- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Greetings gang,
As many of you will know, I have long been a big fan of Burt's knives and both own and have owned a number of his pieces - bowies, hunters, integrals and utility knives in all levels of trim.
But there is one knife that Burt does that I have beeen wanting for some time - a laminated fighter:
The picture above had been haunting me for long enough to actually do something about it. In terms of overall design, I thought it a flat-out gorgeous fighter - lean and fast with flowing lines. But what really grabbed me was the striking effect of the stainless steel shell laminated over a carbon core. It appealed to me on both an aesthetic and a technical level - it didn't strike me as something particularly easy to do. Burt agrees - as he indicates on his site:
"Laminating stainless steel to carbon steel is a giant pain in the neck, and is immeasurably more tricky than making damascus steel. However, I feel that it represents the pinnacle of function, beauty and low maintenance in a high performance knife blade. A core of W-2 steel is forge welded between two pieces of 416 stainless. Since the stainless steel covers about 90% of the blade surface, it requires no maintenance. Only the W-2 exposed near the cutting edge will tarnish, but as it darkens with age it just gives the blade a better look over time, and I don't recommend trying to polish it off. Trust me. It looks cool."
When it came to the knife Burt was to make for me, I very much wanted to keep close to the overall look of the on epictured above (why mess with success?) - but I was willing to explore different handle options. I very nearly went for African blackwood with an interesting idea for a unique inlayed damascus escutcheon (which I will likely do on a future knife) - but ultimately decided on some colourful mammoth ivory with damascus butt cap to match the guard. Here she be:
Specs are as follows:
Well, colour me pleased. VERY pleased. It's a terrific and unique-looking fighter. The feel in the hand is fast - just what you want in such a blade. Quality of fit and finish is what I have come to expect - exceptional. And the sheath is a first class piece of work.
As always, it was a real pleasure working with Burt on this (not that I did anything remotely resembling "work"
)
One more look at the knife alone (all pics are Burt's):
Roger
As many of you will know, I have long been a big fan of Burt's knives and both own and have owned a number of his pieces - bowies, hunters, integrals and utility knives in all levels of trim.
But there is one knife that Burt does that I have beeen wanting for some time - a laminated fighter:
The picture above had been haunting me for long enough to actually do something about it. In terms of overall design, I thought it a flat-out gorgeous fighter - lean and fast with flowing lines. But what really grabbed me was the striking effect of the stainless steel shell laminated over a carbon core. It appealed to me on both an aesthetic and a technical level - it didn't strike me as something particularly easy to do. Burt agrees - as he indicates on his site:
"Laminating stainless steel to carbon steel is a giant pain in the neck, and is immeasurably more tricky than making damascus steel. However, I feel that it represents the pinnacle of function, beauty and low maintenance in a high performance knife blade. A core of W-2 steel is forge welded between two pieces of 416 stainless. Since the stainless steel covers about 90% of the blade surface, it requires no maintenance. Only the W-2 exposed near the cutting edge will tarnish, but as it darkens with age it just gives the blade a better look over time, and I don't recommend trying to polish it off. Trust me. It looks cool."
When it came to the knife Burt was to make for me, I very much wanted to keep close to the overall look of the on epictured above (why mess with success?) - but I was willing to explore different handle options. I very nearly went for African blackwood with an interesting idea for a unique inlayed damascus escutcheon (which I will likely do on a future knife) - but ultimately decided on some colourful mammoth ivory with damascus butt cap to match the guard. Here she be:
Specs are as follows:
- Blade length of 7 7/8" with an overall length of 12 3/4"
- Blade steel - Laminated 416 stainless and W-2 (all those other "layers" are some form of carbon migration. Kevin Cashen will shed some more light on this when he completes his analysis of a test blade).
- Fittings: twisted "W" pattern damascus (O-1 and 15n20).
- Nickel silver pins and spacers and tang "button"
- Mammoth ivory handle.
- Sheath is tooled with a two stage dye process, and a two stage finish process.
Well, colour me pleased. VERY pleased. It's a terrific and unique-looking fighter. The feel in the hand is fast - just what you want in such a blade. Quality of fit and finish is what I have come to expect - exceptional. And the sheath is a first class piece of work.
As always, it was a real pleasure working with Burt on this (not that I did anything remotely resembling "work"
)One more look at the knife alone (all pics are Burt's):
Roger
But me thinks its time to change the avatar to your fighter... 