Medieval "pen knife" - a cooperation project

This is the blade I made for Steffen, who re-enacts a medieval scholar and who wanted a knife to cut the pens of goose feathers for writing. He had given me a very detailed input into the design. It should have been left-handed;-), and I researched the rest. It is quite an interesting knife to forge, for the blade has to be very, very thin and razor - sharp. So I did some very thorough annealing and gave it but a very conservative temper at roundabout 56 HRC. It is that flexible that it stands the Solingen nail test (when drawn flat over a nail, an elastic "wave" forms). It had taken me some experimenting, but it all went okay in the end. It can be stropped over a leather belt, like a razor. Erich turned the beautiful handle out of boxwood, and the magic troll glued it on.

Family project, you see;-). It all worked out great, and Steffen was quite enthused about it. We traded for a flatrate of some bottles of his delicious and healthy "Hippocras" spiced wine.

For me it was quite the joy to make this knife and I hope it serves him very well in his scripture work.