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Nitro V High Carbon Stainless Steel Western-Style Chef Knife with Stabilized Blue Box Elder Burl, Black Canvas Micarta Liners, Carabao Horn Scabbard Pin, Mother of Pearl Inlay, and Titanium Pins


USD 2800

SOLD

AVAILABLE FOR WORLDWIDE DELIVERY (USD 70).
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Blade: Nitro V (62 HRc) 

Handle: Stabilized Blue Box Elder Burl with Black Burlap Micarta Liners and Black Lip Mother of Pearl Inlay 

Grind: High Zero-Ground Double bevel. 

Balance: An inch in front of the handle

Total Weight: 434g
Knife Weight: 224g

After coming home to Manila after my two-month workshop, I seized the opportunity to create another knife, based on the design I made for His Majesty, but this time without the constraints of the materials that I had brought with me to Bhutan.

For the blade, I forged some Nitro V high carbon stainless steel, which I heat-treated, froze, and tempered, to make the blade very durable.

You can see from the images that I left some forged scales along the spine of the blade as evidence that this blade was forged, as well as to add character to the surface of the knife. I finished the blade with a satin finish to contrast well with the forged scales.


 
This knife features a full tang that tapers along the length of the handle to reduce weight. You can see it is exposed along its upper and lower surface.

For the handle, I decided to use stabilized blue box elder burl which I personally liked because of its impressionist painting-like pattern. I laminated this wood with liners made of black canvas micarta.

 Black canvas micarta was interesting because it's essentially a stack of coffee sacks bonded together to create this subtle but sophisticated pattern on the liner which separates the steel from the wood.

I sandwiched these together to make the handle, then I added some mother of pearl inlay on each side as well as a domed titanium pin which contrasts with the flat placement of the inlays on the wood. I really liked how the mother of pearl discs look like iridescent moons on the handle's surface.




I crafted the scabbard with the same combination of stabilized blue box elder burl and black canvas micarta which I sculpted together to the shape of the blade. I sealed the layers together with aluminum pins along the beveled edge.

For the scabbard pin, unlike the deer antler I used in the previous knife, I opted to use local carabao horn which had this really interesting black color disrupted by a few streaks of grey.

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