African Hunter

IVORY SCRIMSHAW DROP POINT HUNTER

Pink Ivory Hunter

Blade: 440 C hardened to 59Rc,double ground, OAL 9" Handle: Pink Ivory and Ebony with nickle silver guard,spacers and butt cap. Pink Ivory, also known as umNini or umGoloty, is treasured as a rare, exotic wood. It grows predominantly in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The tree is protected and can only be felled by a very limited permit. Years ago, pink ivory was the royal tree of the Zulu kings. The wood is very hard and heavy and it has a very fine grain, which allows a high polish. Ebony is also a very hard and dense wood and excellent for knife handles. It grows in Ceylon, India, Sri Lanka and Western Africa. Please click on picture to enlarge.

Ivory and Damascus Pocket Knife The blade and bolsters are made of Norris Raindrop Damascus. Damascus steel was a type of steel used in Indian and Middle Eastern sword-making, originally based on wootz steel, a steel developed in South India before the Common Era. These swords are characterized by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water. Such blades were reputed to be tough (Wikipedia) The beauty and serendipity of Damascus seem to be endless. The scales are elephant ivory one of my favorite materials to work with. Ivory has been valued since ancient times for making a range of items of which knife making is one of them. The thumb stud has buffalo horn inlay. The blade has Roman Knot file work on and is honed to a sharp resilient edge. Please click on knife to enlarge.

Clip Point Hunting Knife

This is a sabre grind clip point hunting knife. The sabre grind is a strong edge format. The bevel starts around the middle of the blade, and proceeds flatly towards the edge. It features a mirror polished blade 72" blade stock and 1/8" blade depth, hidden tang construction. The handle has a nickel silver guard and pommel and is made of amber, oosik, spalted mapel and copper with black and nickel silver spacers. Blade length is 5 1/8" OAL is 9 3/4" Click on picture to enlarge

Safari Design Pocket Knife

Rustic Beauty | Expert Precision | Superior Quality
Blade is ATS 34 – Rc 60 – Hand polished with rope file work on spine
Liners and bolsters: 416 Stainless steel
Scales: Sambar stag
Smooth action and a pleasure to use!
One  of  four...  This is one of my best sellers.

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Green Canvas G10 Shadow Slip Joint Knife

Double Green Shadow - Back Pocket Slip Joint Knife
Tastefully complimented with Bow Tie Shield inlay 

Closed Length: 4"

Roman Knot File Work on Spring and Blade

Blade:

• 2-7/8"
• ATS 34 Hollow Ground
• Hand Polished
• Hardened to 60 RC

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Shadow Trapper Pocket - scales like polished burlap

This is a tan shadow-trapper style with clip point blade.
Scales are tan G10 and have a nice texture look, almost like polished burlap.

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The bade is ATS 34 hardened to 60 RC enhanced with Roman Knot file work on the spine of the blade and the spring.

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It's hand-polished and hollow ground.
Closed: 3 ¾”
Blade length: 3”

This is a nice "walk and talk" the ultimate light weight pocket knife.

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Let me know what you think!

Regards - Ian

A lovely ivory pocket knife just for you ...

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This is another lovely pre-ban Elephant ivory Back Pocket knife, it features:

Roman Knot file work on spine and blade
File work on inside of liners
Blade and spring ATS 34. Hardened to 60 Rc
Bolsters and liners 416 stainless steel
Blade: 2 5/8”
Close: 3 5/8”
A great collector’s piece!

This is a classic example of a Back Pocket knife.
It features premium antique Ivory scales. The attention to detail and fit and finish are so fine that you can not feel where the steel and the Ivory meet and where I have set the shield in the ivory and attached the bolsters to the handle.

This one is sold but I can make one for you. Do not let the opportunity pass to add a knife like this to your collection.

Contact me to place an order.
Kind Regards
Ian

This is an ivory back pocket with Zulu spear blade.

The Zulu is a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. They are a branch of the southern Bantu and have close ethnic, linguistic, and cultural ties with the Swazi and Xhosa. The Zulu are the single largest ethnic group in South Africa and numbered about nine million in the late 20th century.

This knife is a very nice "walk and talk" and made out of (pre-ban) Ivory - which is the perfect and very symbolic material for a Zulu knife.

I've added Roman knot file work on blade and spine
and file work on liners.

The knife is 3 ½ “ closed, the blade 2 5/8”
OAL 6 3/8”

A collectors piece it belongs to a client of mine.

Enjoy! -Ian

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A knife that's out of this world!

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Although most of the time the materials I use in my knives consist of things that come from mother Earth - in this instance I decided to create a liner locker from an exotic space-age material that is quite literally out of this world.

The scales are made from a special  composite carbon material (manufactured by Boeing) used to conduct lightning and static electricity safely around a space shuttle orbiter.

I was lucky  enough to be able to purchase one tile of the last 5 that are in existence.

This makes this Safari Line-locker extraordinarily collectable.

Blade: ATS 34 – hardened to 60 Rc – Hollow ground – Mirror polished – African hut file work

Bolster: 416 Stainless steel – mirror polished.

Enjoy!

-Ian

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A beautiful custom classic pocket knife that a joy to carry with you.

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By definition, a pocket knife goes in your pocket. You carry it around with you, use it as a tool or in case it's a collectable custom knife, you show it off.

This pocket embodies not only a compact design that fits in any pocket but it's beauty as well.

It's a Small R-Design liner locker.

Blade is made of ATS 34 – Hardened to 60 Rc – Hollow ground – polished to a mirrored surface.

The scales are colored cow bone, the bolsters: 416 Stainless steel

To make this knife distinctive I added "Roman Knot" file work.

This Liner Locker is not only a beautiful classic to show off to your buddies but it's a pleasure to carry (not at all heavy) and thusly pocket friendly! Let me make one for you.


-Ian

Drop Point Hunter - elegantly engraved

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In it's simplest and most primitive form a knife is just a sharp piece of metal and handle that helps you hold it - but like most things man has invented, artists and craftsmen have taken the basic deign and elevated it to be a piece of art.

With all my knives, that has been my goal.

Here's an engraved Drop Point Hunter.

The blade: 3 ½” Hollow Ground and Mirror Polished

Handle: 3 ½” Desert Iron Wood

The guard and pins were elegantly engraved by Dwane Dushane

Enjoy! - Ian

Damascus Liner Locker - modern knife - ancient art

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This is a Damascus liner locker pocket knife with rain drop pattern, featuring Damascus blade and bolsters, mammoth ivory scales, titanium anodized gold liners with Thorny -Vine file work on blade and spine. The Stainless steel thumb stud is inlaid Buffalo horn.

Originally Damascus steel was made from wootzsteel, a steel developed in India around 300 BC.

These swords are characterized by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water. Such blades were reputed to be tough, resistant to shattering and capable of being honed to a sharp, resilient edge.


Specifications:

Blade: 2 7/8”

Closed: 3 ¾”

Cocobolo Hunters - nothing like sharp steel and nice wood grain.

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Here are two Cocobolo Hunters you might like. They were part of an order of four.

Cocobolo is a tropical hardwood of the tree Dalbergia retusa from Central America.


Only the heartwood is used: this is typically orange or reddish-brown in color, often with a figuring of darker irregular traces weaving through the wood. The sapwood (not often used) is a creamy yellow, with a sharp boundary with the heartwood.

The heartwood is known to change color after being cut, lending to its great appeal.
Specifications:

ATS 34 BLADE STEEL
Stainless Steel 416 bolsters
Cocobolo wood handles
Red liners
Blade length is 3 5/8”
OAL 8 ½”

Slip-Joint Trapper - perfect for whittling - or for your collection.

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The weather here in Texas today is warm and wonderful and this weekend is forecast to be the same. 

I think it's time to shake off winter and enjoy some sunshine. 

There's a beautiful canyon just miles from our home in Amarillo called Palo Duro Canyon. It's a great place to hike and (of course) pick you out a nice piece of mesquite and whittle.  

Although this slip-joint trapper would make the perfect tool for "whittlin'" in the canyon, you can't - because it's a collector piece I made for a client in Boston.  If you'd like one - let me know. I'll be glad to custom make one just for you. 

It's a double-blade -trapper with Sambar stag scales, featuring Thorny Vine file work on the blades and springsand made of ATS 34 hardened to 60 RC - with 416 Stainless Steel liner and bolsters. 

Have a great weekend everyone and "Howdy" from Texas! 

LINK: PALO DURO CANYON STATE PARK

Texas Hog Hunter - a great knife for hunting wild ham on the lam ...

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Wild hogs are among the most destructive invasive species in the United States today. Two million to six million of the animals are wreaking havoc in at least 39 states and four Canadian provinces with half of the feral population running wild in Texas, where they do some $400 million in damages annually.

They tear up recreational areas, occasionally even terrorizing tourists in state and national parks, and squeeze out other wildlife.

Texas allows hunters to kill wild hogs year-round without limits since they are destructive and dangerous.


Wild hogs average 150 to 200 pounds as adults, although a few reach more than 400 pounds. Large wild boars are smart and very dangerous even after being shot, their tusks able to kill a man if they aren't careful.

Wild hog hunting has become a huge sport in Texas and the meat is delicious when processed correctly.

It may not always be duck, deer or dove season, but it's always hog season.


That's why I created the "Hog Hunter" a beautiful but necessary tool for the serious Texas hog hunter.

The blade is 7 inches long, and the handle is made of Bois de Arc (Osage Orange) wood that came from my client's ranch in Sherman, Texas.

This is one example of an order of 15.

It comes with a custom leather sheath bearing a wild Texas Hog.

Happy New Year and happy hog hunting!

-Ian

What do you want for Christmas Santa?

When someone asked what Santa wanted for Christmas, he thought and thought and thought.

He recalled all those times when the reindeer's reins got knotted or the twine and ribbons got tangled in his bag. He also thought that maybe he needed a  tool, to help the elves when they carved toys.

But most of all he wanted something that was uniquely his - something he could use throughout the year - when he relaxed on the beach, to maybe whittle a piece of drift wood into a cane or carve a pipe with.

But then - when he really thought about it - he decided he wanted three things for Christmas - a knife designed and custom built just for Ol' Saint Nick and for you and yours to have a wonderful and blessed holiday season - plus to remember what the true meaning of Christmas is all about.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may Christ's love and blessings be yours throughout the New Year!

Ian and Linda van Reenen!

In the spirit of Bob Loveless

This knife is a Bob Loveless drop-point reproduction.

Robert "Bob" Waldorf Loveless (or RW Loveless) was an American knife maker who designed and popularized the hollow-ground drop point blade and the use of full tapered tangs and screw-type handle scale fasteners.

He is cited by other knife-makers and collectors as one of the most innovative custom knife makers in the world, a near legendary figure.


Loveless signature design was to use red liner on the handle and (in his words) to "Dress a knife like a woman with lipstick on”

The Handle: Stag and red liner

The Blade Steel: ATS 34

The Guard: 414 Stainless Steel

The scabbard: West Texas design with Concho and Lone Star




This is a very popular hunting knife. Everyone thought that Loveless absolutely nailed the drop-point design.

A legendary knife for a legendary state ...

One of the things that drew me to Texas was the state's legendary image. Everybody knows everything is bigger in Texas. This state and city I love, embody the independent cowboy spirit of the west.

Not many people are impressed if you tell them you are from Rhode Island - but they are if you say you are from Texas.

With that in mind - I designed a knife that echoes the Texas Flag. The Lone Star was engraved by Alice Carter and the Blue and red is colored giraffe bone.

The white is pre-banned ivory and there's thorny vine file work on blade. It's constructed out of ATS 34 steel and features 416 stainless steel bolsters.

A little Texas history: The Texas Flag Code assigns the following symbolism to the colors of the Texas flag: blue stands for loyalty, white for purity, and red for bravery. The code also states that single (lone) star "represents ALL of Texas and stands for our unity as one for God, State, and Country." The "lone star" is, in fact, an older symbol predating the flag which was used to symbolize Texans' solidarity in declaring independence from Mexico. It is still seen today as a symbol of Texas' independent spirit, and gave rise to the state's official nickname "The Lone Star State".

An American knife ...

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I wasn't born in the USA - but I got here as soon as I could. As a tribute to the country that is now my adopted home - I created this truly American knife.

The Blade: ATS 34 - 416 Stainless steel bolsters
The American star was engraved by Alice Carter

The Blue and Red is colored giraffe bone and the White is made of pre-banned ivory.

These are the last 2 of a total order of 13 knives which is fitting because there are 13 stripes on the American flag.

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