Something different and im still unsure about it, Sgian Dubh

[Lerch]

Hi all

Well a coworker of mine asked me a while back if he could work with me on making a knife for him, he said he wanted something historical and i told him to figure out what he wanted and we would get it done. he came to me a couple of days later and asked me to make him a Sgian Dubh celtic knife, i said i had no idea what the heck he was talking about :les:

He gave me a little brief history of the knife and we looked up some google pics of the various examples and settled on one that was his favorite. in the beginning i wanted to fancy up the knife some for him but he is a VERY functional based person and doesnt care for much of anything fancy though he does like "old or antique" stuff. He also fell in love with mammoth ivory after i got my first shipment in, like i said he likes old stuff :9:

anyway here are the specs:

7.25" OAL
1095 differentially heat treated blade 1/8" thick
heavy etched and lightly hand buffed finish
416 stainless bolsters blued and antiqued finish
mammoth ivory slabs and stainless pins with blued finish

He loves the knife so i am happy for him, i dont know for sure if am happy with all of it but i think that is more based on the knife not being a style i am familier with. this was the first knife i have ever completely finished then disasembled and etched the blade and blued the bolsters and then reassembled which was a challenge getting everything to fit back up tight. this was also my first try with hidden pins in the bolsters which was also a challenge but all in all i learned a lot and can apply the experince to future projects

thanks
steve

 

[Dan Pierson]

Very nicely done cross between American old timey and classical Sgian Dubh. I'll bet
he's happy with it!

 

[Rob Nelson]

This Scotsman would be proud to carry that ... dubh means black or hidden, so I like that you etched it and blued the bolsters. If I had to guess, most of my forebears carried one with bone handles and iron bolsters so you might not be far off from original. The popular design sold today is a dress version, but the knife itself hails back to a time when the sgian-dubh was specifically a holdout knife. Well done sir!

 

[Lerch]

Thanks guys!!

Ya it was a interesting build. I had to grind the bolsters to match the contour of the mammoth ivory so i could keep as much of the detail in the ivory as possible. the ivory slabs were pretty thin so i didnt have a lot of room to work with, this made the bolsters kind of odd looking but in the end i think it adds even more to the rugged, old timey antique look. I tried to simulate a scaled or sawtooth design on the hamon and it came through pretty well on the side of the blade i show the profile of.

I had honestly never heard of this design of knife before but after messing with one i may have to build myself one for a hidden carry.

thanks
steve