Stainless Boot

I had to re-handle this using pins. Epoxy does not really stick to stainless, but the pins keep the scales on. I'm not sure if this is going into the working knives collection. It's difficult to sharpen, but it won't rust and can open letters and clean fingernails. Which is to say, I really like damascus. Trouble is, I can buy a finished knife from Charlton for not much more than the blank, which is not only a valuable collectable, but is much better made than I can possibly do. Maybe one or two of each...

Classic Modified

I finally finished the "classic" bowie. Charlton sells these blanks, but I'd gotten this a while back, probably from SMKW, and never really figured out how to mount a handle to the short and narrow tang. Now I'm a little more familiar and comfortable with soldering onto damascus, although I got a little too much on the guard, and I'm pretty good at making rectangular holes. For the guard I used a C&O Canal commemorative bronze coin, and the handle was the same crate wood



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I finally routed a shallow notch in two flats of wood, each cut half of the thickness of the tang. Worked good, although I ended up with a pretty wide gap between the handle and the guard.

I'd take off about five points for the gap, and 2-3 more for lack of finish. (It could use some sanding with 600 and my arm's tired). I'll give it a 95, cause I am the judge!