Father and Son Knives
 

A member of our archery club asked if I would make him and his young Son a set of knives with shed antlers he had as the handles. I agreed.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...rod1_horn2.jpg

I sent him all my blade forms and he picked a Nesmuk style blade.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...rod1_horn5.jpg

I did a bit of custom file work on the backbones of the blades to dress them up and then polished the file work

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...rod1_horn7.jpg

Then I applied gun blueing to the backbone and gave the blades a brushed finish leaving the blueing in the deep areas of the file work

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...rod1_horn6.jpg

He asked that I fill in the white bases of the antlers with "Dad" and "Mitch" I saved the brow tines for display bases.

The blades are O1 steel heat treated and twice tempered to RC58 hardness

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn94.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn95.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn96.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn97.jpg

For the sheaths, I used 8 Oz. Oak tanned leather with a medium brown dye to give an "Old" look to the leather..

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn98.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d1_horn991.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d1_horn992.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...od1_horn99.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d1_horn994.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d1_horn995.jpg

Those are beautiful!
Especially the backbone detail.