Sheath: Hand-carved, hand-dyed Leather Shoulder
inlaid with Frog skin
Knife:Opere is the Italian
word for works, as this knife is initially designed as a working and utility
knife for the kitchen. However, this is—like many of my knife
designs—a crossover pattern, suitable for a wide range of uses
as well as investment. This is a magnificent Opere, with a premium
treatment and accurate geometry, a very thin, hard knife in premium
materials, for the chef or professional, as well as collection.
The steel I chose for this knife is
Food Contact Safe 440C high chromium martensitic
stainless steel, my most requested steel for a reason. When
properly treated, it's a dependable, reliable workhorse of
extremely high corrosion resistance, good toughness and high
wear resistance. The high chromium of 440C along with the high
carbon and moderate molybdenum results in profuse chromium carbides, increasing
corrosion resistance as well as wear resistance. To bring
this steel to its zenith, I used my proprietary T3 deep
cryogenic process in heat treating this blade; it's a highly
detailed, extremely sophisticated process that takes 33
individual steps and takes over a week long. The result of this is an
incredibly wear-resistant blade that has extremely high carbide
development, fine grain, and extremely high corrosion
resistance. Asperity is
reduced; the microstructure development is superior to any other
typical handmade knife, and far above any factory or
manufactured knife. This is, simply put, 440C at its
very finest advanced condition. The grind is of this blade
is not what you usually see in my knives; I wanted a very
thin, flat grind for this knife blade. Look at the specs; at
the thickest the blade is only .080" thick, that's eighty
thousandths of an inch thick, at its thickest! The thickness
is about .020" behind the cutting edge at the relief, so the
blade is flat and thin and wide. A flat grind is useful for
very thin cuts through material (foodstuffs) that won't
yield or resist a blade because of a thicker spine. This is,
simply put, a very thin flatly ground, very hard blade.
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
handle scales.
The front bolsters are sealed and rounded at the faces, the rear bolsters
are wide and support the rear quillon that locks the handle
into the hand.
The handle scales of this knife are
very, very special. This is Bay of Fundy Agate, coming from
the area between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
provinces in Canada. The bay boasts of the highest tides in
the world, with striking and fantastic intensely old fossil and geological
deposits, and this gemstone does not disappoint. On first
glance, you might notice that the gem is an agate, with
clear areas and a purplish-lavender tint with hints of
reddish carmine. Study closer and the fascinating
fossilized nature of this gem becomes clear. Please
scrutinize
the photo magnifications below; this is some of the most
striking fossil I've ever encountered. I don't know the
nature of the once-living remains in this rock, it's many
millions of years, perhaps billions of years old, and
these might be some of the earliest creatures on the planet.
The tubular and segmented structures float throughout the
agate; it's like no other material. Usually, in fossils, the
rock is not agate but jasper or other opaque material,
because fossils are formed by sedimentation. Clearly put,
agates cannot be formed by sedimentation, yet, here is a
fossil in agate! Also,
in agates, the translucency is typically formed in
fortifications, layers like a moat around a castle, with
"flames" of intrusive colors brought into the stone by water
deposition and self-forming crystallization. This is none of these; this is a floating,
transparent agate of once living things. I truly wonder at
how this fossil was formed; I've seen nothing else like it. The agate is hard and solid, incredibly tough and dense and
takes a high vitreous polish that is smooth and glassy. This
is a handle that is more fascinating the closer and more
intensely it's scrutinized.
The knife feels cool and solid in the
hand, with a very lightweight thin blade, suited to a
professional interested in surgical cuts, as it is thin and
razor-keen. This knife is
Food Contact
Safe.
Sheath: Because of all the living reminders in
the stone, I wanted a sheath that would reflect many small
creatures. I chose a complicated inlay of 29 individual inlays of
Frog skin, a special skin that has hints of metallic luster. This
was a tremendous piece of work, taking many hours to bring the
living, busy design to life. The inlays are carved in 9 - 10 oz.
leather shoulder, hand-dyed in a graduated intensity in medium
brown, with chestnut nylon stitching. The sheath is sealed in a
triple thick coating of lacquer for durability.
A thin, hard, accurate knife with fascinating gemstone fossil
handle and intricate, detailed sheath.
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