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Handmade knives available on consignment. Celtic Hunting Knife, with carved antler handle. Pattern-welded dagger, bare blade at the moment...

Another commissioned piece, a boat knife, loosely based on a viking knife from Novgorod. Made from 1095, copper and ebony...

First three images show the initial carving process for the bog oak handle of this gralloching knife. First I cover the handle in surgical tape and draw the design in Sharpie (can't believe it took me 18 years of carving blackwood to figure out that wee trick...), then I cut the outline and remove the background, then cut the interstices and overlaps. Next I skive down the corners of the bands to round them, working with the grain (this is the only part that is traditional push carving - everything else is chip carving). Finally I use a small coarse file to scrape everything smooth, and then sand with 150 grit paper. From here, I will sketch the lines of the grooves which form the cording directly onto the wood in pencil, and carve them one at a time using the same methods...

The fourth image shows the blade hand sanded to 400 grit and given a quick dip in FeCl to check the position of the hardened steel so I can lay out the filework. Once the jimping is done, I'll take the blade to 800 grit...

The fifth image shows the carving almost done, while the final three give views of the finished knife and sheath.

See On the Bench for a full description of this knife in progress

First two images show the roughed out handle for this broken backed seax blade. I shortened the blade by about an inch to give it a bit more heft at the shoulders, broached a hole for the tang in a piece of burr elm, made a hammered copper guard plate and pin, and rasped the handle into rough shape. Think it will get a copper butt plate, some black leather spacers for a bit of contrast, and some simple carved knotwork...

Second two images show the handle shaping finished, and design laid out for carving. This knife will be available on consignment, and its progress shown On the Bench

First image shjows one of the brut de forge tantos I forged from antique files a couple of months back, just hardened, hollow ground to sharp, with the foundation polish. Turns out that it's shear steel, though I'm not sure how much pattern I can bring out, and it's much deeper hardening than I expected. When I was polishing the spine, the nakago twisted in the vise, and the edge slammed down onto a hardened clamp with my full weight behind it, with minimal edge damage, so I know my h-t is good, despite the fact that it almost through hardened, so today I made a hollow ground copper habaki for it, which was fun. Thinking wire brushed bog oak for the tsuka, with maybe bone fuchi and kashira...

Second two images show the bog oak tsuka fitted, having drilled the mekugi ana and made a bone mekugi and seppa. After much deliberation I cut in the profile of the handle, which for some reason I still find insanely difficult to get right, but I'm pretty pleased with this one.