Black Ash Utility

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 bolster. It is 8 1/2” over all 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 back side 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.

This one ships CONUS for $850.


	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.


	The finger relief sculpted into the bolster kind of shows up here but not all that well.


	A look along the entire bottom of the handle. The haze along the spine is reflection. Knives as mirrored as these are hard to take decent pictures of.


	UPDATE: This knife has been given engraving by Ron Nott. This is the back side of the bolster.

This spalted black ash burl is killer stuff. I made it a point to work in the bark inclusions for character. You’ll see that inclusion carry through the other side also. Working with this inclusion was taking a chance that it wouldn’t crack the scale and have it crumble off during shaping. I think it was worth taking the chance. You can see the mirror in the hollow grind showing the lights of the ceiling the room I was shooting these pictures.