Ariel Salaverria Custom Knives - Damascus Custom Knives - Knifemaking

#23 - #22 - #21 - #20 - #19 - #18 - #17 - #16 - #15 - #14 - #13 - #12 - #11 - #10 - #9 - #8 - #7 - #6 - #5 - #4 - #3 - #2 - #1

#27 - #26 - #25 - #24

Knifemaking - Three Criollo Knives
Three traditional style criollo knives with special handles. This was my first dealer order.

Order Details:
- 7.5” blade according to the typical criollo blade profile.
- Hand forged 5160, differentially hardened, satin finish.
- 4.5" handle, including bolsters in palo santo (dyed to a rosewood color) with details in copper and stainless steel.
- Bolsters in polished stainless steel.
- Pommel in polished stainless steel and palo santo.
- Sheath in black handstitched cow leather with details in stainless steel, palo santo and brass.

Knives making process
One of the copper plates to bend for one part of the handle. (Picture 1)

Bended copper plate. (Picture 2)

The manual bender I used for this. (Picture 3)

Drilling a stainless steel plate. (Picture 4)

Bended and drilled copper plate. (Picture 5)

Presentation of the handle. (Picture 6)

Pressed handle, ready to get into shape. (Picture 7)

Detail of how I make the handle to stick together. Then I covered the screw and nut with another wood piece. (Picture 8)

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Two knives, one already carved and with the handle final shape (pommel not polished yet) but not fully dyed. Second one is still with an early shape and showing the original color or palo santo. (Pictures 9 and 10)

Picture 9

Picture 10

Sheath making process
This is how I made the upper part of the sheath with the clip. I first make a paper stencil with the the sheath as reference. (Picture 11)

Then I place it on a 304 stainless steel plate to cut the blanks. (Picture 12)

Then I bend them following the sheaths and then I weld them (Picture 13)
You can also see the progression of the work on the 3 different parts.

Then we have the detail of the point of the sheaths. (Picture 14)

Wooden parts are secured in place not only with glue, but with 3 wooden pegs (two in one side and one on the other) that go inside both leather and wood layers. (Pictures 15 and 16)