Damascus Folding Knife, Camel Bone with Turquoise Inlay

It carries like any folder its size, until somebody notices the handle. Shut it is 4.5 inches and pockets without ceremony. What people ask about is the blue line, a channel cut down each camel bone scale and packed with crushed turquoise. Under it sits 3.25 inches of Damascus over a high carbon core. The stone is why no two sides match.

Specification

The blade

Damascus over a high carbon core, etched to bring up a ladder. Ladder comes from cutting grooves across the welded bar and forging it level again, so the layers show as rungs across the flat, not along it. The pattern is surface work. The core beneath takes an edge and keeps it. The blade is a drop point, the spine falling in a slow curve to a low tip, a shape for cutting with rather than poking at things. Carbon steel goes grey in use and freckles if shut away wet.

The lock and the opening

A lock back. A steel bar lies along the spine on its own pivot, and the nose at its front drops into a notch cut in the tang once the blade is all the way over. The bar is sprung, so the nose falls in without help. Pressing the tail of that bar, at the back of the handle, tips the nose out and lets the blade fold. You open it by the crescent nail nick, a thumbnail in the cut.

The handle

Camel bone is dense and pale, nearer ivory than antler, and it takes a polish. Down the middle of each scale a narrow channel is cut, packed with crushed turquoise in resin, then sanded back until stone and bone finish level under a thumb. The stone is graded rubble, not one cut piece, so the blue runs from sky to nearly green with dark flecks in it. Brass bolsters close both ends, brass pins hold the scales, and shut it sits deep in a pocket.

The leather pouch

Vegetable tanned leather, hand stitched, its face carved not stamped. Scroll and vine, cut in with a swivel knife then pushed about with punches until the stems lift off the ground, slower work than beating a pattern into damp hide. A flat sleeve, sewn on two sides, and the shut knife goes down into it. No flap, no fastening, nothing to hang it on. A pouch, then, not a sheath.

Who it suits

Bought partly to look at, and no shame in that.

• Buyers wanting stone and bone, not grey steel
• Anyone drawn to southwestern work
• People giving a knife for an anniversary
• Owners who like a spine bar

What comes in the box

• The turquoise inlaid folder
• The hand carved scroll and vine slip pouch
• A care card
• Free sharpening for life

Every piece is different

Two scales come off different parts of a bone, fill from the same tub of stone, and still finish unalike. One line runs paler, the other carries more dark matrix. The rungs land where the grooves were cut. Expect the shape in the photograph and your own arrangement of blue.

Looking after it

The inlay is resin sanded flush, so it wipes like the bone around it. Keep solvents away, since acetone and thinner dull a resin surface faster than anything in the house. Bone dislikes a long soak. Dry the blade, oil the etch, and let the patina settle to an even grey. The joint rinses clean and takes a drop on the pivot. Our care and sharpening page has the rest.

Put a name on it

Laser engraving runs 20 dollars per blade. Roughly 30 characters fit. Letters go on the steel, never on the inlay, usually the flat above the nail nick. A proof image is sent and nothing runs until you have seen it, which adds 3 to 5 business days. Ten blades or more and we do not charge. The engraving page explains it.

Questions buyers ask

Is the turquoise solid stone? No. Crushed stone in resin, sanded flat.

Why do the sides differ? Graded rubble in the fill, and bone varies.

Where is the lock release? At the rear end of the spine bar.

Will it rust? It can. Carbon steel under the etch. Dry it, oil it.

Can I take it out with me? Laws differ by state, city and country, so check your local rules, and we cannot advise on that.

When should I expect it? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

Horn not bone is the ram horn folder with its carved pouch, and the rosewood and brass lock back is the quiet version. All sit in folding knives, older shapes under pocket knives, carriers in everyday carry knives.