Modified Svord Mini Peasant No.2

 You may recall that I built up a customized Svord mini-peasant for Brad, a while back. I made the handle of his knife from Cherry wood, and I think it came out pretty nice.

 The stock version of the knife. 

(Photo from Urban Conquest)

Since then, I have been carrying a stock mini-peasant, and I really like the knife. So, Last week, I decided to start on a modified version for myself.

While I left the blade in its stock form, on Brad's knife, I decided to reshape the blade on mine. I prefer the spear-point style, and I wanted to clean up the somewhat crude cutout at the handle end of the blade. I also slightly reshaped the tang, around the lanyard hole, to make it sit nicer against my hand, during use.

The handle, itself, is made of Wenge, and has been rubbed with a dark walnut Swedish Oil finish. I had to put two stop pins in the handle (one for the open position and one for closed), due to the modification I made at the pivot end of the cutting edge.

It sits nicely in the hand, and has a pleasing texture. But, the Wenge was a bear to work with. The hardness of the wood, along with the the open grain, made it pretty hard to shape and smooth with the hand tools I prefer to use. It came out perfect, for my use, but it certainly isn't "presentation grade". To produce the nice mirror-finish polish that you often see on this wood would definitely require a belt sander and my buffing wheel. But, I don't think that would be an appropriate finish for a knife with this blade in it, anyway...

I sharpened it up to a shaving edge, when I was done, and added a leather lanyard. I did cut my finger on it, but not with the cutting edge. While I was filing the point down to shape, I let the file slip and gashed open my right index finger on the back of the blade!

I put a bandage on it, and it continued seeping blood for about two hours. According to tradition, drawing my own blood with it makes the knife officially mine.

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