Kwaiken

Hogstrom, Anders

"I make mostly daggers, fighters and what I call “Kwaikens” but also swords and folding knives. I primarily use 1050 carbon spring steel and damascus of various compositions and on occasion, stainless steel for the blades. For the 1050 I employ a clay “tempering” technique that gives the blade a beautiful temper line (hamon) as well as a hard edge while maintaining a flexible core of the blade. These blades are rough ground and then finished off by hand with files and sandpaper before the final stage of etching the blade to bring out the hamon. When it comes to damascus, I tend to lean towards a simpler random or a twist pattern that goes with the overall simplistic scheme of my knives. These blades are worked and finished in a similar fashion as the carbon steel ones. I use stainless steel, mostly Damasteel stainless damascus, for folders, art knives ( for ex. Skull Cleaver and Druid Sickle) and some full-tang dress-knives, my Tuxer model, or upscale hunting/skinning-knives. For the handles and wooden sheaths I use rare exotic hardwoods, ancient ivories and bone material from all over the world. Even large pieces of natural amber has found its way onto a couple of my knives. A few wood favorites are Snakewood for its amazing striped grain pattern, Masur birch, Eucalyptus , and Redwood burl for its sometimes silky appearance."