Black Ash Burl Utility Knife

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Book marked Spalted Black Ash Burl scales with heavy inclusions really punch up this burl wood.

This utility has a blade of 4 1/2” from tip to front of the bolster. It is 8 1/2” overall and approx 0.180” thick. The steel is CPM154 mirror-polished all the way with an 8” hollow grind.

I did the heat and cryo treatment on this one. The wood was stabilized by WSSI of Iowa. The bolster has finger relief sculpted in the bottom edge and has a concave backside to secure the scale. One only pin is needed to hold the scale since the bolster holds the front of the scale in place.

I had a big problem with this one 90% of the way through and nearly scrapped it. I had a chip come out of the bolster that was such an annoying flaw I couldn’t have let it out of the shop. I decided it wasn’t going to get the best of me and went to work on fixing it. A small design change and a little extra effort removed the flaw. I’m glad I stuck with it as it seems to have turned out OK.

An Update on this knife. I had Ron P. Nott engrave this knife. Classic scroll work with gold inlay on both bolsters. Ron really did a nice job on this one.
A look along the top of the handle. What appear to be smudges or smears across the top of the tang are actually reflections of the room where I was taking pictures. I didn’t figure this out until I looked at this picture and then checked the knife and it was sparkling clean.
Leather loop sheath front and back. This one has 4 different color dyes on it to give it some depth and give it a mottled appearance like the burl wood.