Bonewarden Hand Forged Damascus Folding Pocket Knife with White Bone Handle, Hardwood Bolsters & Leather Belt Pouch | Everyday Carry Gift | RK-376

The Bonewarden is a Damascus lockback folding pocket knife with a 3 inch blade, a white bone handle and hardwood bolsters at either end. It closes to about 3.5 inches and opens to 6.5 inches overall, so it rides in a pocket or in its leather belt pouch and comes out for cord, packaging, food and the small jobs at camp or on a hunt. It leaves the shop with the edge already set.

The lockback is one of the oldest folding locks still in common use. A spring loaded bar runs along the spine of the handle and drops into a notch at the back of the blade when it opens, so the blade stays put under pressure. To close it you press the release on the spine near the rear bolster and fold the blade back into the handle.

Forged and finished in the Czech Republic. It ships with a cowhide leather belt pouch, protective packaging and a working edge.

Specifications

Why a lockback folder

A fixed blade needs a sheath on the belt all day. A folder closes over its own edge, which is why it is the knife people actually carry. The trade off is the joint, and the lock is what makes that joint trustworthy.

On this one the lock bar runs the length of the spine and seats firmly into the blade tang when open, so the blade will not fold back on your fingers under normal cutting. A 3 inch blade is a useful everyday length: enough edge for rope, boxes, apples and light game cleaning, short enough to stay easy to control. If you need a knife for heavy skinning or chopping, a fixed blade is the better tool.

Why Damascus and not stainless

The blade is pattern welded from 1095 and 15N20, forge welded into one billet, folded, drawn out and etched at the end so the light and dark bands appear. The 1095 supplies hardness and edge retention, the 15N20 supplies toughness and the bright layers. The pattern is the structure of the steel, so it will not wear off and it does not sit on the surface as a print.

For a pocket knife the hardness is the point. At 58 to 60 HRC this edge stays keen through a lot of everyday cutting, where soft stainless will start to slip and drag and leave you stopping to strop. The trade is that carbon steel corrodes if you leave blood, fat or salt sitting on it, so this is a blade that gets wiped in the field rather than at the end of the day. That is the whole cost of it, and the comparison is set out in Damascus versus stainless.

Bone, hardwood and grip in the wet

The handle is white bone with hardwood bolsters top and tail. Bone was chosen because it holds grip when your hands are wet or cold. Polished synthetics get greasy fast; bone has enough tooth in the surface to stay put, and it warms to hand temperature within a few seconds where steel and plastic do not.

Both bone and the hardwood bolsters are natural materials and they want the same treatment. Keep them out of prolonged soaking, keep them away from radiators and direct sun, and give them a light coat of mineral oil or a soft wax once or twice a year so they do not dry, shrink and loosen around the pins. Colour, grain and streaking vary from piece to piece because these came from an animal and a tree rather than a mould. The method is in wooden handle care.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the handle. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. Pocket knives are a favourite for a name and a date, and it is all cut here before packing. Layouts are on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

In the field, wipe the blade as you go rather than letting blood dry on it. At home, wash with warm water and mild soap, dry it completely including the area where the blade meets the bolster, and put a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on the steel. Do not put it in a dishwasher, which will ruin both the steel and the bone.

Sharpening this blade is done on the belly as much as the flat. Use a 1000 grit stone with a rocking motion that follows the curve rather than dragging a curved edge straight across, then finish on a 3000 or a strop. Keep the existing angle. Store the knife out of the leather pouch for long periods, since vegetable tanned leather holds moisture and salts against steel. Detail on both jobs is in steel care and sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

This knife is hand forged. It is not machine made and it is not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The Damascus pattern falls differently on every blade, the bone carries its own tone and grain, the hardwood bolsters have their own figure, and the exact line of the blade moves a fraction from one piece to the next because a person ground it.

The dimensions, the steel, the hardness and the build are the same every time. The character is not. That is what you are buying when you buy from a forge rather than from a factory.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Bonewarden lock open

Yes. It is a lockback. The blade locks open on a spine lock and is released by pressing the bar at the back of the handle, then folded closed by hand.

Is 3 inches enough blade for everyday carry

Yes. Three inches covers almost every everyday job, from packaging and cord to food and small camp chores, and it stays compact closed.

Can I use it on a hunt

Yes, for light work such as opening packaging, cutting cord and small game cleaning. For skinning a deer a fixed blade skinner is the better choice.

Will blood and fat stain the Damascus

They will darken it if left, and over time that becomes a patina rather than damage. Wiping the blade during the job and oiling it afterwards keeps the etched pattern crisp and bright.

Does the belt pouch carry on either side

The pouch is made with a belt loop and holds the knife closed. Tell us at the time of order if you need it set up for left hand carry.

How long before it ships

One to two weeks of processing while it is made and finished, then free shipping inside the US. Engraving does not normally extend that.

What is in the box

• One Bonewarden Damascus folding pocket knife
• Cowhide leather belt pouch
• Protective packaging
• Care notes for carbon steel and natural handles
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Compare it against the rest of the folding pocket knives, the wider hunting knives and the Damascus skinner knives if you want a fixed blade. Field technique and steel background sit in the guides.

Compare it with these

Closest to this in the range is the Rosecamp Damascus skinner knife, pattern welded Damascus. If this one is not quite right, there is the Roseclaw Damascus skinner knife, pattern welded Damascus. Also in this group is the Stagrose Damascus skinner knife, pattern welded Damascus.

If you are putting a set together, the Gurkhastag bowie knife sits alongside it. Pick the steel, the length and the fittings yourself on the custom Damascus knife page.

Buying for groomsmen? This piece also comes as a matched set of 6, 15% less than buying six singly, and each one can carry its own engraved name.