Dudley asked for green micarta handle scales with red liners, so that’s what I used. I have to admit, I really like that combination – those red liners really set off the olive green micarta. The blade on this one is 1084, which I’ve become really fond of for small / medium using knives. This steel just takes a wicked edge and seems to hold it forever. The blade is fully hardened and drawn back at the spine, tang, and ricasso for toughness.

The outer profile of the blade and tang were filed by hand (as opposed to being ground down on a belt grinder), and then cold blued. This allowed me to leave some texture on the outer edges of the steel and also give the tang and spine a slightly rounded shape. The bluing also gave it some nice contrast, better rust resistance, and sex appeal. I call this look “Blue Steel,” which was incidentally also the name of my signature look back when I was a male model.

Now here’s a little detail you may not have known about me: before I became a bladesmith I was an internationally celebrated male runway model, and even served as the inspiration for the main character in the movie Zoolander. However, as much as I enjoyed the many contributions I made to society by modelling men’s fashions, I felt there was more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking, so I left the runway for a new life in the workshop. My friends now call me “Derelicte.”*

Anyway, the Little Green Grunt has a full tapered tang to reduce weight and improve balance, and the handle scales are held on by three slightly flared stainless steel thong hole tubes. What do you think of that, Hansel?

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*In case you didn’t pick up on it, that whole thing about me being a male model was all in jest. The part about me being really really ridiculously good looking, however, is completely true. As is the part about my friends calling me Derelicte.

I also like how the guard came out. The contrast between the etched and blued wrought iron and the shiny stainless steel and phosphor bronze spacers adds a nice visual touch.

I was also very happy with the piece of ironwood we chose for the handle. It had a beautiful, nicely figured grain and some rich, warm color tones that worked really well with the rough forged look of the blade and guard.

The sheath worked out too. Nice, snug fit. They’re now en-route to SGT H and should be in his hands in a few days. And I’m en-route to the shop again, to work on a few more knives for soldiers…

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By the way, I documented the build of this knife right here on dicksworkshop.com. Just click on The Shop and go to Techniques to check it out.

The handle scales are held on with a thin layer of epoxy and some stainless steel pins that I peened over slightly to keep things nice and tight. I also put in a stainless steel lined thong hole at the heel. The blade on this knife is a hair over 5 inches and the overall length is about 10 inches. Next, I’ll need to make a leather sheath to carry it in.

Meanwhile, I have several other knives in various stages of completion cluttering up my workbench, and hopefully I’ll get a few more completed soon.

More to come soon… I hope

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For generations, they’ve protected this great nation, and it is because of them that we can continue to enjoy our safety and freedom today. So on this Veterans’ Day, as we take a few moments to honor their courage and sacrifice, I would also like to give a little something back.  

I will donate this hand forged knife to an active member of our military – one who is currently or soon to be deployed – in a drawing to be held at 9 pm Saturday. All you need to do is email me at my Yahoo address (my handle is dickwulf) to be eligible. If you are not active military you may enter the drawing on behalf of a close friend or relative who is. All I ask is for the winner to provide me with some kind of proof that the recipient is in fact active military. Also, if it’s not asking too much, I would very much like for the recipient to send me a photo of himself with the knife after he receives it.

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Now a bit about the knife – the blade is forged from quarter inch 1084FG (Aldo’s own fine grained, high manganese steel – this stuff get’s crazy hard). I triple normalized and triple quenched it in Parks 50, then tempered it twice and drew back the tang, ricasso and spine to a spring temper with a torch. The blade is a bit over 7 inches long from tip to choil and the overall length of the knife is 12 ¾”. The blade has a rough, fresh from the forge finish on the flats and a simple belt finish on the bevels, and the handle is wrapped with good old 550 cord.

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This knife is not much to look at, and lacks most customary refinements and accoutrements, but hey, warriors aren’t out there to look pretty either. The important thing is that it’s very sharp and built to perform. I tested it out a bit and I’m confident that it will handle some seriously hard use.

The sheath is a simple concealex rig outfitted with a MOLLE clip so it can be easily attached to a pack or a chest rig.

To me, as a bladesmith, there is not greater honor than to have my knives used and relied upon by soldiers. They are both the toughest and worthiest of customers. So it will give me great pleasure to give this knife to a soldier today.

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To all those who serve, and all those who have served, thank you.

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UPDATE – Congratulations to the happy new owner of this knife, SGT JZH of the 340th Psychological Operations Company.

I forged this blade from a bar of 1095 high carbon steel and gave it a Japanese style clay-coated heat treatment to fully harden the cutting edges while leaving the spine and ricasso a bit softer and more ductile. I polished it out to 600 grit and gave it a light acid etch to reveal the hamon. I also marked the blade with Nick’s last name and his unit insignia using an electro-chemical etching process. The blade, a quarter inch thick at the ricasso, has a primary cutting edge of about 4 inches and a raised, sharpened clip that extends back a little over 2 inches from the point. The tang extends all the way through the handle and protrudes slightly from the butt, creating a handy glass-breaker (or cranium-cracker, depending on the situation). The handle is tan G10 with a notched epoxy composite inlay in front of the thumb ramp to provide purchase. It’s held on with epoxy and two slightly flared stainless steel hollow tubes.

Next I’ll make a sheath, and then off it goes…

A few of the other soldiers in the unit have also contacted me requesting deployment knives. One of the soldiers - we’ll call him SGT H. – asked me to build him a knife that will serve him both on the battlefield and out in the woods in his home state of Kentucky. In addition to being a paratrooper, SGT H. is a skilled bowhunter, which is another activity where a good knife is essential to have. He requested a mid-sized knife with a comfortable, ergonomic handle and an as-forged finish on the blade, so, after we exchanged a few emails discussing various other design elements I sent him a sketch, which he then approved. Yesterday I started forging.

I brought my camera out to the shop and snapped a few photos along the way so that SGT H. could get a glimpse of the actual process and some of the various steps involved in making his custom hand forged knife. So I figured I might as well publish the pictures here on on Dick’s Workshop as well. So here it goes, on the techniques page under “The Shop”, right  here…

The handle on this one is made out of bone micarta scales held on with epoxy and slightly flared stainless steel thong hole tubing. You don’t even want to know what the wife said when I started talking about my thong hole.

The flats and edges still retain a forge finish and provide a nice contrast, both in color and texture, to the hand-rubbed blade. Forged from 1/4″ 1084 carbon steel, the thinly ground blade is 5″ long and the overall knife is just shy of 10″.  This one’s quite pointy, and VERY sharp. Much like my wife….

So of course when a man places fresh meat upon the fire he likes to have good tools available to ensure efficient and proper cooking of said meat. This is where a good barbecue fork comes into play. It must be sturdy, strong, and pointy. It must be capable not only of moving the meat around on the grill but also of chasing away and possibly killing scavengers and other potential threats. So when a friend recently invited me over for a barbecue, I decided to make him a proper barbecue / battle-fork.

He seemed to like it. Sadly I didn’t get a great picture before he picked it up and chased me away with it, but perhaps I’ll make another one for myself and post a new photo then. In the meantime, happy killin and grillin, Johnny!

See, the thing about heat treating is that if you do it well, then good for you, you’ve done your job, but if you do it poorly, you render your product inferior at best, or downright dangerous at worst. Heaven forbid someone have a blade fail them in a critical situation.

So I built this thing. The burner assembly has eight separate burners so that I can produce a more even heat distribution within the chamber. Just above the chamber is a baffle that a made out of some insulative ceramic fiber board, upon which I can place the knife while I wait for it to get up to austenizing temperature. The baffle also helps deflect the flames away from the knife, once again to more evenly distribute the heat throughout the chamber. Insulation is just some basic 8# density ceramic fiber blanket. The working depth of this heat treating forge is about 30″, so it will be able to handle some bigger blades. 

Here’s a shot of the burner assebly before I installed it in the forge body

Pretty cool, right? Next steps are to assemble a front door for this thing, and then wire up and install a thermocouple so I can get accurate temperature readings. My ability to judge heat by color is only accurate to +/- 6 degrees fahrenheit and I need single degree accuracy dammit!

Anyway, I gave it its first test run the other day and it performed great. I will post pics of the test subject when it’s completed in the next few days.

I rigged up a leather sheath that will be compatible with MOLLE gear so he can wear it on his chest rig. Here’s a shot of the front -

And here’s the backside, which shows the MOLLE compatible button strap.

Hopefully the knife will arrive at its destination in a few short days, at which point its service shall officially commence. Although my man Nick doesn’t know it yet, he has been selected as my official field tester and will hopefully report back with his impressions postehaste.

Godspeed, brother.