Red Flower knife
I created this knife for a lass by the name of Red Flower. The handle is of myrtle wood, obtained from a furniture maker on the Oregon coast during our last drive through that area. The blade is of Scandinavian stainless steel. Both the blade and the vegetable tanned leather that was used for the sheath were purchased from Ragnar's Ragweed Forge. The bolster is a thin disk of caribou antler.
I cut the wood to rough shape with a hand saw, then drilled a hole to accommodate the tang of the knife. I then cut a rectangular hole in the antler to accommodate the tang. The hole in the wood was then filled with epoxy, and the antler and tang put into place. Epoxy was also placed over the porus central area of the antler on the blade side to seal it. Once the epoxy set additional epoxy was placed in the area between the projecting antler disk and the wood. When that epoxy set the handle was carved to a rough approximation of its final shape and then the knife and antler were sanded.
The knife was finished first with several coats of furniture oil. After that a couple of coats of tung oil were applied, and then the final couple of coats of linseed oil.
To make the sheath I folded the leather around the finished knife and cut the leather to the approximate shape I wanted with a knife. Lacking proper leather working tools, I used a fork to mark the holes on each side of the sheath. This was done by pressing the fork into the leather so it would leave an impression of four holes. I would then move the fork forward so the first hole lined up with the last impression and press down again, marking three more holes. When all of the holes were marked I used a hand drill to drill them out. Then I sewed artificial sinew through the holes to form the sheath.
After the sheath had its rough form I soaked it in water to make it flexible. I wrapped the finished knife in saran wrap and inserted it into the sheath. I let the leather dry around the sheath. The wide bolster of the knife serves to lock the knife securely into the sheath.
I carved the flower, the initials, and the date into the sheath with a utility knife that holds a razor blade. This was slow work. I marked the carved lines in the flower and the letters with a Sharpie permanent marker. The brown in the flower did well, but the black in the initials bled out and I had to clean up the lines with a black ball-point ink pen. I used the ball-point pen to color in the numbers too. Then I dyed the flower with red leather dye.
Then I rubbed Fieblings Antique Mahogany finish into the sheath. This gave the sheath its two toned, distressed look. Finally I coated the sheath with neat-lac leather finish, and when that was dry a coat of Renaissance Wax.
The dangler strap is made of braintanned buckskin, which was wet, and then drawn through a hole punched in the sheath. The two ends of wet buckskin were then twined together, then finally tied through a hole in the other side of the sheath.
Red flower models her knife in the picture below.
Part 2 - Red Flower Strikes Back
In 2004 Red Flower made a similar knife for me, using the same materials and techniques. She traced the handle of one of my most frequently used kitchen knives and used that for a pattern for the handle. The blade is a Scandinavian one, of carbon steel instead of stainless like hers. We got some leather from a local saddle shop for the sheath.
The Chinese characters on the sheath say Li Si. The name I go by in China is Ao Li Si, which is a phonetic approximation of Wallace. That name was given to me by my friend Yang Yang back in the early 80's. Since the family name comes first in China, Li Si would be my first name. Each character has multiple meanings, but Li can mean sharp, and Si can mean gentle. 2004 in Chinese characters is on the back of the sheath.
Red Flower and I were married Chinese New Year, 2004. If you look closely you will see a blue ceramic bead incorporated into the twined strap. That is from one of the New Year Decorations from our wedding.
