Stick 'Em Danno

I posted on this once before, but I came across some pictures while I was cleaning out files and thought I'd stick some of them up.

I know some expert knifemakers. And while I have the tool-using ability of a bull walrus in heat, I decided five or six years ago that I needed to make a knife, just to see if I could.


I sort-of could. Barely. And crudely. Real knifemakers just smile and shake their heads when they see it, but I didn't have much to work with insofar as my native ability.


What I did was, I annealed a machete, using a small blowtorch. Then I outlined the full-tang design, cut it out, using hacksaws and a Dremel. I heated the thing up until it was a straw-color, then quenched it in heavy oil. Polished and all like that, sharpened it, put a set of faux-ivory scales and a guard of water buffalo horn, held together with homemade brass rivets. 


I imagine the first guy who figured out how to forge iron did a better job on his first knife, along with everybody who's operated a bellows and a grinder since, but I was inordinately pleased for several reasons.


First, I started with parts and wound up with a product that was the sum of those.


Second, I finished it, without going mad or burning the house down.


Third, I gained an appreciation for the real knifemakers with whom I did business. 


There are a few of those whose blades I came to own that I can name, in no particular order: Steve Rollert, Shiva Ki, Mushtaq Ali Ansari, Chuck Pippin, Jeff Crowner. And after having tried to do what they do? 


I really appreciate 'em ...