Carved blackwood and bronze hunter

J. Doyle

J. Doyle

Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
8,287
Here's another hunter for my show next weekend. This one, I think, was cursed from the beginning. :) While polishing the blade, I laid my finger wide open and had to get 6 stitches. Then I went to put a buckeye burl handle on, got it all fit and shaped and found a huge bark inclusion in the handle that made it unusable. I changed that to an ironwood handle, got it all fit and shaped and during final polish, I split the handle completely in half. So I went to my old standby.........blackwood and tried it a third time. One could draw the conclusion that I might not know what I'm doing...........and they would be right. :) Maybe I just should have started with blackwood in the first place.

Anyway, the specs:

Hand forged from 1075 steel, clay quenched
8 1/4" overall, 3 1/2" sharp, .195" thick at the ricasso
Nice distal taper
Heavily rounded spine and ricasso edge for comfort
Bronze guard and fittings
Blued and coined spacer
African blackwood handle, carved and textured with line cut rings

All comments and discussion welcome.


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John, This one has all the right elements for me. I will bet this one is going to a new home at the show.

Thanks for sharing

Bing
 
I think this has got to be the best hunter I've seen you do, and you've done some really nice hunters. The radiused spine and the well executed handle details are icing on the cake. As Bing stated, I'm sure this one wont last long on the table.
 
Beautiful John, I love your hunters! I think BuckEye and Ironwood would just be wrong on this knife. Sorry about the stitches my friend.

Good luck at the show, this will be an easy sell.
 
John I like this one it has a signature J Doyle look. keep up that carving it's working
 
I'm not entirely sold on the carving, but I do love the coined spacer. To me that's such a great, classy detail. And I love the proportions of the knife.
 
I'm a nobody browser, but that is one of the most attractive knives I've ever seen. The simplicity and fit/finish is great!
-T
 
Beautiful hunter, great fit and finish.
Love the guard fitting particularly and the butt of the handle.
And cool hamon too.
 
This piece looks extremely well executed as is the norm for you, however I don't like this as much as the Koa and Damascus hunter you last posted. To my eye, the handle stippling and the carved lines clash.
 
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That is one of the nicest looking hunters that I've seen. Very nice sir.
 
I, too, am WOWed by this hunter !
Great lines, love the combination of materials used, the carving and texturing of the handle and the requisite hamon.
Great execution of a hunter, John.

Doug
 
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