Starting a new knife project

New knife project: Damascus hunting knife

Making a damascus knife

a few years ago my brother gifted me with a beautiful peace of handforged damascus steel, made by a local blacksmith called Frithjof Güttler. (See dermesserschmied.de)

Till now i always have been afraid to work with this steel. Like a painter sitting in front of a white canvas.

But after finishing a few knives to date, i feel confident enough to start this project. Here on my website i want to share my experience with this project. As good as i can, i will log al steps an document them in text, video and pics.

Here is my plan

I want a small hunting knife with a blade fitting my hands for cutting and skinning. The knife will feature a 75mm long blade and an overall length of 178mm. I will use stabilized moor oak scales with either brass or nicklesilver pins in 5mm. I also will ad a 7mm lanyard hole with a stainless steel tubing as insert. (maybe)

The blade will feature 2 jimping areas, one for the thumb, right after the scales and one on the tip of the blade for better index finger grip while skinning.

After grinding and hardening i will do a satin finish on the blade and etch it with ferric chloride. To provide a even better marking of the damascus i will give it a bath in instant coffee over night.