[J.Arthur Loose]

I haven't posted much here on myArmoury, so perhaps an introduction is in order- I have been making blades & jewelry inspired by history for nearly 25 years. I went to Maine College of Art and majored in Jewelry & Metalsmithing, and graduated in '93. Since then I have worked for a fair number of artist-jewelers and in 1998 or so began making knives and jewelry full time. I'm generally inspired by blades from the Viking era, but also enjoy Antiquity. Lately I've been enjoying the so-called Birka / Gotland knife styles, including this one. I have read that the "War-Knife," was used for fighting or perhaps finishing off large game. Most are not pattern welded, though there are a few examples. The fairly well known Archeodok CD Viking Knives from the island of Gotland Sweden was a good source for inspiration.

The blade steels are 1084 / 15N20. The spine is made of an interrupted twist in 10 layers, and the edge is made up of 200 straight laminate layers to look like well-refined ancient high carbon, which had a similar texture. The handle is oosic, which is 10,000 year old, partially fossilized walrus penis bone. This piece has a nice range of color from the minerals it was buried with. It is alleged that the Norse liked to use it for knife handles because it's nearly indestructible, almost totally solid and a slight porosity keeps the grip tacky even when wet. The leather is vegetable tanned and dyed black. The metal fittings are all zinc alloy brass / bronze and stamped with my own hand made tools.

The blade is 13" / 33.5 cm and the handle is 4 1/2" / 11.5 cm. The spine at its thickest is 3/16" / 5 mm thick. The sheath is 10 /38" / 26.7 cm and when hanging, the overall sheathed length is 18 1/8" / 46.5 cm.

It's available by contacting me directly, here or off of my website loose.com, or at my Etsy Store $1000.00 plus shipping.

[Michael B.]

That's a nice looking piece. Very solid looking hunk of oosik, I have only a couple decently solid pieces, finding solid oosik is getting harder. I will stand by the fact that burning oosik is one of the foulest smells on earth (followed by rotten horse flesh).

[Scott Hrouda]

[J.Arthur Loose]

Thanks gents.

[Philip Dyer]

Dammit, why does one of the best materiel for a grip have to be fosillized Walrus dick bone?