[Einar Drønnesund]

John Linker of www.goldenhornknives.com offered a limited number of ebony hilted knives at a price price of 50 Euro. The knife came securely packaged and wrapped in cloth tied with string. Made for a nice little package. It came with a little cardboard scabbard to protect the blade during transport.

For those who dont know, The smith, Apostolis Pachtikos (74) is the last living traditional Cretan bladesmith, something that makes owning one of his knives kinda special IMO. I really hope he takes on apprentices before he passes away.

The knife itself is about 18 cm long with a 9.5 cm blade. It has a very unique, comical grip that to me looked uncomfortable in the pictures, but is actually quite nice to hold. Just takes a bit of getting used to.

The blade is very thin, about 1 mm, and has a nice, even, high polish, with no grind marks. The inscriptions on the blade are a nice touch, but unfortunately, I have misplaced the translation. Hopefully, John can help me out here. BTW, John offered us the chance to get the knife with no inscriptions, or to choose our own, but I decided to get one with whatever the smith chose to put on there. The blade was not as sharp as I'd have preferred it to be, but thats no biggie at all. A quick sharpening session later it was fine.

Describing the unique grip is quite hard, as I have no idea about the terms used, and I have no camera at the moment. I'll provide pics when I get the chance, but if you want to se what I'm on about, go the www.goldenhornknives.com. The knife I have is the Type II (D), but with ebony handle slats instead of bone. The grip slats and other fittings are snugly fitted, with no visible gaps. There are a few minor imperfections, like the ebony slats not beeing 100% identically filed, that I expect when ordering handmade products, but I find it adds character instead of detracting from the piece.

Overall, I am very happy with this knife, and wouldnt hesitate to recommend them to others.