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I thought I would show you guys something outside the wargaming frames and pretty much out of the ordinary in general.
Painting minis isn't my only interest, I'm also an avid knifemaker, my main branch being art knives (as opposed to "users" and "jewelry knives" etc.).
The materials used are usually damascus steel blades made by a good friend of mine and exotic materials such as fossil walrus ivory, fossil mammoth ivory,
antlers and woods. I never use materials that are blatantly illegal and immoral such as rhino horn or elephant ivory.

I do this for the fun and creative part of it, and the pride you feel when finishing a piece that people appreciate. So take a look at my work this far,
and if you happen to know someone or a friend of a friend knows someone who collects or otherwise would be interested in purchasing work like this, let me know
Anyway, this post is getting too long, hope you guys apprecieate something different, here are the pictures, enjoy!

That is some fantastic work dude! Some absolutely beautiful pieces there!

Knife making is something I've been looking into a little bit recently, with a view to eventually having a go myself, unfortunately I have no way of getting started yet

For the moment I must be content to look at the work people like yourself do!

Tibbsy wrote:
That is some fantastic work dude! Some absolutely beautiful pieces there!

Knife making is something I've been looking into a little bit recently, with a view to eventually having a go myself, unfortunately I have no way of getting started yet

For the moment I must be content to look at the work people like yourself do!

Thanks mate!

For the stuff I do you need a bit of tools and machines, but to make a more simple outdoors knife you can manage with just a bandsaw and a disc sander (you can even manage without the sander).
But I feel your predicament, I have to work in my friends workshop for the most part because I dont have my own yet. But soon..
I'm a university student at the moment, so its not possible to get a house or other place to work at, but the good side is the uni has workshops

You should post a video showing how you do such intricate work.

Excellent work.

Those are terrifyingly beautiful...

 Aerethan wrote:
You should post a video showing how you do such intricate work.

Excellent work.

Thanks!

I think such a video would be way too long in the end
In short the leather sheaths are embossed or patterned using a simple tool that is about as sharp as a butter knife, its basically like doodling on leather and building the patterns.
The blades are made entirely by smithing and acid etching, there is no engraving what so ever involved in the blades.
The antlers/horns and other fossil materials on the handles on the other hand are engraved using the same technique that the Saami people of Swedish/Finnish Lapland have been using
for ages. This is probably the most intricate part of the whole process of making a knife, and it takes a bit of practice and some good magnification goggles to do it well.
The good thing is those goggles can be used for painting minis as well

The greatest challenge of all is to make something that looks good as a whole though, with shapes, colors and details, just like a mini.

I don't know if you've seen any, but there are some good videos on Youtube about this kinda thing, I've watched a few

I'll agree with Aerethan; None of the videos I've seen have covered anything this intricate or detailed; so I would love to see how you did it, even if it's split into short parts!

Tibbsy wrote:
I don't know if you've seen any, but there are some good videos on Youtube about this kinda thing, I've watched a few

I'll agree with Aerethan; None of the videos I've seen have covered anything this intricate or detailed; so I would love to see how you did it, even if it's split into short parts!

Dont expect any videos soon

Those knives are simply amazing - nothing more can be said really.

It must be highly satisfying to be able to make something like that.

Goodness, those are gorgeous.

They are indeed beautiful, but I prefer useful knives than pretty ones

Jayce_The_Ace wrote:Those knives are simply amazing - nothing more can be said really.

It must be highly satisfying to be able to make something like that.

Thanks!
It is quite a feeling of satisfaction when finishing a piece, pretty similar to finishing a mini after a long time of painting

Alfndrate wrote:They are indeed beautiful, but I prefer useful knives than pretty ones

Cheers mate!
These knives are as useful as any others in the market, the blades are carbon steel and work as such in practice, but I see your point none the less, I wouldn't use one like this in the woods even if I could!
I did help a slovakian friend of mine to make an outdoors knife a few weeks back, he's been trekking now, so I need to check in to see how it faired

KingCracker wrote:Goodness, those are gorgeous.

Thanks!

 Alfndrate wrote:
They are indeed beautiful, but I prefer useful knives than pretty ones

Aww cmon Alf, just slap one of those into a branch, and then bash the back of the blade a few times with a log. Im sure they would split wood just fine

Lol, this is currently what I use:

Well the older style of that knife

 Alfndrate wrote:
They are indeed beautiful, but I prefer useful knives than pretty ones

I see it as the difference between painting a model to golden demon or tabletop standard.
You can play with the GD miniature, but it's not what it's for.

I know these are way out of my price range, but I'd still love to have one!

This one especially caught my eye!

Ermahgerd, and this one too! That blade is the icing on the cake!
/drooling

This is my EDC.

 mega_bassist wrote:
I know these are way out of my price range, but I'd still love to have one!

This one especially caught my eye!

Ermahgerd, and this one too! That blade is the icing on the cake!
/drooling

The Frostbite one was really popular among people at conventions, and I sold it in Helsinki this January. I was quite happy with that one
Colored blades are nice, but they bring an extra step of difficulty with them as you can't handle the blade too much before it starts wearing off

That fourth one is absolutely beautiful.

 Slarg232 wrote:
That fourth one is absolutely beautiful.

That one is biiiiig, the blade was almost 8" long