Knife-making

I was gone most of this week to the Bernese highlands, where Dad and I attended a knife-making course led by the world-class Swiss goldsmith and knife-maker Arthur Soppera. Mom and my youngest brother came along and walked through the huge open air museum of the Ballenberg while Dad and I worked.
The course was my graduation gift from Dad, and it was so much fun I’m looking into getting my own grinder and drill machine now so I can keep making blades.
There were three men in the class besides us. One of them, a woodworker by profession, made a sheath for his blade. We worked from 0830 in the morning to 1800 every day, and this is the result:

The bottom of these two blades is mine, the top is Dad’s. Everybody started with 30 cm of carbon steel, which we formed with hacksaws and files and refined at the grinder. My handle is made of red deer horn, with a front cap of micarta (imitation ivory) and a back cap of mother-of-pearl.

It’s a solid knife, but rather hinterlastig (heavy in the back. I need a German-English dictionary for technical terms). It won’t replace my CRKTs and Smith & Wessons for everyday use, but it taught me how to make blades, and I can improve from this.
And to finish, a cute picture of my doggie after my little brother got his hands on her.

😆 😈 I’m doing good in that case, Ski! I did have a great time. The weather was great, and it was nice to have really dirty hands at the end of the day.
The workmanship was excellent – especially on the woodworker’s blade and on the blade made by a teacher who has experience making knives. He’s a perfectionist, and he used mirabelle wood. His knife is the one with light wood and a brass hand guard. Beautiful piece.