Quote Originally Posted by ShaunMaxwell View Post
Is the challenge overcoming the weight of the the metal buttwork?
A little bit. The sgian is rear heavy, not by much but I have found that unlike me most people prefer a balanced knife. Learning all my skills in a kitchen I have differing views of knives. For slicing and chopping and slicing I like a forward weighted knife, French chef for instance. I let the weight of the knife do the cutting. On fine work like deboning and general task like package opening to be rear weighted. This gives a lot of tip control.

I will be removing the rear bolster in later, casual models. For dress I like the bolster and it gives a place for filework. It will always be a balance casual and dress like a lot of accessories.

On quality, I do use good steels. The first couple, like all my prototypes, were made from 440C. Good steel with decent edge retention. Now I will be moving on to my normal steels, ATS34 and CPM154 (when available). Both have much better edge retention and the CPM154 has a much higher strength. While I always want my knives to be used I also take a realalistic view that the average person is not going to go into a survival exercise with one of these blades. If they are and let me know I can use S30V which can hold it's own with most carbon steels. Amazing edge retention but you HAVE to use diamond or ceramic sharpeners or you will wear out your stone quickly and take a lot more work to sharpen it. I started using it on hunters so it would last in the field and be sharpened at home after hearing stories about using two knives to field dress, one was always being sharpened and traded out.

I will say I do have my own problems in that I always want to make the knives beautiful. Problem is even if you tell people that you are using a steel that requires diamond to sharpen and the handle is stabilized so that it is as strong as any synthetic material that is it looks nice it can't be usable.

I did this knife a few years ago for a commission.



The blade is Damasteel and the handle is stabilized whale jaw bone. The steel is as strong as CPM154, about a 61r. A strong steel for stainless. The bone is the densest in the work and stabilized to minimize shrinkage and staining. It, overall, is one tough knife but the owner isn't allowed to use it. It is kept in a safe and only brought out to show off.

That's not a knife, its sculpture.

Jim