Matching hunters...in a yin/yang sort of way

J. Doyle

J. Doyle

Dealer - Purveyor
Here's a set I just completed for a local collector. He's picking them up tomorrow and I hope he likes them. I'd been mulling over the idea of a matched set of sorts for a while. I had these two blocks of wood that were so nearly identical that they had to go together. This wood has it all burl, curl, spalt and even three tone! (I know the three tone won't be everyone's favorite ;) )

So when my collector called and asked about a set, he picked the wood out and instead of doing an exact match, we settled on the matching but with a yin/yang theme idea. One is dark etched with black fittings and hamon the other a polished hamon with silver fittings. The only thing not in theme is the 'bolts' on the butt end. He requested both of those be an engravable material as he wants to get initials engraved on both pieces.

I matched sizes, shapes and everything else as close as I could, right down to even getting a decent match on the hamons.

Claude Scott did a fantastic job on the leather, right down to matching the theme with the light/dark leather.

Specs of the knives:
Hand forged from 1075 steel, clay quenched for hamon on both
8" overall, 3 5/8" blades, .190" thick at the ricasso with sharp distal taper
Rounded spines and ricasso edges for comfort
Black g-10 fittings one one, german silver fittings on the other. Both with fileworked spacers of the same materials
Stabilized box elder burl, curl, spalt...etc handles. All natural, no dye.
Handles are nicely contoured for comfort and slim and light
File fullered butt ends with german silver engraving buttons.

All comments and discussion welcome good, bad, or otherwise.













A couple quick pics showing the hamon activity better:


 
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That wood is absolutely gorgeous. Nice symmetry between the two knives a well. Fine workmanship all around John.
 
Oh man those are sweet! In my head when I seen them I thought of Waynes World the movie when when they are on there knees saying we're not worthy were not worthy. ...the black one is my favorite.
 
Thank you gents. I sure appreciate it!

Prior to the build, I would have bet my whole shop that I'd like the dark one best. I just like the dark etch, the black hamon and black fittings on knives. But when they were done, I prefer the bright one by just a slight margin and I can't really say why.
 
Here's my reason why. The black one only has the black in one area making the center of the knife the focal point rather than just a part of an over all balance of detail. Every other knife of yours I have looked at is very aesthetically balanced. The quality of the black fittings is exceptional and if the butt end of the knife had a black detail like a grip cap on a rifle or something I would probably then prefer it over the bright one.

I wouldn't discard that black technique....it's amazing. Maybe just incorporate a bit more of it on a single knife.

This is not meant to be critical as both of those are very beautiful. My preferential difference is small between the two of them. The bright one just rings my bell a bit louder.
 
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