All About Pocket Knives

About the middle of last year someone started a thread titled "knives made from a file". My friend Willem, AKA"Smokepole" gave some examples of knives he had made and some from old files and saw blades. After seeing his art work and after several conversations, I comissioned him to make me two skinner knives.The following pictures are the ones he sent me as updates from start to finished in this project. And as you will see I am thrilled to show them off, they are beautiful to look at and even more amazing to hold in the hand,( the balance is surperb). The large skinner has handles made from local hardwood and dyed black. The bolsters were made from a single warthog tusk that he cut in half and the steel is from a pitted old mill saw blade. It is quite special! The smaller skinner was made from and old file,( very thick-required alot of milling ). The handles were left in natural color and are giraffe bone. The file bolster if you will, has brass pins that were used for artistic value and represent the Southern African constellation,"The Southern Cross". I could not be more please than I am with his kindness as a person and the quality of workmanship in his art. The next project will be a beautiful Puukko likened to the one shown in the thread as mentioned above. I recommend him highly!! Thank you once again Willem for a job well done! Rocky

A few more of the pics! He also made amazing sheaths for both knives! Truly a job well done!

HOLY CRAP

Absolutely beautiful!!!

Thanks Scott! I totally agree!

You got yourself a pair of keepers there Rocky. Great looking knives with tons of character.

Willem (smokepole) is quite the artist. Congratulations Squirrel and another job well done Smoke.

Thanks Phil and Jerry! I couldn't be more pleased and tickled than two young teenagers play'in slap and tickle in the back of the gym!

Thank you Rocky - and all the other gents! I am glad you like the knives. Maybe a few notes on them - Rocky gave me free reign and I decided to do "Out of Africa" in a traditional way. The big knife is from an old circular saw blade, with the tusks and the black wood (it only looks dyed because it has brown undertone and has been sanded to 1000grit). It is not obvious in the pics, but the tusk bolsters are not even - because that is how the tusk was shaped - it was a huge one, so I carefully split it down the middle and instead of machining a lot of it away, fitted it both sides of the blade in as natural a state as possible - so it looks like the blade runs through the center of the tusk, rather than it just having tusk bolsters. I also left the natural texture of the tusk in place on the front as can be seen in the pics taken from the tip. I wanted to create a knife that would look like/ represent something that would actually be used by and African hunter - something that could have been bought from a hunter. (It seemed to have worked - I think I had 5 offers on the knife by local farmers and hunters while it was in the shop )

The giraffe bone used on the file knife is also a very traditional, and sought after, handle material amongst hunters over here, and files are often used to make knives - although they are normally much thinner than this one . I wanted to add something very typical of Southern Africa, apart from the materials, so I inlaid the Southern Cross, complete with the "heart star" in the bolsters. The heart star is in the position your heart would be if you were hanging on the cross looking down to earth, and is sometimes used as a symbol for Jesus looking down to us. It is also still commonly used for navigation and even for telling the time, as the cross rotates with the stars - it is probably the best known set of stars in the Southern Hemisphere, so I thought it appropriate.

And apologies for not being around much - life has been a little hectic, and is looking to continue like that for a while, but I will make a plan to pop in a little more often. I will also post up some pics of what I have been up to...

Thanks again Willem for further datails and explanation on your work all of which makes these more special to me. I am so proud to have these in my collection and to have the opportunity to share them with fellow collector's. God bless, Rocky

Very nice Willem... Congratulations Rock.

Thanks for looking Tank! They are super nice and are made by a super guy! Rocky