Shark skin handle on whale knife

[milesofalaska]

[IMG Hunter skinner whale shape of 1084 carbon steel. What is unique about this knife is the handle material is shark skin! I thought a good combination with the whale theme, both of the ocean and the shark feeds on the whale. So a story knife and one of my 'animal knives'. I got the idea when trying to armadillo skin. Someone else had tried it and turned me on to it. I know nothing about 'armadillo', I live in Alaska!. But I was on the phone with a customer down south trying to sell the armadillo idea, and his wife in the background says "No way! Armadillo-yulky, what a nasty animal! You aren't bringing any of that animal in my house!" I went "Huh" and "hmmm". And realized no, there is no come back to that one. I had no idea. I was only looking at the pattern. The pattern looked like snake skin. I wish the armadillo was a reptile- but it would be hard to advertize 'reptile skin' But reptile skin hmmm. But no it would be illegal, nothing big and thick skin anyhow like Kimono dragon! Or a 60 ft python.
What's legal? I got some alligator (soon to try) and some of this shark skin. Now the misses might claim the shark is yulky, but who is going to tell the shark? Sharks and knives really go together! I had some technical issues to face. I soaked the skin in a secret potion to soften it. The potion has glue in it. I did not drill my handle homes in the steel. I soaked the cut out scales. The hide was so hard I used the band saw. But very uneven! While wet and pliable I clamped the hide to the steel and let it dry. I then trimmed the skin and drilled the handle holes and riveted it in place. Now e got a whale of a shark. I did my usual ' hammer copper in the steel' as I forged it, and my acid etch. Certainly a unique one of a kind shall we say 'out of the box' (shark on the loose) kind of knife]

Maybe it will give others idea to explore. I’m not sure my technical ability keeps up with my vivid imagination. Smile. But bouncing and exchanging ideas here is great.
I have seem some wood work in handles here that gave me ideas. I practiced stabilizing, color impregnating, and trying to duplicate what I saw here. It will of course never be as stable or good as professional job! But fun, with interesting results! So I hope others see what I am up to and get inspired to try some new direction. Thanks for looking. Oh- the skin is much easier to get to impregnate with the resin then wood. I believe more than one layer could be laminated using simple clamps to get more thickness if desired.

 

[james.crockett]

Your knives are very beautiful. I think the copper in the steel is super unique, not sure i've seen it done before like that. The shapes are organic and although that's not my favorite style, it sure is refreshing to have some diversity among the three genres of classic, modern, and fantasy.