I made this knife for a friend who recently has his first child.  It may be rather inappropriate as a baby gift, but he has been in the work force for over 20 years.  He can afford to buy his own diapers and other baby gear.  I wanted to give him something he couldn't buy.

It is a 3-layer construction with 15N20 in the middle and 1084 on the outside.  The hilt is made from brass, and maple burl with African black wood and copper accents.  The pommel is actually a hollow construction to maintain balance, and the engraved disks are sterling silver.  One side is engraved with the child's full name, and the other with the birth date.

Thanks for looking, and critiques are welcome...

 

Very nice.

WOW! What a great gift, a work of art that can be handed down to the child when they come of age

Ummm, I am unable to render any critique. Exquisite.

You only gave us one picture, but from what I can see ..... it's hard to offer critique on something that appears darn near perfect to me.  Proportions and craftsmanship are spot on.  That beauty would be welcome in my home I can tell you.

Beautiful dagger. It's actually my favorite style and everything about it is pleasing to my eyes. Awesome work. Must be a good friend. 

love what I see, I would like to see more

Very nice.  If he had a girl the present is not inappropriate, or strange.  He can be sharpening it when her date comes to pick her up. 

Thanks guys.  I regret that I didn't take more WIP shots on this one.  That is something I am trying to do more of now.  Here are a couple:

This is a closer shot of the blade while I was working on fitting the guard, and another of the pommel as I was working on the handle shaping.  The pommel is threaded onto a 1/4-20 stud that I tig welded to the end of the tang.

 

Here is the other side of the blade.  It looks so much like the first pic that I didn't bother to post it initially.  I obscured the kid's name for privacy sake.

Wow! Very nice design, fit and finish!

Just the thing to cut the cord!

Very cool pommel idea. Over all it is an incredibly beautiful piece, now lets just hope the kid appreciates fine blades in the future.

The hollow pommel is for putting a remembrance in; I have a few little bits of the hand spun, hand crocheted christening blanket our daughter was given (and made) by her mother as a baby and then refused to give it up till it was felted, worn, shedding bits...  Some of which I saved in a ziplock bag in the deep freeze for just such a use---a relic of the one true blankie!

Oh, what a blade! Awesome work! But dang that picture: now I have to fire up a cigar!

Bests

Gergely

Great job, I love it. If I may ask about the blade. The 15n20 looks to be thicker and showing more than I would have thought for a piece that is usually around .070 thick. Did you use multiple layers of 15n20 or does it come in pieces thicker than bandsaw blades. 

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

Frank, the 15N20 layer is from an 1/8" thick bar I have.  I got the bar from Aldo about a year ago but didn't appreciate at the time how unusual that thickness is.  

Thanks, I have never heard of it in 1/8" . I love the look and would like to try it sometime. I guess I could use a thicker saw blade which I think are usually L6. Have you tried making the same style of billet with L6.

I have not worked with L6 at all yet.  I've only been making knives for a couple of years, and only make abut 6 or 8 a year, so I haven't had much time to explore outside of 10XX steels and 15N20 yet.

I've heard L6 is a bit more finicky to deal with, but a lot of people use it in their pattern welding.