Yep my wife, Linda - thanks hon - did all the beadwork on this one.
The inspiration for this one was a painting of the Menominee chief Kitchie-ogi-man by Paul Kane in 1845. The original knife was an elaborate trade knife with a silver and horn grip. The shape was similar to Ray's knife so... The original sheath was a necker but I decided to make this one a convertible - it can be worn as a neck sheath by using the upper thongs or it can be worn in a belt - the flap which keeps it from dropping through was also inspired by originals I've seen.
Now for the knife - this is the best part of the job by the way, I get to handle all these fantastic knives and I don't have to pay for the privilege
- of course most times they are hard to let go of. Anyway this is the first (I hope to get many more) of Ray's knives I've handled and I can only say that he truly is a master - fit, finish, whatever - you name it and it's done "right".
Over the years I've sheathed a lot of the biggies and not so big biggies who make great knives and Ray's is right up there at the top.
As for the blade steel - I don't know what it is for sure, but it is fantastic - thank the lord for old saw blades eh Ray - unfortunately not all of them are of this parentage.
I didn't notice the colors until after I took the photos. At first I thought I was getting flash over from the background, but I took a real good look under a strong light and they are definitely there - a bit more subtle to the naked eye than to the cameras, but positively absolutely there. Makes me wonder how many other guys are getting rainbow hues and never really notice. Maybe the colors are there more often than we notice - maybe we are so "conditioned" to seeing steel grey that our minds don't compute it any other way until that something happens to make us "see". Tai Goo has been getting some fantastic rainbow quenches in his recent blades and these in Ray's are equally as nice.
Ray's refernce to a raft has to do with the fact that we got upwards of 4" of rain in about 12-18 hours here in the Four Corners - mud slides everywhere.
