A few months ago I shipped my “little grunt” knife out to a paratrooper from the 173D Airborne Brigade, and at that time I also informed him that, whether he liked it or not, I had enlisted him as my official field tester. Since then he has found ample opportunity to carry and use the knife in the field – in fact, he’s out on a training mission in Germany as I write this – and I’m pleased to report that he has been very happy with the knife’s performance. He has also provided me with extensive and valuable feedback, much of which I am incorporating in a new knife that I’m finishing up for him right now. This new knife will be his official deployment knife when he ships out into the warzone next year and I will post pictures of it in a few days when it’s complete. In the meantime, here’s a little teaser pic.

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…