Damascus steel knife

[SteveS]

blade comes from the Alabama Damascus Steel company. Bolster is african blackwood and the handle is thuya burl. Handle has a couple coats of satin lacquer.

[gMike]

Nice job. I have a couple of Alabama Damascus blanks waiting for me to finish my knife grinder.

[Phydeaux]

Excellent work.

I keep thinking I should take a stab, so to speak, at putting a new scale handle on my wife's cleaver, but I can't find my round tuit.

Assuming at least marginal competence, is a first attempt at such a task likely to succeed reasonable well? I'd go for some sort of hardwood that's not a disaster if I waste it. It's an ordinary kitchen tool, after all, with crummy scales that are loose and fairly ugly.

[SteveS]

It's pretty easy to do. There are youtube videos showing how to do it. With a kitchen knife, having some wood that isn't much affected by water, like african blackwood, will make it last longer. get some brass rod stock from home depot, epoxy and you are in business.

You can choose to shape it by hand or just use a round over router bit to give it a comfortable contour.

[Redman]

Nice knife.

[Randy C]

Steve

Very nice. I have wanted to try making one of these knives for a while but didn't know if I have the skills. I would like to try it. Where did you get the wood for the knife? Are there any special tools required to make a knife like this?

Thanks

[SteveS]

I bought the wood from Gilmer. Occasionally you can find really nice blocks of exotics for a decent price. I have quite a collection of exotic stuff and stabilized knife blocks from my own stock.

No special tools are needed. I use a drill press mounted sanding drum to do some of the contouring and a 12" disc sander for material removal around the periphery. I use a 1/4" round over router bit to get a uniform edge radius. And that's about it.

watching some of the youtube videos is probably the easiest way to start.

[AHill]

Very nice job! Looks comfortable to hold. The only thing I'd have done differently was put a lanyard hole on the end. That's too nice a knife to lose in the bush.

[TomFromStLouis]

I am not particularly drawn to these things as a rule, but that is one handsome knife.

Excellent work Steve!