Ramcrown Hand Forged Damascus Hunting Knife with Ram Horn Handle | Hunting Camping and Collector Gift | RK-604

The Ramcrown was forged, ground and fitted by one pair of hands. Damascus in the blade, ram horn at the grip, and a hunting knife that comes out of the shop with the edge already set. It measures 8 inches overall with a 4 inch blade and ships in a cowhide leather pouch cut for right hand carry.

Ram horn has a much longer history on knife handles than most people realise, and it is not the same material as cow or buffalo horn even though all three are keratin. A ram grows its horn in a spiral with visible annual growth ridges, so a blank cut from it carries a wave and a translucency that flat horn does not, and no two sections look alike. In Scotland it was the traditional material for dirk and sgian dubh grips for exactly that reason, and it stayed in use long after cheaper alternatives existed because it looks like nothing else and because it grips.

The Ramcrown is forged and finished in the Czech Republic, and shipping inside the United States is free.

Specifications

Why four inches became the standard hunting blade

Walk through any collection of hunting knives from the last two hundred years and you will keep landing on roughly four inches. That is not fashion. It is the length at which a fixed blade can do all the jobs a hunter needs without being good at only one of them.

The work divides into three parts. Opening the animal needs a controllable tip, because the one thing you must not do is puncture the stomach or intestine. Skinning needs a length of curved edge that can be drawn along the seam between hide and carcass. Quartering and boning need enough blade to reach through a joint and enough control to work around bone. A four inch blade with a working belly does all three adequately. Shorten it and you cannot reach; lengthen it and the tip is too far from your hand to steer safely inside a body cavity.

What tells you a hunting knife is any good is what happens behind the edge rather than at it. A blade that is thick and wedge shaped behind the bevel will feel sharp on paper and then bind the moment it is buried in tissue, because the material has nowhere to go. A blade ground thin behind the edge keeps cutting all the way through the stroke. That is why a well made four inch hunter feels so much faster in the field than a heavier knife that looks more serious.

This is a general purpose hunting blade rather than a specialist. If you dress several animals a season it is worth pairing it with a dedicated skinner, which has a deeper belly and a raised tip, or with a gut hook. Our hunting knife versus skinner guide sets out which shape suits which job, and the best Damascus hunting knives compares the range.

Why Damascus and not stainless

The billet is built from alternating layers of 1095 high carbon and 15N20 nickel steel, forge welded, folded and drawn down before the blade is cut from it, then hardened to 58 to 60 HRC. That is why the pattern follows the grind instead of running flat across it.

For hunting specifically, the case for a hard high carbon steel is about how much cutting happens in one session. Field dressing and skinning are concentrated work on abrasive material, and hide, hair and connective tissue take an edge down fast. A soft stainless blade will be noticeably duller by the time you are quartering, which is when you need it most and are least able to do anything about it. This steel starts sharper and stays sharper through the job.

The honest cost is corrosion, and hunting is the most corrosive work a knife does. Blood is mildly acidic and will spot bare carbon steel within a few hours if it is left on the blade. Stainless would forgive that. This will not, and the answer is simply to wash and dry the knife when you are done rather than leaving it in the pouch overnight. The trade is set out in Damascus versus stainless, and whether the steel earns its reputation is answered in is Damascus steel good.

The ram horn handle

Ram horn is a natural material, so the colour, the streaking and the translucency change from piece to piece. Yours will not match the photograph exactly, and that is the point of buying handmade rather than moulded.

Beyond looks, horn has two properties that matter on a hunting knife. It grips when wet, which polished timber and smooth resin do not, and that is not a theoretical advantage when your hands are covered in blood and it is cold. And because keratin is slightly resilient rather than rigid, it takes the shock out of the knife when the edge meets bone, instead of transmitting it straight into your palm.

Ram horn is more figured than buffalo horn and often more translucent at the thin edges, which shows the light through in a way that is hard to photograph. It also carries the natural growth ridges of the animal, and those are sanded back and polished rather than removed entirely, so a faint waviness usually remains in the surface.

Care is the same two minute routine timber gets and it applies to horn and bone without change. A light coat of oil once or twice a year, put on thin and wiped back, keeps it from drying and shrinking against the fittings. Keep it out of prolonged soaking and away from direct heat, both of which dry horn and can open a crack. 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. Ram horn takes a cut line beautifully because the pale groove reads against the darker surface without any inlay, and a set of initials on the grip is the most requested option on this model. See the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Damascus is carbon steel underneath the pattern, so treat it like carbon steel. Dry after use, thin film of oil before storage, and out of the pouch for long spells because vegetable tanned leather holds moisture against a blade. After field use, wash the blade properly before oiling it, since dried blood and fat trap damp against the steel.

Sharpening a four inch blade is straightforward bench stone work. Hold a consistent angle, work the belly by rolling the handle up as you approach the tip so the contact point tracks the curve, and match your stroke count on each side. Finish on a strop. A hunting knife is worth touching up before a trip rather than after, because a sharp blade is safer than a dull one in a cold body cavity. Detail in steel care and sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

This is a handmade piece from the Czech Republic, made in a workshop that still forges, grinds and finishes by hand instead of stamping parts out. The smiths there have kept the older way of working, and the wood, horn and leather are shaped and fitted by hand as well. Two pieces of the same design will never be identical, and that is part of what you are buying.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We handle the import ourselves, look over every piece when it lands and ship from our warehouse in North Babylon, New York. Engraving is done in the United States after the piece arrives, so your design goes on before we send it out.

A note on handmade variation

The Ramcrown 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 figure comes out of the billet differently on every blade, the ram horn carries the growth ridges, colour and translucency of the animal it came from, and the belly and point shift by fractions because a person ground them. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is this enough knife for a whole deer

Yes, from opening to quartering. A dedicated skinner alongside it will make the hide work faster, but it is not necessary.

How is ram horn different from buffalo horn

Ram horn is more figured and often more translucent, with visible growth waves from the spiral of the horn. Buffalo horn is darker, denser and more uniform. Both grip well when wet.

Can I put it in the dishwasher after using it on game

No. Heat and prolonged wet will ruin the horn and mark the blade. Wash it by hand, dry it and oil the steel.

Will engraving on the horn wear off

No. It is cut into the material rather than printed on it, so handling polishes it rather than removing it.

What is the difference between this and the skinner in the range

A skinner has a deeper belly and a raised tip, made specifically for drawing along hide. This is a general purpose blade that does that job well enough and does the rest of the work better.

How soon can you ship it

One to two weeks of processing, then transit, free inside the United States. Tell us before ordering if you need it for the opening of a season.

What is in the box

• One Ramcrown Damascus hunting knife
• Cowhide leather pouch, right hand carry
• Protective packaging
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Compare it with the rest of Hunting Knives, the hide specialists in Damascus Skinner Knives, the larger blades in Bowie Knives and the Norse pieces in Viking Knives. Field technique and steel background sit in the guides.

Worth a look beside this

Worth putting side by side with this is the Olivecamp hunting knife, pattern welded Damascus. In the same category sits the Hollowfell hunting knife. A near match for this one is the Ravenhook hunting knife, pattern welded Damascus.

For a different piece from the same family, look at the Gurkhastag bowie knife. Or start from a blank sheet on the custom Damascus knife page.