- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Greetings all,
A much-anticpated knife has made its way into my mits - a stag and damascus bowie by Russ Andrews, JS.
Dial-up users can find an album with all photos here:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/ECB4E54C53875C0
Russ Andews and I had discussed a damascus bowie a while back. I very much wanted it to be a signature Andrews piece - in the sense that it would reflect Russ' recognizable style both in terms of overall look and in the small details. While Russ can and occasionally will turn out a big, bad, broad-bladed beast (and do so VERY well) his style tends more toward the sleek, elegant flowing blade - one more suggestive of speed and precision than brute power. Apart from requesting something within that general framework - and selecting stag for the handle material - I pretty much left Russ to do his thing.
As it happened, Russ had the near-completed blade with him at the Chicago Show, so I had the rare opportunity to see and handle his work mid-stream and also the chance to select the handle material from Russ' personal stash. The choice came down to the two pieces shown below. I became partial to the one on top:
For the guard, Russ selected two pieces of 200 layer 1084 / 15N20 opposing twist damascus:
The blade is forged from the same steels - the pattern is described by Russ as follows: "I'm calling it a random pattern, though it looks more like an attempt at a ladder pattern." So I guess we'll just have to call it "accidental ladder". The blade was taken to a deeper etch that that evident at Chicago, then hand-polished to bring out a shimmering chatoyant effect. What's neat about it is that if you look at the knife just laying flat, it looks like random pattern. The moment you let light play along its length, the ladder pattern jumps out. You can get a hint of that in the photo below:
The final specs are as follows:
Blade length 8 1/2" with OAL of 13 3/8"
Blade steel: 416 layers of 1084 / 15N20 pattern welded in a "random ladder".
Guard, ferrule and butt cap: opposing twist damascus
Sheath: hand-stitched leather with inlaid sharkskin, damascus frog from same steel as the fittings.
Okay, Russ did a pretty good job with the photos above, but he is no Coop. Fortunately, this guy is:
My thoughts on the piece? Well, I think it's pretty darned terrific. A few random thoughts:
1) The fit and finish is typically Andrews-excellent. While I have come to expect no less of Russ, it is a factor which NEVER fails to impress when picking up one of his pieces.
2) The stag displays wonderful texture and and very attractive rich chocolate brown colour with lighter caramel streaks running through it.
3) The damascus fittings are a perfect compliment to this piece, lending it a subdued, serious look;
4) The blade is shimmering delight - watching light play up and down its length soundly beats anything on TV.
5) Russ' sheath work is absolutely first rate.
Here are some closer details from Coop's excellent photo:
And a peek at trio of Andrews bowies:
My thanks to Russ for his excellent work.
Roger
A much-anticpated knife has made its way into my mits - a stag and damascus bowie by Russ Andrews, JS.
Dial-up users can find an album with all photos here:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/ECB4E54C53875C0
Russ Andews and I had discussed a damascus bowie a while back. I very much wanted it to be a signature Andrews piece - in the sense that it would reflect Russ' recognizable style both in terms of overall look and in the small details. While Russ can and occasionally will turn out a big, bad, broad-bladed beast (and do so VERY well) his style tends more toward the sleek, elegant flowing blade - one more suggestive of speed and precision than brute power. Apart from requesting something within that general framework - and selecting stag for the handle material - I pretty much left Russ to do his thing.
As it happened, Russ had the near-completed blade with him at the Chicago Show, so I had the rare opportunity to see and handle his work mid-stream and also the chance to select the handle material from Russ' personal stash. The choice came down to the two pieces shown below. I became partial to the one on top:
For the guard, Russ selected two pieces of 200 layer 1084 / 15N20 opposing twist damascus:
The blade is forged from the same steels - the pattern is described by Russ as follows: "I'm calling it a random pattern, though it looks more like an attempt at a ladder pattern." So I guess we'll just have to call it "accidental ladder". The blade was taken to a deeper etch that that evident at Chicago, then hand-polished to bring out a shimmering chatoyant effect. What's neat about it is that if you look at the knife just laying flat, it looks like random pattern. The moment you let light play along its length, the ladder pattern jumps out. You can get a hint of that in the photo below:
The final specs are as follows:
Blade length 8 1/2" with OAL of 13 3/8"
Blade steel: 416 layers of 1084 / 15N20 pattern welded in a "random ladder".
Guard, ferrule and butt cap: opposing twist damascus
Sheath: hand-stitched leather with inlaid sharkskin, damascus frog from same steel as the fittings.
Okay, Russ did a pretty good job with the photos above, but he is no Coop. Fortunately, this guy is:
My thoughts on the piece? Well, I think it's pretty darned terrific. A few random thoughts:
1) The fit and finish is typically Andrews-excellent. While I have come to expect no less of Russ, it is a factor which NEVER fails to impress when picking up one of his pieces.
2) The stag displays wonderful texture and and very attractive rich chocolate brown colour with lighter caramel streaks running through it.
3) The damascus fittings are a perfect compliment to this piece, lending it a subdued, serious look;
4) The blade is shimmering delight - watching light play up and down its length soundly beats anything on TV.
5) Russ' sheath work is absolutely first rate.
Here are some closer details from Coop's excellent photo:
And a peek at trio of Andrews bowies:
My thanks to Russ for his excellent work.
Roger
