I have made a couple of Sami style knives with curly maple before and they turned out to be really nice. Roasted curly maple looks very good in combination with reindeer antler and Sami style carving. And a great bonus is this wood smells maple syrup when I work with it. )) So, here is another one. Blade is hand forged by Pasi Hurttila from Finland, it's 80CrV2 steel. Blade length is 100 mm. Handle is 125 mm. It's a bit long to my taste, but the owner has very large hands and he wanted handle at least 4.75" long... Last detail - that red rock is rare mineral which scientists call eudialyte. Though it's rare, it is quite abundant in Khibiny mountains, where Skolt Sami used to live. Another name for it is "Sami blood" as a patches of this red colored mineral on gray rocks resemble stains of blood. There is even a legend associated with this. I have heard it when I was a kid, but now I don't remember it... As always comments and criticism are welcome and much appreciated.
Absolutely beautiful work Roman. I'm going to own one of these one day. Hopefully i'll get to the point sometime where a trade might not be heavily weighted in my favor
