be careful not to burn it, especially on the end grain. Its not so bad on the sided of the scale, but the front and butt can be very tricky. Lastly, the two different colors visible in the grain are dramatically different hardness's. The light areas are considerably softer than the dark areas, which isnt really a problem, however it does allow for some pretty cool effects if treated right. After the scales are finished, you can hit it with a wire wheel, which erodes the light areas and leaves the hard dark areas. It gives the handle a topography like heavily etched damascus.
Another nice looking knife Grayzer! When you do your sheaths how far down do you stitch the belt loop? Is it stitched right up to the top. Really like the tear drop.
Great looking knife and sheath package. Thanks for the info on wenge. I like the wire wheel idea. Dan
