Strictly speaking, I can never make a masterpiece, because I do not know about any knifemaker’s guild or similar organization around here that could grant me one. And even if I knew, I could not be bothered with going through the hassle accompanied by obtaining one. There was a knifemaking vocational school in CZ, but a quick Google search failed to confirm whether it is still functional. When I found out about its existence, I already had my Master’s degree in Biology and Chemistry and it was not feasible to go back to vocational school at that stage of my life.

Nevermind. I just finished two knives and I do think I did a good job, although they both took an absolutely unholy amount of time to finish. The blades were first seen in the first Overabladeance post. Both blades are highly polished, which makes them a PITA to photograph. I am not entirely convinced my choice of background for these photos was correct but I am reluctant to go through all the hours of photographing it again with another color.

Lotsa of pictures under the fold.

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First the “Auroch”. A big camping knife with a picture of an auroch on the right scale.

The left scale is unadorned.

The auroch picture is slightly stylized. I made the handle accidentally 1 cm longer than I intended to and that has led to my decision to use a really big animal as an ornament and a name.

Scales are cow bone with dark brown micarta underlayer and hidden pins.

The leather sheath is embossed with an auroch hoofprint and a basket weave pattern.

I went for a sheath with a snap fastener collar for securing the knife. The collar is from two layers of thin leather so no metal parts rub directly against the scales.

Here you can see the detailed picture of the embossed sheath. I have made my own stamp for the basket weave pattern and this was the first time I was using it. I did not make a stamp for the hoof since I do not intend to use it often and it is big enough to emboss with other tools.

Here you can see the size. It is a big, big boi. Handle nearly 15 cm, blade 17 cm, and over 4 mm thick. Even though it is fullered and the handle is lightened with huge holes in the tang, it still weighs 520 g with sheath and all.

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Second is the “Wild Boar”, a large skinner knife.

It has a picture of a wild boar’s head on the right scale and of a decorative knot on the left scale.

The boar’s head is somewhat realistic, framed with a rope and spruce twig patterns.

The decorative knot on the left scale is approximately a continuation of the rope frame on the right side.

The construction is again with micarta and hidden pins.

This blade is not fullered, it has a ridge. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to take a really good picture of a mirror-polished blade with my setup. It can be somewhat seen in the old picture from Overabladeance.

The collar with snap fastener is embossed with a pattern of spruce twigs too.

The sheath has three smaller hoofprints. I did not make a stamp for these either, although I probably should have. They were a tad small to make really neat with other tools. I have also used a rope pattern stamp for the outline of the basket weave. I have actually made seven new leather stamps for these knives and I used three. I wrote about some of them on my knife blogger. These two knives were my first projects where I used gel patina on the finished product to accentuate the patterns.

This too is a big boi, although I did not make the handle accidentally longer so it is as long as it should have been. Despite being lighter than the Auroch at 456 g in the sheath, when held in hand it feels subjectively heavier. That is because the blade is not fullered. Whilst the Auroch has the point of balance behind the bolster, between the forefinger and the middle finger, the  Wild Boar has a point of balance in front of the hand on the bolster. Thus it feels a bit “choppy”.

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I will offer them on sale in the shoppe although I do not expect there are very many people ready to dish out nearly a month’s work worth of money for a decorative, albeit fully functional, knife.

But I am proud of these two, I think I have done a really good job. Still not perfect, still visibly handmade. But one has to look really closely and really know what to look for to spot the flaws.