Every knife has a history of its own. First it’s only a thought, an idea, a shape or a form of your imagination. Then it becomes a draft, a scratch what turns into a model. When we have the final shape that we have imagined it’s time for the preparation of the raw/crude material, what the knife is going to be made out of. Each knife is different even though they all start out the same way.
Yes… it’s just a piece of steel that will form to be a blade in the fire and on the anvil.
My blades are mostly made out of a wide variety of steel including forged damask steel and stainless materials. The precoinage is done with my Ajax spring hammer and is followed by hand forging to finish up until the blade receives its final shape. I use this method with the non damask materials as well.
My personal favorites are the damask blades. The layers of different components gives this blade a unique pattern. The number of the layers can vary between a 100 to several thousands, however most commonly 300-400 layers are used. The final sanding gives smooth edges to the blade which is followed by an acid treatment to bring out the finest details of the pattern.
The heat treatment determines the strength, flexibility and the hardness of the blades. The hardness of the blade has a great effect on how long a blade will keep its sharpness. My blades are between 55-60 HRC.
I solely use natural material like hardwood, exotic wood, bones or antlers for the grips. The cases are hand made and cowhide is the most commonly used for this purpose.