Brian S. Gut Hook Hunter - Backpack worthy.

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.
At the beginning of 2024 I got a request from another friend for a gut hook hunter, but something that was light and easy to carry on backpacking trips.
Decided to use some marbled carbon fiber to make segmented handle scales.
White G-10 liners to break up the darkness of the scales.
Slanty segments are always a little tricky.
Scales and blade with rough layout lines.
In order to reduce weight I decided to taper the tang and reduce the profile a little.
Tapered tang showing a little better here.
Scales rough profiled.
Getting the shape and contouring refined.
Glamour shot #1.
Spine glamour shot.
Shiny finished blade.
Simple sheath, but wanted the blue threads to match the handle.
Finished glamour shot #2
Finished glamour shot #3. Loved the feedback I got on this blade - he skinned a whole black bear and it stayed sharp. I was quite pleased to hear it!

80Crv2 - Fighter

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.
I wanted another example knife for myself and so I decided to make this fighter style for my personal collection.
Shaping the guard from mild steel. I also decided to use that original piece of Timascus I left behind years ago.
Line up pins to make sure everything fits up correctly.
Rough fit up.
Rough fit up with the Timascus spacer.
Another angle on the spacer.
More handle shaping.
Glue ups don't change too much.
Finished blade.
Finished handle.
Finished glamour shot #1.
Finished glamour shot #2.

Eva H. - Glow in the Dark Heart Tanto

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.
Back to the family friend who asked me to make blades for his kids. It was time to make a knife for his daughter. She liked the glow in the dark that I did for her brother and wanted a tanto tip as well. My challenge to make this knife fit a young girl, but still be awesome. I think I did it.
This blade came from that original "portfolio" batch that I had heat treated a while back.
I had found these one of a kind scales that I was a little sad to let go, but definitely fit what I was looking for.
Layout lines on their way!
In order to make it just that much more special and awesome, I designed some custom scroll work to engrave on the sides of the blade. I ended up changing it a little, but still the same theme.
Also - it we're going glow in the dark. Let's do pink!
Cute and deadly.
All the parts laid out.
Of course had to have the perfect combination with these custom scales.
Truing up the scales prior to attaching. I didn't true them up in the dark, but thought it'd make a cool photo.
All ready to be attached.
I wanted to make sure the custom scroll work was deep enough, so I coated the blade in nail polish and burned off the outline with my laser, then acid etched the blade.
Turned out great!
The other side.
Some pre-glue up handle shaping.
Yep, you guessed it - glue up!
Some post glue-up contouring.
Had to make a sheath that fit the theme of this blade. Blue was the only way.
Back of the sheath.
Finished blade in the sheath.
Finished sheath outside.
Glamour shot #1.
Glamour shot #2.
Spine final shot.
Glamour shot #3.
Handle glow indoors.
Handle glow #2.
Finished glamour shot #4.
Finished glamour shot #5.

Seth H. Jr. - Twist Damascus Dagger

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.
The next blade was for the same family and the youngest son wanted a twist damascus dagger. I wanted to up my twist damascus game so I made a special batch.
Getting it hot in my own forge. I had gotten a forge press in the interim and was excited to put it to good use.
Rough bar drawn out - straight layers as I had something extra planned for it.
A little uneven, but ready for restack.
Getting all the pieces cleaned up and ready for the next step.
I decided to add in layers of 15n20 to add bright lines throughout. It really paid off.
In order to reduce the chance for bad welds, I welded all the way around to prevent oxygen between the layers.
Forge welded again.
Decided to clean off the mild steel welds and get rid of any cold shuts. 4lbs. 10oz billet.
Twisting up the billet after drawing it out.
Twisting both sides.
Final billet is tiny compared to the original.
Here's the forge scale compared to the billet.
Scale still stuck in the twist lines. I made some mistakes on forging this, but was able to salvage it in the end.
Ending billet of useable material. 2 lbs 14 oz - Nearly a 40% loss of material just in that few processes. Again - this is why damascus is expensive.
Laying out the blade.
Rough profile and sneak peak on the pattern.
Dagger grind done.
Cleaned up and refined a little more.
For this dagger I decided to cast a copper guard. Here I'm using a chunk of hard wax to do the initial shaping.
Rough shaped guard and layout lines.
Guard in shape, now to make it metal.
I'd never cash something like this so I went to my friend Patrick's house who has all the set up and experience to do it.
Casting the guard.
In the mold.
Coming out of the casting sand.
Here's the rough cast guard with the sprue cut off.
The guard fought me and I quickly learned that copper is a hard metal to work with. Bit into it with my mill when it slipped in the vice.
It gets sticky when hot and I broke drill bits off in it.
I finally got it roughly in shape and did a rough fit up of the handle and pommel.
Guard roughly shaped.
A good look at the whole dagger roughly put together.
Pommel held on with a corby bolt.
Due to the rough beat up cast guard, I decided to remake it from a piece of copper bar stock.
New guard fit up.
Decided to do an aged copper look on the guard and pommel. Time age it a little.
Fitting aged and assembled.
Hand sanded and ready to etch.
Just out of the acid.
Cleaned up between acid and coffee etch.
Into the coffee for darkening.
Post coffee etch.
Final fit up.
Outside in natural lighting.
In order match the green handle, I decided to use this cook iguana skin in the sheath.
Gluing the iguana skin to the base leather.
Sheath with windows, just needed a strap to keep the dagger in place.
Custom strap with a little pop of color.
Glamour shot #1.
Glamour shot #2.
Glamour shot #3.
Glamour shot #4.
In hand.
View from the pommel.
In sheath.
Glamour shot #5.

Battleship Texas Donation Kitchen Set

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.
In 2023 I had the special priveldge of being invited to a group of about 150 makers who would receive metal from the Historic USS Texas. The Texas was being restored in Galveston, TX and would become a museum ship. All items made would be auctioned off and all proceeds go to the continued restoration of the ship.
Photos from the ship in Galveston. The plates that have been removed are blister plates of mild steel that were used to pre-maturely detonate torpedos before they hit the hull.
The Texas in dry dock. I received a piece of blister plate, some deck wood, and a few odds and ends.
Historic photo of the USS Texas during a time of war.
Another historic photo of the Texas during her combat service.
The foundation that was leading the restoration efforts.
The USS Texas fought in WW1 and WW2. Here's a map of Normandy and the USS Texas was there - some pretty cool stories about her combat service.
Another photo of the Texas in dry dock.
Since the blister plate was mild steel I had to add a core high-carbon knife steel. I decided to add layers of 15n20 and 1084 to make a go mai.
Cleaning up the mild steel.
Laying out the metals to make my favorite lolipops.
Aren't they pretty!
Into the forge for forge welding.
Forge welding the billets together.
Drawing the billets out to make them thinner.
All in a days forging - two long billets and one thick for a later integral knife.
Testing the billets with a quick etch to see the layers.
I feel this is where I really defined my style of chef's knife. Here I made a chef's knife and a paring knife to go with to be sold as a set.
Blades profiled.
Test etch after some beveling on the grinder.
Another test etch to make sure I was watching the position of the mild steel vs the knife steel.
Hand sanding to make sure it's clean and a good final etch.
A lot of other makers used the deck wood on the handle, but I decided to use this curly mango that looks like waves on the water to help differentiate my set.
Of course added vulcanized paper and G-10 liners to help it all pop.
Set up to made sure it all lined up.
Handles profiled and mocked up for glue up.
With through tang damascus, you basically have to finish the knife before final assembly. It's curious problem, so I basically dry pin everything in place.
It looked like I killed a few smurfs in the making.
Cleaned up after the first etch. Top layer is the mild ship steel, then 15n20 and the cutting edge is 1084.
Glued up and starting to finish out the handles.
Finished etch on the final blades.
I love full tang damascus as you get this cool view from the spine of the knife.
Glamour shot #1.
Glamour shot #2. Proud to say this set sold right away when the online auction for $2,000. So happy to help contribute and that someone thought so highly of my work.

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.

At the beginning of 2024 I got a request from another friend for a gut hook hunter, but something that was light and easy to carry on backpacking trips.

Decided to use some marbled carbon fiber to make segmented handle scales.

White G-10 liners to break up the darkness of the scales.

Slanty segments are always a little tricky.

Scales and blade with rough layout lines.

In order to reduce weight I decided to taper the tang and reduce the profile a little.

Tapered tang showing a little better here.

Scales rough profiled.

Getting the shape and contouring refined.

Glamour shot #1.

Spine glamour shot.

Shiny finished blade.

Simple sheath, but wanted the blue threads to match the handle.

Finished glamour shot #2

Finished glamour shot #3. Loved the feedback I got on this blade - he skinned a whole black bear and it stayed sharp. I was quite pleased to hear it!

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.

I wanted another example knife for myself and so I decided to make this fighter style for my personal collection.

Shaping the guard from mild steel. I also decided to use that original piece of Timascus I left behind years ago.

Line up pins to make sure everything fits up correctly.

Rough fit up.

Rough fit up with the Timascus spacer.

Another angle on the spacer.

More handle shaping.

Glue ups don't change too much.

Finished blade.

Finished handle.

Finished glamour shot #1.

Finished glamour shot #2.

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.

Back to the family friend who asked me to make blades for his kids. It was time to make a knife for his daughter. She liked the glow in the dark that I did for her brother and wanted a tanto tip as well. My challenge to make this knife fit a young girl, but still be awesome. I think I did it.

This blade came from that original "portfolio" batch that I had heat treated a while back.

I had found these one of a kind scales that I was a little sad to let go, but definitely fit what I was looking for.

Layout lines on their way!

In order to make it just that much more special and awesome, I designed some custom scroll work to engrave on the sides of the blade. I ended up changing it a little, but still the same theme.

Also - it we're going glow in the dark. Let's do pink!

Cute and deadly.

All the parts laid out.

Of course had to have the perfect combination with these custom scales.

Truing up the scales prior to attaching. I didn't true them up in the dark, but thought it'd make a cool photo.

All ready to be attached.

I wanted to make sure the custom scroll work was deep enough, so I coated the blade in nail polish and burned off the outline with my laser, then acid etched the blade.

Turned out great!

The other side.

Some pre-glue up handle shaping.

Yep, you guessed it - glue up!

Some post glue-up contouring.

Had to make a sheath that fit the theme of this blade. Blue was the only way.

Back of the sheath.

Finished blade in the sheath.

Finished sheath outside.

Glamour shot #1.

Glamour shot #2.

Spine final shot.

Glamour shot #3.

Handle glow indoors.

Handle glow #2.

Finished glamour shot #4.

Finished glamour shot #5.

Final blade - keep scrolling to see the journey.

The next blade was for the same family and the youngest son wanted a twist damascus dagger. I wanted to up my twist damascus game so I made a special batch.

Getting it hot in my own forge. I had gotten a forge press in the interim and was excited to put it to good use.

Rough bar drawn out - straight layers as I had something extra planned for it.

A little uneven, but ready for restack.

Getting all the pieces cleaned up and ready for the next step.

I decided to add in layers of 15n20 to add bright lines throughout. It really paid off.

In order to reduce the chance for bad welds, I welded all the way around to prevent oxygen between the layers.

Forge welded again.

Decided to clean off the mild steel welds and get rid of any cold shuts. 4lbs. 10oz billet.

Twisting up the billet after drawing it out.

Twisting both sides.

Final billet is tiny compared to the original.

Here's the forge scale compared to the billet.

Scale still stuck in the twist lines. I made some mistakes on forging this, but was able to salvage it in the end.

Ending billet of useable material. 2 lbs 14 oz - Nearly a 40% loss of material just in that few processes. Again - this is why damascus is expensive.

Laying out the blade.

Rough profile and sneak peak on the pattern.

Dagger grind done.

Cleaned up and refined a little more.

For this dagger I decided to cast a copper guard. Here I'm using a chunk of hard wax to do the initial shaping.