A friend asked if I would help her with an anniversary gift for her husband.  She wanted a railroad spike themed knife...

...yeah, I wasn't going to go there.

What she really wanted was a knife to go along with a rifle and pistol he already has that were made in 1969 to commemorate 100th anniversary of the driving of the last (golden) spike at Promontory Point, Utah.  This is what I came up with.

The blade is 5 layers of 1095 and 15N20.  I was hoping for a narrow skunk-like stripe.  I like what I ended up with, but will use much thinner 15N20 next time I try to achieve that effect.

The Spike themed guard was forged from 464 brass.  I've had a hard time forging 360 brass lately so I tried the 464, and it was much easier to get along with.

The handle is desert iron wood with copper, brass and black-wood accents.

The coin in the sheath was minted in 1969 to also commemorate the Promontory Point event, so I created a pocket in the sheath to display it.

Now that's a RR spike knife I can go along with. Beautiful job, how'd the Missus like it?

Frosty The Lucky.

She is thrilled.  I took a bunch of in progress photos, and she is combining all of those into a hard bound book to go with the knife.  It's going to be quite a package when it is all together.

 

I like Knives just as much as the next guy but I'm not one to get excited over one. This is the exception. Great work! The coin on the sheath is a really nice touch and that guard is just plain awesome! 

Pistol, Rifle and a SWEET custom knife? If you every hear of this lady dumping her old man, please point her in my direction. 

 

Great job. 

Very nice, in fact I'd have to say you NAILED it! Would like to see a detail of the file work along the spine if you have a photo.

Thanks guys   It was a fun project to be a part of.  I just went back through my pics, and I somehow let this one get away without taking a photo of the file work   It was kind of neat looking with the two silver stripes of 15N20 running down the back.

Thats a nice knife!

That looks fantastic!

You should throw the WIP photos here too

What about the rest of the photos

Absolutely fabulous!

That's fantastic!!!

Well, most of the WIP pics are of the more boring parts of assembly, but I'll trow up a few if you want.  Here are a few of the guard being formed:

 

Here are a few of the handle fitting.  Because of the way the handle buts up against the guard at the spine, I had to be able to take the roughly epoxied handle stack off so I could shape it.  As a result, the spacers at the guard end are held in place with 1" brass pins in addition to the epoxy.

 

I reverted to my machinist tendencies to make the pommel/peen block.  I turned a disk with a raised center and then cut out what I wanted for the knife.

 

To form the pocket for the coin, I machined a die to press the wet leather around the coin, and then a second die to punch out the circular window.

Various other bits.

Awesome work. Thanks for the progress pics. Always educational to see. 

Thanks, that was juicy looking through the pics.

HEY! What do you mean REVERT to a machinist? Blacksmiths invented the craft, it's just a division of blacksmithing.

Frosty The Lucky.

That go mai looks great!

That is one beautiful piece of work. And congratulations on your photography too! 

This is gorgeous. I love the guard and the decorative file work on the spine. Good work! I hope someday to make something even a quarter as nice as this.