You want to see craftsmanship?

[Honus]

Yesterday an extremely nice 63 year old Russian man named Amayak Stepanyan stopped by to show me some of his engraving work. To say I was floored by the quality of his work would be an understatement. He pulled this very knife out and handed it to me to examine and also showed me another piece that was in mid process. I could have talked to him for hours- he's extremely gracious and humble about his work and is absolutely willing to share techniques and ideas- a true craftsman in every sense of the word.

The engraved side plates on this knife are 416L stainless steel. He explained that the patterns are first cut using a chisel and hammer and then the design is refined using gravers and stones. The engraving on this particular piece took over 200 hours to do. He promised to email me some more pics of his work and gave me permission to share here. The knife maker is a friend and neighbor of his named Owen Wood.

Amazing stuff.

[Too Tall]

Thanks for that. Good grief, his talent is beyond words.

[Matthew Strongin]

Wow. That's incredible.

[rydesteel]

The blade maker has some skills as well. Incredible work from two very talented people.

[dhoff]

Staggering, and as Rydesteel said, the partnership does justice to both of them.

[devlin]

That is another one of those must have items.