The sgian achlais for George is finally finished, now I simply have to make a sheath for it. It cost me quite some nerves again. I don´t know what it is, everytime I work for Scotsmen, everything imagineable goes awry;-). Wrecked my belt grinder, my air heater and my drilling machine, two sawblades and a file on it, so this is as tribal as they come, for I had no shop also, so I did a lot of work out in the woods, with no vice, a rasp, a knife, a hammer and sanding paper.
I also had some progress on my damascus folder blade. The integral bolsters on the liners give me quite a headache, and I am currently thinking of just doing something in brass. The damascus is 300 layers of 1.2842 steel and 15N20 (C75Ni8) by Matthias Zwissler. Below is an EDC damascus blade for myself, 240 layers (Or was it 480, I lost track) 85mmx3,5-2,0 mm mild steel, file steel and spring steel. I am also thinking of making a virobloc folder from it...
And, being inspired by Petr Florianek, I carved the antler on Eikinnsleikr with a mythic snake that bites its own tail, symbolizing the regenerating forces of nature, life and death and the mythological antagonist of Thor, the snake of Midgard.
I tanned the carving with iron oxide.
Still quite some room for improvement, but as is, I am content with the outcome. And yes, the snake IS upside down, to be seen when you handle the knife. I am growing ever so much fonder of that knife, and will do a sheath to go with it, and am currently thinking what material to take. I think of oak, naturally;-)...
We´ll see... I hope to get into the smithy soon and to forge myself another seax... can´t have too many seaxes...;-)
On Solingen knife expo I had the privilege to meet with Lukas Mästle - Goer, a tutor in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), workin...
The other day I came across some beautiful rosebay Willowherb/fireweed , Chamaenerion Angustifolium, in German: Weidenröschen, and decided t...
This is part of my not exactly tiny collection of German hunting knives, representatives of a very distinct and ancient style of knife. Y...
In my relatively...ummmm...vast? . ;-) collection one can find among many others these two knives. For the one below I can safely state t...
I knew I had it somewhere, and after the meeting with Gabriele on the expo I began to look for´t thoroughly. I bought this knife years ago...
Now this is a bit weird to me. Not this above, that too, of course;-), but the whole situation. Moritz had called a lot these days. In fa...
This is something I have in the works at the moment with some thoughts on knife design. The lecture on Puukko design by Anssi Ruusuvuori ...
(Photo courtesy of Secrets Of The Ice, Norway) This is an awesome story. Says I. Because it was once upon a time, in the sixth century, ...
I recently had an opportunity I could not resist;-). I was craving this knife for some 17 years or so, but did not want to spend that much...
Now this is the blade I featured some time ago, a not-so-authentic version of the Daco-/Gallo-/ Roman sica knife. Arguably not so authenti...