While I was in knife mode (after finishing off the fancy knife and stand), I finished a little "made from blank" knife I started last winter. It was the last of 6 different Russell blanks I'd bought from Texas Knifemaker's Supply 6 or 7 years ago. I'd polished the blade to 800 or so and used it as a test subject for the "Dixie Instant Antique" browning solution I'd bought for the rolling block project. If I liked the way the knife came out, on to the gun. If not, I figured it was a lot easier to re-finish a knife than the gun.... So yeah, who the heck ever heard of a plum browned knife blade? But I liked the way the steel came out, hung the blade on a nail in the shop and moved on to the gun.
Then one cold night I was feeding the stove and hoping spring would hurry along, and thought some of the hard maple I was burning looked pretty nice in a simple, handsome sort of way. I trundled out to the unheated garage, fired up the table saw and cut a couple of small planks from a 4" piece of limb wood. I stashed the wood on a high shelf in the shop to let it further season (it was already almost a year since it had been cut, so once cut thin, it would season pretty quick.) I finally got around to doing it up the last few days.
So there ya have it, a "Russell Green River" knife blank of carbon steel, plum browned and scaled with hard maple from my wood pile.
The blade is sharp as a razor (diamond stone followed by a ceramic stone that is about 2000 grit.) It'll julienne newspaper cut into 1/16" wide strips cut on a bias. Look out Tomatoes
I made the scales a little thinner on this one than some of my others, and left the back half of em flat so it'll stay put instead of wanting to roll if placed on an uneven surface. A bit of rocker was sanded into the front part of the scales for comfort. Sanded em to 800, gave em a couple coats of Tung Oil and a bit of Butchers Bowling Alley Wax.
Just a simple knife, but it'll do.