Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades New guy, Cayuse Skinner

Hello all, Been lurking for awhile thought Id show some latest knife as a Howdo ice breaker. Names Romey, I am from Mt,Ranch and guide for a living as well as bladesmith.

This one was for a bowhunter in New York. He supplied the Sambar stag handle which quiet frankly was nearly useless as a handle but after some creating hand filing I got the twist out. It was touch and go if the sambar he supplied would work but I think it came out nice. Feels great in the hand.
Hope you enjoy
4.75 inch hand forged W-2 Blade with 600 grit hand finish and false edge.
Stacked Nickle silver/black spacer guard and end cap
Sambar stag handle
Border stamped 9oz double shoulder leather sheath

Fantastic knife!

It looks very gut-pile friendly!

good looking blade. What material is the end cap and bolster made from?

The stag handle turned out great. That is really a very nice knife. The new owner should be proud.

4.75 inch hand forged W-2 Blade with 600 grit hand finish and false edge.
Stacked Nickle silver/black spacer guard and end cap
Sambar stag handle
Border stamped 9oz double shoulder leather sheath

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Romey
Might I ask what it is about the stag you dislike for handle material. What do you normally work with???

Outstanding work by the way.

Tim

MRK, I think it was about the shape of this particular piece of stag he was talking about. He was not sure he was going to be able to get the correct shape from the piece.

I have ever made a stag handle with all the outer bark ground off. I think the one pictured looks very neat.

If anyone is interested, you can take a piece of stag or deer antler and soak it in Peroxide for a few days, and the white part and pith will come out very white, looking almost like ivory. The Peroxide doesn't seem to bleach the outer surface of the stag or antler.

Or, you could sand the outer surface off, as on the one pictured, bleach it, and it would look almost like ivory. It all depends on what you want.

The stag handle on the knife I posted a few days ago, I was going to use the scales on a different blade, larger than this one, but they were too small.

Thats correct, the customer supplied the stag or it would had been noting I would have chose. It was not only crooked but twisted as well,luckly he wanted all the bark off so allowed me some leeway in shaping it up correctly. Other then that stag is one of my favorite materials.
The pictures dont show it well but there is actually blue and purple hues in parts of the handle that is really striking. I kinda wish I could have kept this one for myself when it was done!

Do you cut the peroxide or use it straight???

I have come up with a little solution on my table top drill press to drill the tang hole thru a crooked piece of horn and end up with the holes in the center (or real close) at both ends.

I have been soaking my organic materials in a wood stabilizer also before using. It doesn't fill the voids, but stops dimensional changes later on.

Romey-- again, very nice work--and no, you can't keep them all.

jmho
Tim

I use straight peroxide. I am talking about the peroxide sold in drug stores for whatever it is used for.

After soaking, I rince it in water thoroughly, then let it soak in water for about 2 more days, then let it dry for about 2 or three days.

I have never used the wood stabilizer, but it sounds like a good idea.

These are pictures of ball point pens I made from cartridge cases and White Tail deer antler.

The top pen, the chrome plated one, has peroxide soaked deer antler on it. Before I soaked it, this piece of antler was so discolered and it was about unusable.

Thank you all for the comments.

Those are pretty neat pens you got there.Looks to me like the peroxide works well for whitening may come a time I try that for a couple uses I have in mind for handles.

I havent found much need to stabilize any antler so long as the pith is drilled out in them and they are sealed well. A buffed coat of carnuba wax will bring a nice shine as well as a seal. I have also soaked antler in butcher block oil which is nothing more then high grade mineral oil and then wax. Depending on the animal the antler came from.
I have seen stag handles on cutlery sets from Germany that was over 100 years old (unstabilized ofcourse),showing no signs checking or cracking as antler wont move like wood will.

Nice photography on the knive!!!

Thanks, Photography is not my strong suite. Its alot of luck to get pictures to come out for me.