Jay Fisher - Fine Custom Knives

"Titan" Fine Custom Handmade Knives, Karambits, Matched Pair

• Size: Knives: Length overall: 11.25" (28.6 cm), Blade Length: 6.0" (15.2 cm), Thickness: 0.277" (7.0 mm)
• Weight: Knives: 16.0 oz. (454 grams), Sheaths: 8.5 oz. (241 grams)
• Blades: 440C high chromium stainless steel, T3 advanced cryogenic heat treatment, 59HRC hardness, double hollow ground, mirror polished
• Bolsters, Fittings: 304 high nickel, high chromium austenitic stainless steel, hand-engraved
• Handles: Stone Canyon Jasper Gemstone (California, USA)
• Sheaths: Hand-carved Leather Shoulder inlaid with Ray Skin, stitched with nylon
• Knives: This is a great pair of karambits custom made for a very special client. He requested a matched pair of my "Titan" pattern knives, a very complex and difficult knife design, large, unique, and stunning.
  • Blades: I made the blades in 440C high chromium stainless steel, my most requested steels for a reason. 440C is an extremely low-care, tough, wear-resistant, and highly corrosion-resistant martensitic stainless steel. This is above and beyond typical 440C; it has my premium heat treatment and processing: T3. This process yields an astounding blade and tool in incredible condition through advanced processing protocols. How advanced is this treatment? It's a multi-stage cryogenic treatment, involving temperatures ranging in over 1950°F (1066°C) to -320°F (-196°C). The process is an evolution of my advanced heat treating processes, and consists of 33 dedicated and specific steps and takes 172 hours. This means that just to heat treat this high alloy steel takes over a week! The reason for this is scientific and critical, but yields the most stable, most wear-resistant, most durable and long-lived structure of this steel, profuse with fine multi-element carbides and a uniform and unbelievably robust structure. This is a testament to my determination to make the very best knives, steels, tools, instruments, treatments and kits in the modern world. I know of no one else who has advanced the treatment to this level; it's unheard of in the metals field.
    
    The blade grind on these knives is extremely challenging; I know of no other knifemaker who regularly attempts this. The blades are double-hollow ground; this means that all the grinds in the blades are hollow: the convex profile, the vampire rip-tooth serration profile, and even the concave profile. I've done this with a small 3" contact wheel, so that the blades are very thin and sharp at the cutting edge, yet the blades have a thick, strong spine down the center. This makes for a very aggressive, tough blade, blades with all cutting edges, and the most aggressive possible. The grinds are geometrically matched side to side, and the knives are matched to each other. The blades have large detailed choils to terminate the grind areas, and they have fully tapered tangs that are exactly centered and matched to each other extremely well, particularly for offhand-grinding. See the photos below detailing this during my creation of the blades. The Titans feature rear finger rings, rounded and polished for comfort, and the blades have full, deep, and distinctive original filework throughout, each unique.
  • Bolsters: My client requested a distinctive embellishment for the bolsters. I started with 304 stainless steel, my "zero-care" 18-8 stainless steel, which will never corrode, darken, stain or change on the knife. The bolsters are mounted with zero-clearance multiple peened pins, for a permanent, tight fit. I contoured, dressed, rounded and polished the carved bolsters for a comfortable feel, and they are dovetailed to bed the gemstone handle scales. My client requested a special motif, a Chinese design, so I selected and hand-engraved relief decorative masks. These are lattice patterns directly from the Bronze Age of China, from the first Emperor of Qin period, 221-206 B.C. They added a stunning dimension of character to the knives and I'm extremely pleased with my client's idea.
  • Handles: My client requested intense, burning orange fiery handle material, something reflecting the deep earth and lava. We considered a group of gemstones, and I was lucky enough to have come across a limited stash of Stone Canyon Jasper in just the right color and pattern. There is not much Stone Canyon Jasper available since the original mine closed many years ago, and very little of it has this particular color pattern. The burning orange, gold, and orange-red fiery pattern is flowing through white agate streaks with black jasper outlines; it's a striking gemstone. I wonder exactly how this geological creation came to be, and how many millions or billions of years it took to create. The jasper is a cryptocrystalline quartz, extremely hard and tough, and the fine finish required diamond abrasives to bring to its peak of appearance and luster. The gemstone handles will positively outlive everyone and everything, outlasting the knife itself, and perhaps our civilization. Just consider that the oldest artifacts we have of early man are stone, and you'll realize the eternity of gemstone handles. The handle scales are matched and dovetailed, bedded to the tangs, contoured, rounded and polished to bring out their intense beauty.
• Sheaths: My client requested a special and unique array of sheaths, to match the dark areas of the gem while offering their own distinctive style. He requested two for the right side, and one for left side wear. I made them of 9-10 oz. leather shoulder, into which I designed and hand-carved a pattern to match the Chinese bronze age masks. All three sheaths have ten painstakingly carved inlay pockets, into which are fitted ray skin inlays, all in black. The sheaths are stitched with black nylon and sealed with lacquer for longevity, and protect the knives well with high backs, long belt loops with extra length stitching pads, tapered welts, and inlaid fold-over flaps secured with all stainless steel dot snaps. The knives are a challenge to sheath, requiring a "rolling" motion to curve the blades into their nesting positions. This is, by the way, the most difficult knife profile to put in a sheath. The black-on-black style is bold while being complimentary to the bright colors of the knife handles.

This is a tremendous pair of large Titan karambits; a detailed and difficult project that was a great honor to make. I'm proud to know that it will reside in my client's family.

Thanks, T. B.!