Jay Fisher - Fine Custom Knives

"Streamspear" Fine Handmade Dagger

• Size: Length overall:12.5" (31.8 cm), Blade Length: 7.6" (19.3 cm), Thickness: .227" (5.8 mm)
• Weight: Knife: 12.3 oz. (349 grams) Sheath: 7.9 oz. (224 grams)
• Blade: ATS-34 High Molybdenum Stainless Steel, Hardened and Tempered to Rockwell HRC 58.5, Mirror Polished
• Bolsters, Fittings: 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel, Mirror polished
• Handle: Fossilized Stream Bed Dolomite (Montana Bark Jasper) Gemstone
• Sheath: Hand-carved Leather Shoulder inlaid with Bison (American Buffalo) skin
• Knife: Smooth and straight, a long full-tang dagger often reminds me of thin, fast, and sleek movements like a fish spearing through a mountain stream or river. Inspired by the gemstone handle material, (below) this "Streamspear" dagger exhibits fine lines and elegant geometric form of the spear-bladed knife.
  • The steel I chose for this dagger is ATS-34, a highly tough and durable hypereutectoid alloy, the same steel I've used in many counterterrorism and tactical combat knives. Because ATS-34 is high in molybdenum, its very tough, and a thin point can be much more resistant to fracture than in lower-molybdenum tool steels. Tempering the steel to 58.5 toughens the steel even more. I've mirror-polished this beautiful stainless steel for beauty, longevity, and high corrosion resistance.
  • The dagger geometry seems straightforward, but there are all different types of daggers. This particular design is a "spear" point; the blade is straight, with a center apex and spine, and is symmetrical like a spear of old. It is a difficult geometry to get just right, with matching grinds, terminations and alignment all accomplished offhand. Also, the grinds are hollow, for a thin, serviceable cutting edge and a thick, strong spine. The tang is tapered for balance, and fully fileworked in a vine pattern for handmade distinction. Even the choils are fileworked in a graduated vine pattern right to the cutting edge. The blade is long and elegant, yet surprisingly lightweight for its size.
  • I bolstered the knife with zero-care 304 high chromium, high nickel stainless steel bolsters, which are contoured, rounded and finished for a comfortable feel. The bolsters are secured with zero-clearance peened pins and dovetailed to bed the scales. The bolsters are slightly angled to fully lock in the scales and give an informal line to the handles.
  • The handle scales are a center of focus on this dagger; just right for the design. The gemstone is called Montana Bark Jasper, but this is actually a misnomer! This shows how casually the lapidary trade is with names of materials, but sometimes the casual name sticks. Perhaps the only correct part of the name is the origin, the big western state of Montana. The material is neither bark or jasper! It's actually fossilized stream bed, and the stone is dolomite. It's fascinating to think that millions of years ago, a stream ran and churned and deposited, sand, leaves, bits of wood, living things, and debris along its bottom. Perhaps some cataclysmic event covered over the stream bed, and fossilization began. In millions of years, the original materials and the mud were replaced by minerals seeping in and the deposits would become dolomite (technically "sedimentary dolostone"). This particular dolomite is a tough and durable stone, and is used in fine jewelry and cabochons. The neat thing is what you can see and touch in the large pieces available in a knife handle scale. Shapes and forms ranging from sand grains to bits of leaves and woody forms abound, bits of once-living things that came to rest on the bottom of a very, very ancient and long-gone stream or river. This is one of the reasons I love working with gemstone and fossils. The gemstone scales are locked under the bolster dovetails, bedded to the full tang of the blade, and contoured and finished to a warm luster.
  • The shape of the handle is a lightweight, elegant hourglass form, with wide forward quillons to stop the hand from sliding forward, and a narrow "fishtail" butt at the rear bolster that adds to the Streamspear's form. The balance point of the dagger is at the quillons, and the Streamspear feels large, yet surprisingly lightweight in the hand.
• Sheath: A long, deep, and classy sheath was necessary for this dagger, one that reflected the location of the ancient streambed, so I inlaid Bison (American Buffalo) skin in hand-carved 9-10 oz. leather shoulder. The technically correct name for this skin is Bison, since it's easy to confuse what we call American Buffalo with Cape Buffalo and Water Buffalo, entirely different animals. The bison skin is tough, beautiful, and with a great texture. I shaped full-panel inlays to compliment the design on the front, back, and even in the belt loop of the sheath. The sheath is deep with a high back, allowing a low position on the belt, and protection of and from the razor-keen spear-point blade edges. The sheath is dyed a medium brown, stitched with heavy nylon and lacquered and sealed.
• A classy North American dagger style in clean, smooth form and execution.