Green River Skinner, forged 1084 4 3/4" blade 9 3/4" OAL stained Curly maple with Tung oil finish.  Whitetail antler finger guard.







Steve
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Potomac Forge
W.F. Moran Jr. Museum & Foundation

Another masterpiece, beautiful and original. Can't wait to see the sheath as well.

Vey nice combo,great blade shape too.

Very well done, I like the antler finger guard.
Darcy  

I love it, great job with the antler too!!!!.

Thanks for the positive comments.
The antler detail is a technique ABS Mastersmith E.Jay Hendrickson and JS Shawn Hendrickson use, I just borrowed it.  The curly maple has to be seen to truly be appreciated.

Steve
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Potomac Forge
W.F. Moran Jr. Museum & Foundation

That is an amazingly beautiful knife. Nice job, Steve.

Allan

What did you use to stain/dye the maple? I've used an acid stain that can get colors like that, but nothing else. That is beautiful - both the color and the figure.

Ron

Ron, first off that maple is the best I have ever worked with, the dye is Fiebings Med Brown.

After the first application of the dye I sanded it til almost gone then applyed the second.  I thought it was too "reddish" but like it better now.  I also use Nitric Acid AKA "Aqua Fortis" which leaves a plesent Brown color.

BTW This knife was forged in the Historic Moran Shop.

Steve
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Potomac Forge
W.F. Moran Jr. Museum & Foundation

Great looking knife!!

Very nice!

Fine work right there!

      Outstanding ......

Steve, your kidding. I just noticed your signature line. I used to live about 10 miles from Bill. Visited his shop often. I really wish I'd had the foresight to order one of his knives when he was still taking orders. Since this is a trad bow site, I'll pass on a little story. A bunch of us from the Chesapeake Bay Knife Club were visiting his shop. One of us was a 20-something kid just a bit full of himself. He and Bill Moran started talking bows. Bill shot every day out behind his shop and had several bows hanging on the wall. He took one down, strung it and handed it to the young guy. The kid said "nice bow, but a bit too light for me"  Bill didn't say a word, but took the second longbow down and strung it. The kid couldn't even begin to get it back to anchor. He looked at Bill with a whole lot of respect in his eyes and then found an excuse to wander away. Bill said "Guess I forgot to tell him - I can't draw that bow either". A man with a real talent, but also a great sense of humor.

With respect to the acid, I found that you can dilute it, or leave it pretty strong. Really diluted will give maple a bright yellow color; full strength a very dark chestnut. I always worried just a little about what the residual acid might do to the tang. Looks like I better start working with leather dyes more - see if I can come up with a color like that.

That is just one really beautiful knife.

That is a classy knife.