A commission piece I've been working on over the last few weeks. This has to have been one of the most challenging knife builds I've had to date, mostly because of the density of the wood, making every job take at least twice as long as it would on other hardwoods. I'm currently working on the sheath for this blade, just a basic leather carry sheath, still awaiting a reply from the commissioner about a detail or two.

This knife is named Draugurinn, or "The Ghost". Commissioned as a hunting blade, in the same rough design as my personal hunting knife, at the request of the commissioner.

The handle is made of Ebony, which is a ridiculously dense and hard-wearing timber. There is a grain to it, but it's virtually impossible to see, apart from a pair of pale 'flecks' along the spine of the handle. Instead of my usual 3 coats of boiled linseed oil and turpentine mix, I've gone for 5, to really bring out the depth of the colour in this wood. After that, the handle has had a standard 2 coats of friction polish, to give it shine and survivability.

As far as the shape of the handle goes, the commissioner wanted virtually every extra I offer, resulting in this unique outline. Primarily designed for a right-handed, forward facing grip, but has a lot of grip flexibility. The rear 'hawkshead' style quillon and the finger grooves allow a good, tight grip, even with wet hands. The area where the handle extends over the spine of the blade allows for a reverse grip, for example for when cutting fishing wire, small lengths of twine or string. I've also extended smaller finger grooves between the index finger ridge (the big lump in the middle of the handle) and the rear quillon. This allows the knife to be used in a left handed grip, if necessary.

The blade is the 'hallingen' from brusletto, and is 12cm (5in) in length. The overall length of the knife is around 24cm, (9.25in).



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