New Arrival

What a new arrivals page is for

Everything sold here is made by hand, which means stock does not arrive in even monthly batches. A shipment clears customs, gets inspected in Memphis and goes up, and then nothing new appears for a fortnight. This page collects whatever landed most recently, and it exists because the alternative is asking you to trawl thirty category pages looking for the things you have not already seen.

The practical consequence is that this page has no theme. The current ten are all knives, but that is because the last shipments were knives, not because the category is a knife category. Read it as a shelf rather than a collection, and expect the mix to shift.

The second consequence is worth knowing before you hesitate. Handmade pieces come in small numbers, sometimes single figures for a given handle material, and when a piece here sells there may not be an identical one behind it. Two knives with the same name will differ in etch figure and in the grain of the scales, because two people made them on two different days. If a specific piece is the one you want, that is an argument against sleeping on it.

The knives in this collection

Ten pieces, split by what they are for rather than by steel, since nine of the ten are some form of pattern welded blade.

Folding pocket knives

Three folders, all around 7.5 to 8 inches open with blades of 3 to 3.5 inches and handles of 4 to 5 inches. One carries buffalo horn scales with a brass bolster, one walnut with brass, and the third is the interesting one, a laminated handle built from olive wood, rosewood and bone separated by brass and red fibre spacers, on steel bolsters. That kind of stacked handle is slow work and it is the only one on the page. All three come with a leather sheath rather than a clip, which is worth knowing if you expected a pocket clip.

Skinners

Three skinning knives, and they are not variations on one design. A 7.5 inch piece on a 3.5 inch blade in hand polished Damascus, with rosewood and stag scales and a rosewood bolster, in a hand stitched sheath. An 8 inch full tang skinner with a 4 inch blade in layered high carbon steel, quoted at 280 to 350 layers and 54 to 56 HRC, weighing 280 grams, on exotic wood, in tooled leather with a belt loop and a snap closure. And a 7.5 inch skinner with a 3.5 inch blade in copper Damascus with carbon steel, on a dual resin handle with a turquoise accent, in a premium leather sheath with a sharpener built into it.

Karambits

Two, both full tang and both Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC. The karambit is the curved Southeast Asian claw blade, cut on the inside of the curve so it works on the pull rather than the push. The larger is 9.5 inches overall with a 4.75 inch blade on plain rosewood. The smaller is 8.5 inches with a 4 inch blade on coloured pakka wood with a steel bolster. Look at the photographs before you buy, because a karambit lives or dies on how the curve fits your hand and no specification panel can tell you that.

Camp knife and dagger

Two larger fixed blades. The camp knife is 12 inches overall with a 7 inch blade in Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC, on olive wood with a steel bolster, and it is the piece here that will actually go outdoors and do work. The dagger is 13.5 inches with an 8 inch blade in plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC, on rosewood, and it carries a square wooden inlay set into the blade itself. That inlay is a display feature and it is the reason to buy it.

Sizes, steel and handles across the range

Every figure comes from the specification panel of a piece on this page. These are forged and ground by hand, so read them as what to expect rather than a guarantee to the millimetre.

One figure to read properly. On the folders, the overall length is measured open. Fold one and you get roughly the handle length, which is 4 to 5 inches here.

Sizing and how they carry

Blade length is the number that decides what a knife is good for. Three to 3.5 inches is everyday carry territory, useful for boxes, rope and food and legal to carry in more places than a longer blade. Around 4 inches is the working size for skinning and general field use. Seven and 8 inch blades are camp and display pieces and neither will fit in a pocket or a decent number of legal definitions.

Carry is worth thinking about too. None of the folders here has a pocket clip, and each comes with a leather sheath instead, so they carry on a belt rather than in the seam of your jeans. The full tang skinner ships in tooled leather with a belt loop and a snap closure, which is the most secure carry on the page. Check your local rules before you carry any of these, and knife laws by state is a starting point rather than legal advice.

Handle length matters more than people expect. The 5 inch handles on the walnut folder and the camp knife suit a large hand. The 4 inch handles will feel short if you have big palms, and better if you do not.

Steel and hardness

Two house specifications run through almost everything here. Plain 1095 high carbon is hardened to 54 to 58 HRC, which is the dagger on this page, and it takes a keen edge and comes back easily on a stone. Damascus of 1095 and 15N20 is forge welded, folded and acid etched, hardened to 58 to 60 HRC, and it holds an edge a little longer. The 15N20 carries nickel, which resists the acid, so after etching the two steels sit at slightly different depths and read as light and dark bands.

Three panels here list something else, and they say so honestly rather than pretending. One folder is quoted as 1080 and 15N20, one skinner as a layered high carbon blade of 280 to 350 layers at a slightly softer 54 to 56 HRC, and one skinner as a copper Damascus with carbon steel, which is where the warm tone in the pattern comes from. Read the specification panel on the individual product page and take it at face value.

None of this is stainless. Carbon steel and pattern welded carbon steel both rust if you leave them wet or leave fingerprints on them, and on an etched blade a rust spot sits in the pattern where it is hard to remove without disturbing the etch. Damascus steel care covers that properly, and real versus fake Damascus is worth reading if you are new to it.

Handles, bolsters and sheaths

Handle materials here run to buffalo horn, walnut, rosewood, olive wood, stag, bone, pakka wood, exotic wood and resin. The natural materials all move slightly with humidity and none of them likes a dishwasher or a long soak. Stag and horn are the most characterful and the most variable, and no two pieces will match.

Bolsters are brass or steel, fitted at the front of the handle where your fingers meet the blade. On a folder the bolster also carries the pivot, so it is structural rather than decorative. The laminated folder here uses brass and red fibre spacers between the wood and bone sections, which is a traditional way of building a handle out of small offcuts and looks far better than it has any right to.

Every piece ships with leather. The range runs from a plain cow leather sheath through hand stitched and handcrafted sheaths to a tooled sheath with a belt loop and a snap, and one premium sheath with a sharpener built into the body of it. Do not store the knife in the sheath long term, because leather holds damp against steel and an etched blade will spot.

Care and storage

Wipe the blade after use, particularly after cutting anything acidic. Then a thin film of mineral oil or a food safe blade oil, applied and wiped almost dry. On Damascus this matters more than on plain carbon steel, because the etch leaves the surface very slightly textured and moisture sits in it.

Hand wash and dry immediately. A dishwasher will strip an oiled wood handle, loosen glued scales and dull an etch in one cycle. Wood and horn handles take a little mineral oil or a board conditioner once or twice a year, and the leather takes a wax or a conditioner on the same schedule.

Sharpening is straightforward on all of these. Carbon steel at 54 to 60 HRC works on any decent whetstone, and the guide on sharpening with a whetstone covers the angle and the stroke. The exception is the karambit, which is a curved edge and needs a rod or a small round stone worked section by section along the arc.

Engraving

Most of these can be engraved after they arrive in the United States. On a fixed blade the flat above the ricasso and the bolster are the usable surfaces. On a folder the bolster is usually the only real option, since the blade is short and mostly edge.

Text engraving is 19 dollars, a symbol is 39 dollars and a family crest is 49 dollars. Elder Futhark is a phonetic alphabet rather than a code, so a name is transliterated by sound and there is no rune for the letter C. Engraving is permanent and an engraved piece cannot be returned, so check the spelling twice before you order.

Where these come from and how they ship

Ransack Viking is a US company based in Memphis, Tennessee. The pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Memphis. Engraving is done in the US after arrival.

Because everything here is made by hand, the etch figure on two Damascus blades of the same model will differ, and so will the grain and colour of wood or horn scales. That is the nature of the process rather than a defect. New arrivals ship from the same Memphis stock as everything else, so nothing on this page is on backorder from overseas.

How to choose

Work backwards from use. For a pocket knife you will actually carry, take one of the three folders and pick the handle you like, because the blades are within half an inch of each other. For hunting, take a skinner, and the full tang one with the belt loop sheath is the most practical of the three. For general outdoor work, the 12 inch camp knife is the only piece here with enough blade to matter.

For display, take the dagger with the wooden inlay in the blade, because you will not see that construction often. If you want the piece with the most work in it, the laminated folder with the brass and fibre spacers is 99 dollars and the cheapest thing on the page, which makes very little sense and is not a complaint.

Browse related categories

• Folding pocket knives
• Damascus skinner knives
• Karambit knives
• Hunting knives
• All Damascus knives
• Daggers and double edged blades

Guides worth reading first

• What Damascus steel actually is
• Real versus fake Damascus steel
• Knife blade shapes and what each is good at
• The complete knife care guide