Bowie knife "White Wolf". M390, Turkish walnut and Silver.

There is an old Cherokee Indian story about The White Wolf And The Black Wolf.

A group of Cherokee children has gathered around their grandfather. They are filled with excitement and curiousity. That day there had been a quite tumultuous conflict between two adults and their grandfather was called to mediate. The children are eager to hear what he has to say about it.

One of the children pops the question that puzzles him. “Grandfather, why do people fight?”. “Well” the old man replies “we all have two wolves inside us, you see. They are in our chest. And these wolves are constantly fighting each other”. The eyes of the children have grown big by now. “In our chests too, grandfather?” asks another child. “And in your chest too?” asks a third one. He nods, “yes, in my chest too”. He surely has their attention now. Grandfather continues. “There is a white wolf and a black wolf. The black wolf is filled with fear, anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and arrogance. The white wolf is filled with peace, love, hope, courage, humility, compassion, and faith. They battle constantly”. Then he stops. It’s the child that asked the initial question that can’t handle the tension anymore. “But grandfather, which wolf wins?”. The old Cherokee simply replies, “the one that we feed”.

After the grinding is done, the knife is heated in a computer controlled oven to precisely 1050°C (1922°F) and then quenched between two aluminium plates and circulated air quench. To reach the 65-67 HRC hardness for the blade it is subzero treated for 2 hours at -80°C (-112°F) in dry ice. This is also called cryogenic hardening or deep cooling. The super cool temperatures transform the steel structure from austenite into martensite. Cryogenic hardening relieves some stress, raises the Rockwell hardness by 1-3 points and refines the internal grain structure of the steel. The knife is then annealed for 2 hours in a tempering oven of 150°C (302°F). 

The blade for this knife is matted using a very smooth sand blast stream. The sand for this final abrasive is taken out of our local river-bed. Afterwards, the blade is smoothly polished with diamond polishing paste, giving the blade a satin finish. Afterwards the knife is honed to razor sharpness.

The guards and fittings for this knife is made of Silver and on the butt of the handle has been engraved by hand the White Wolf face looking out from the leaves. So does front part fitting between the handle and the blade is engraved in Silver. 

The handle for this knife is hand shaped from a block of turkish walnut burl.  It is oiled with a pure tung nut oil and afterwards waxed with beeswax. This wood comes from the species "Juglans Regia" that originated in Iran, and is the same species as English Walnut. Although the mineral content in the Turkish soil gives the wood a different color, it still has the dark brown or black mineral lines. The base color of the wood tends to have a range from light honey to a subtle orange cast. These trees can be as old as two hundred years and have trunk diameters in excess of ten feet. The exhibition blanks are highly prized and are found on some of the worlds finest guns.

Leather sheath is wet formed to fit each knife individually. The leather material is manufactured in a local tannery using the same methods and techniques that were used 100 years ago. Each sheath is custom made and hand stitched using saddle stitch and waxed linen thread. Each knife sheath is individually custom dyed with Fiebings professional oil dyes. Afterwards, the sheath is waxed with palm leaf wax and beeswax. To protect against moisture it is finished using acrylic leather sheen. 

These knives are crafted by Chris, our master bladesmith. Chris has 20 years experience in crafting knives and hunting. This knife was designed for the hunter's needs of skinning and boning. Chris stamps all his blades with his maker's mark once he is satisfied with their quality.