At the same time as my Raders I also picked up these two knives by Steve Nolte, with Larry Donnelly damascus and engraving by Eric Nelson.
(Click image to enlarge)
(Click image to enlarge)
A few months ago, while I was surfing the web about mosaic damascus and especially the techniques for making billets with powdered steels, I happened upon a
picture of the first knife, which was shown on the Blade Magazine web site (it still is, on the home page - the knife is also featured in the May issue of the paper magazine, which just hit the news stands). I immediately contacted Steve Nolte, the knife maker, to see if he could make me one with the same steel, and found out that Larry Donnelly, who had made that steel, no longer forged. However, Steve still had that very same knife, as well as a second one he had made from the same steel but etched in monochrome... long story short, I bought both!
The knives are extremely well made, and the engraving is beautiful. But what totally blows my mind is the damascus!!! I have seen a lot of billets of mosaic damascus, but never have I seen anyone with that much control over the resulting geometry of the damascus! If you know how mosaic damascus is made, try adding up the number of forgings which the sub-billets plus the overall billet must have required, and imagine maintaining the geometry throughout all that... my mind was, is, and remains blown!!!
