Had a lot of fun forging this one. The sketch started off as a pretty aggressive blade...

... then I picked up this quickie repair of a fellas grandfather's WWII knife where the pommel had come off (also repolished and sharpened the blade a bit)...

...which made the steel change it's mind in the middle of the forging process...

...and all of a sudden it's a totally different blade. 

Thankfully the customer loved it, and I got off the hook for taking artistic merit to the extreme. Still applying oil to the handle, was too eager to show off haha. 

Should have drawn a longer tang to get more curls out of the pommel (I rounded off that point). The black walnut came from a downed tree that was properly cut and seasoned, but unfortunately my cuts came from the surface and had inconsistent/spotty coloration; light brown, reddish in spots, small blotches of black. I need to practice choil and plunge lines... I'm thinking of leaving a little more meat to grind instead of forging to shape.

Comment and critique always appreciated,

Theo

Looks much more like European Walnut that way.

My God, Theo. You kill it every time. Did you forgeweld the guard on? 

Simply beautiful! 

Thank you

It's all one piece of metal, the guard metal was split off from the tang

That's pretty wild!  In a good way. 

Theo, your integral guard is awesome! I love it that you always push the borders of normalcy. 

Robert

Thanks guys!