In memory of the Black Rhino

Zuluninja

Zuluninja

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
2,796
The Black Rhino is no longer roaming free. It has been declared extinct recently, so now your only chance to see one is at a zoo.

It is not exactly fresh news, but I remember feeling very sad when I read about it. So sad that in fact had to take a trip to the local zoo and snap some shots, but I still couldn't shake it off.

So, I had this Muela Rhino. It's a full tang Sandvik 14C28N blade sandwiched between 3D black micarta. The high flat grind was perfect for what I had in mind. With patience, pen, ink, paper and some acid this is what I came up with.

How it looked like:

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even having a very decent leather sheath, I made a kydex taco for it later

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after the zoo, it was drawing time

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and then the acid dip

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It made me feel a bit better. Folks, I know that many of you like to hunt and that is fine, but please be aware that species DO disappear from the face of this planet.
 
mankind, not being happy as self-destructive, also tries to drag everything else into the void. Thanks guys.
 
You, sir, are an incredible artist. How much experience do you have acid etching? Thanks to your knife, I will never forget the Black Rhino.
 
I'm actually rather new to acid etching, been doing it for probably less than 6 months, but I have been etching with an old cell charger and salt/vinegar for a couple of years, so this may be considered a variation of it (although historically it's a waaaaay older etching method). Thanks.
 
That looks really awesome, great work !
I really like that knife, too. My finger's been hovering over the "buy" button a couple of times with this one. Love the black/ red combo on the handle.
How do you like that knife ? Any experience how the steel holds up to harder use ?

Sad about the Rhino, though. Mankind is a real scourge for this planet sometimes.
 
that is awesome.

i'm making a knife for a soldier from some 1075 and donating it to him. i do not have a way to etch a blade but i wanted to put his name on it but now that i seen that i thought something else would look neat on the blade like a us flag. could you do something like that?
 
sure could, richard. Send me a pm and if u can a photo of the blade. C-Becker, go ahead, it's a well made knife, muelas have been around for over 50 years and sandvik is good stuff. Haven't used it really hard due to too many knives to play with, gotta thin the herd :D
 
Nice, nice work.

I was afraid you were going to tell us the scales were made from black rhino horn or something... Whew.
 
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You have achieved a beautiful example of the rhino zuluinja. Incredibly detailed, love your craftsmanship/artistry. My only question is why not etch the rhino in black. Are they more of a dark grey color. Not trying to be critical, I have never seen a Black rhino-so just asking.
 
I did the relief so the rhino would stand out in detail; the other way around a lot of detail would have been lost. They were not truly black, more like a grayish color. The terms "black" and "white" as applied to rhinos was used as a mean to differentiate species, easier to do than a morphological description.
 
Thanks for the clarification zulu. I thought that might be the reason. That is one fine tribute, thanks for sharing your photo's with all of the forum.
 
zuluninja said:
I did the relief so the rhino would stand out in detail; the other way around a lot of detail would have been lost. They were not truly black, more like a grayish color. The terms "black" and "white" as applied to rhinos was used as a mean to differentiate species, easier to do than a morphological description.
Click to expand...

I was taught it this way. "White and Wide" start with a W. So the white rhino is the one with the straight across upper lip...his mouth is wide. The Black is, well not White so it is the one with the prehensile sort of finger in the middle of his upper lip.
 
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