9" Samson-inspired Weehawk Tanto in laminated steel *COOP SHOT ADDED*

[Lorien]

Coop's photos make your photos look like a burger king menu

 

[Richard338]

Coop's photo is amazing!
What looks like a flaw in the grind in your second photo is gone.

 

[Mike157]

Coop’s photo really does capture the all of the fine details of this fine knife! Amazing! Mike

 

[jdm61]

Crazy,man!!!!!! You used some wild materials on that one!!!! I remeber the Samson balis with the WeeHawk blades, regular and tanto.

 

[TK Steingass]

Great photo Coop - great knife Matthew. I DID notice that one grind was off by .000000015". - try to do better next time will ya?

 

[Lapedog]

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the work of Jody Samson was a very early influence, for me. When I was a teen, I pined for one of the 5" balisong that you could custom order from Pacific Cutlery with the outrageous 'weehawk tanto' grind. My buddy @Dawkind was gracious enough to provide me with an example photo:

On a recent visit to Niagara Specialty Metals @nsm I picked up a sheet of an extremely rare material that Crucible made, and thought for sure it would be a great candidate for a build based on Jody's grind, with my own personal touches to hopefully complement it.

This blade is just over 9 inches long, and is made of a laminate that consists of a CPM-S90v core (extremely high wear resistant stainless steel), and a CPM-154 jacket (improved toughness over the core, but with far less wear resistance). It is NOT a forge-welded product. This is produced in exactly the same fashion particle metal steels are, utilizing the Hot Isostatic Press method. You can read a brief rundown of the PM process, as per Crucible's website here.

Where this piece of steel differs is that it's comprised of two alloys, and they achieved this by making a billet of CPM-S90v, grinding it clean and placing it into the center of a HIP canister, and filling the sides with CPM154 powder and running it through the HIP process, producing a billet with absolutely no welds, and therefore no points of failure. I believe this particular combination was the brainchild of Ed Schempp.

Please forgive the horrible phone photos - I was in a race against time to get this in the mail to a REAL photographer before Blade Show, so hopefully I'll be able to report back here with an improved image.




A small scalloped seppa of black G10 is mounted in front of a matched titanium guard. The handle is just over 6 inches long, and consists of a core made of Terotuf, sleeved in hand-laid carbon fiber, and finished with carbon fiber tsukaito. A matched pair of sterling silver 'Hannya' demon menuki complete the package. All of the edges on the knife are razor sharp.

The photos are deceptive - this is a MASSIVE blade, and feels so in-hand. Overall length is just over 16 inches, and weighs in at 17-7/8 ounces.


Thanks for looking!

That is outrageously beautiful man!

Can I ask, do you make the menuki yourself?

 

[John A. Larsen]

I like your background better, and the almost perpendicular photos of your handle. Will you be making this style of Tanto in maybe a less exotic steel? John

 

[Bigfattyt]

Hot Damn!!!!!



That is an amazing piece. Which Lucky Duck got this piece???????

 

[Dusty One]

That is one Beautiful piece of work.........!!

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Thanks everyone!!!

That is outrageously beautiful man!

Can I ask, do you make the menuki yourself?

No, I don't - they're the only bits of my work I don't truly have a hand in.

Yet.

I like your background better, and the almost perpendicular photos of your handle. Will you be making this style of Tanto in maybe a less exotic steel? John

Not sure, but the idea of making a similar one that more aptly fits the idea of a 'dirty beater' has certainly been entertained.

 

[Pavlos]

Just...Steller Matthew, really. It's beautiful. I love it.

Paul

 

[SharpByCoop]

I am ALWAYS envious of Matt's work: Not just his knifemaking, but his crystal clear images. AA+

For this one I studied hard. I went to my own website (KnifeGallery.com) and did a search of 'Gregory' to see what I'd done in the past...

Lemme see: Red, orange, yellow, blackish, dark green, pointing up, pointing thataway, ummmmmmm.... BLUE! I haven't shot anything in BLUE pointing down...

Off I go to grab the first blue one that comes to me.

It's all so very studied and complex. Right. Sometimes it works!

*Thank you Matt!*

 

[Lorien]

 

[Matthew Gregory]

This was a fun one - thanks for the comments, everyone!

 

[Josh Rider]

Can I get one like this, with a little bit longer handle, maybe the blade a little longer 6-10”.
Slight curve overall perhaps.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

No.

 

[samuraistuart]

Very unique looking blade. "Perfectly executed"!!!