San Mai Hunter

[Karl B. Andersen]

Here's a knife just completed for a good customer.
He chose a San Mai blade, which I made from 416 stainless with a 1095 core.
416 satin guard.
And just a really sweet piece of African Blackwood for the handle. I find the Blackwood with the varying tones of brown striations to be of much higher quality and aesthetic value than all black Blackwood. (It's also harder to come by!)

I hope ya'll enjoy:

[quint]

That looks killer man, yeah the black ebony woods look great when you can see some of the browner tones thruout. I know with some gabon ebony I had a heck of a time sanding it because I thought it had sand lines in it but it was actually faint brown streaks running thru it. Looks great once done though.

That san mai looks great as well.

[jawilder]

beautiful piece. I love sanmai and yours looks great

[Cody Hofsomme]

Nice, as usual, Karl. What causes the double line on those. I can't make sense of that. Why does it go from light to dark to light back to dark, instead of just light to dark?

[Marlin01]

Thats awesome.

[Karl B. Andersen]

There's a whole lot going on in that transition zone.
After the stainless is welded to the tool steel core, and it's in the forge at welding heat, the 416, which is carbon deficient, sucks some of the carbon from the tool steel.
You can also see an area that appears to be all iron in person.
Keep in mind then that the etchant also comes into play and reacts differently with the stainless, the 1095, raw iron, and parts that are hard/not hard.
It really looks cool in person and under magnification.

Nice, as usual, Karl. What causes the double line on those. I can't make sense of that. Why does it go from light to dark to light back to dark, instead of just light to dark?

[Cody Hofsomme]

Good explanation, it sure makes it pop.