Frontier Spear Point Knife with a custom Rawhide sheath

This is a recently completed custom piece.

The knife itself is a classic spear point design with a blade
over 4 inches long both with  pattern and patina aged finish.

The spine was hand file worked.

The handle is antiqued elk stag with a tight stitched forward
haft of vintage aged rawhide.

The sheath is one of my custom Frontier rawhide sheaths
with a hard veg tan liner.  The rawhide has been antiqued
and cross stitched and laced with vintage aged trade beads,
tin cones and horse hair.  The copper piece (dangler)
was also forged and shaped by hand.  This sheath can be
worn high and cross drawn.

Thank you
Matt
ML knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Happy Easter.

A straight back custom knife with a vintage style. Tooled leather wallet

This week I'm posting a custom order Vintage style straight back
knife with a blade that is about 4 1/2" long.

The finish is a pattern and patina aged finish and the spine has
been file worked.

The handle is about equal in length and in antiqued hickory
with brass pins.

The sheath was antiqued and hand stitched.

Below is a detail photo of one of my custom hand tooled and carved wallets.
More details and info can be found on my
Available Leather Pieces Page

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

File work on Your Knife

Currently I offer "generally" three different styles of  "My style"
of File work.

This doesn't mean something cant be customized
and I have done some very involved file work before
extending through the entire length tang behind the
handle.

But for the most part the three types of file work shown
below is what I offer.

Yes.. if you aren't aware of it. All the file work
is done free hand.  I use no machinery, jigs or and other
fancy gadgets to do this.  All by hand.

My standard file work

My "Jimped" File worked Spine

and this is what I call "File worked Thumb Stops" 

Thank you very much
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Bone Handled Hudson Bay Camp Knife

Recent custom work of a Hudson bay camp knife.  This
blade was about 8 inches long pattern and patina aged .

Handle is antiqued bone with some hand carved hatching.
Pins are brass pins over brass washers.

Hand stitched belt Sheath.

An Additional Photo has been posted up on Flickr
as well.

Thank you

Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Long frontier Knife Rawhide custom sheath

A long knife custom is this weeks post.

This knife not only has a nice frontier style but will handle many hard
working tasks.

The Patina aged  blade on this is about 9 inches long and just about 2"
wide at the widest point.  Spine is .25 thick

The handle is smoothed and antiqued elk stag with some custom carving
just before the aged brain tan leather wrapping at the forward portion.

The tang runs through the handle of the knife and is peened over a
hefty piece of .25 thick carbon steel.

The sheath was entirely stitched and aged by hand.  The outer portion
is aged deer skin rawhide with a hard core veg tan liner.  The vintage
trade beads were hung with rawhide.  This sheath was set up for a
left handed high ride set up and cross draw.

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

A Custom Frontier Belt knife with leather and rawhide

This frontier style knife was custom a custom.

The spear point style blade is about 6 inches long that has

been patina aged.

The handle is aged elk bone that has been hafted in elk

leather toward the forward portion of the handle and also

has tight stitched portion of leather.

The sheath has a hard core leather liner and has been wrapped

and cross stitched with aged rawhide and brain tan leather.

the brain tan lace has vintage trade beads and a antiqued tin cone

with horse hair.  This style sheath is made to be worn placed 

behind  or simply tucked behind your pants.

Also thought you would like to see a photo of some of the colors here  in
upstate NY.

Thank you
Matt
ML knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Personal Carry Neck knife and completed custom.

Here is a neck knife I have been carrying for awhile now. 
So I have claimed it.  This is the knife I used in one
of my YouTube videos.  This is a handy sized knife for
all sorts of uses.  I have used it for everything from
cutting leather to tomato vines in the garden.  You can
see the blade has developed a nice patina and at 2 inches
in length would work well for trout as well.

The handle is tiger maple at about 3 1/8" long and I tight
stitched some deer skin rawhide on the forward haft.

The neck sheath has some of my free hand tooling on
the face of it,  Trees and mountain scene.

Also from the last post on the blog I showed you a custom knife
that I was working on without the sheath pictures.   Here is
the completed neck sheath posted below.

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Frontier stag Belt knife with frontier rawhide sheath

Recent work from my shop.  This was a custom order
frontier style belt knife.  A perfect size for knife
for many uses.

The patina aged blade is over 4 inches as well as the handle.
The stag was antiqued and has three decent sized copper pins.

The sheath is hand stitched and the entire piece was antiqued.
This style sheath was set up to be tucked behind a belt.
This is a double layered sheath with a hard core veg tan liner
and outer deer skin rawhide.  The beads are all vintage
trade beads.  The copper dangler was also made by hand.

A picture from a recent hike.....

Thank you

Matt

ML Knives

http://www.mlknives.com/

Frontier belt knife custom

Originally Posted in on the May 22nd, 2011

 

The knife posted below was custom ordered. This is a
frontier style knife with a patina aged blade about
5 inches long. The handle is aged hickory with a tight
stitched rawhide leather wrap. The sheath was
custom stitched and aged as well. The core
has a hard veg tan liner with full welt, outside is
rawhide and brain tan leather with aged trade beads
tin cone and horse hair.

A knife such as this will serve a large period of time as well
as a very nice using knife.
I know many new visitors have been passing by here. If your
interested in seeing more of my past work I have past work
galleries located on my website.
PAST WORK
PAST WORK 2
PAST WORK 3
PAST WORK EXTENDED
also If you like some of the articles I have published
you can view a newer one here
Knife Sheaths of the early American Frontier
Thank you for reading
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com/

Virginia Long Knife

Originally posted on October 25th, 2009

I have mentioned in older posts “The knife in Homespun America” being a great book. One knife I wanted to point out was one Mr. Grant referred to as the “Virginia Long Knife”. This knife saw service on the Ohio river Frontier and had a hand forged blade that was 9 1/4″ long. Being forged from an old file to me makes the knife even more unique as one just has to think of the history not only behind the knife but the tool that it started life as. The original piece had a handle made of hickory and a hand forged guard. Below I posted a picture of the original and one I made for a gent awhile back. I changed it a bit to make it my own, but still giving the look of the original.

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com