Yumastag Hand Forged Damascus Hunting Knife with Stag Antler Handle and Turquoise Spacers and Damascus Bolster & Leather Sheath | Hunting Collector Gift | RK-343

Forged in 352 layer Damascus and handled in stag antler, the Yumastag is a hunting knife built around one idea: a blade you will actually reach for. It is 9 inches overall with a 4.5 inch blade and a 4.5 inch grip, weighs 10.5 oz, and carries turquoise spacers and a Damascus bolster where the handle meets the steel. What to look for in a hunting blade is set out in choosing a hunting knife.

Antler is a strange and excellent handle material. It is the fastest growing tissue in any mammal. A red deer stag regrows an entire rack from bare pedicles in around four months, laying down bone at a rate that would be pathological in any other context, and then sheds the whole thing and starts again the following year. Structurally it is denser at the outer wall and porous through the core, which is why a piece of antler feels warm and slightly forgiving in the hand where solid bone feels cold and hard. Every handle carries the pearling, grooves and colour of the individual animal that grew it and then dropped it in a wood somewhere.

This knife is forged, ground, handled and sheathed in the Czech Republic. It ships with a fitted leather sheath, free within the United States, sharp and ready to work.

Specifications

What a hunting knife has to do, and why the blade is this length

A hunting knife is asked to do three separate jobs and the shape is a compromise between them.

The first is opening. That is point work, done carefully, with the edge angled up and away from what is underneath. It rewards a controllable tip and punishes a long blade, because the further the point is from your hand the less you can feel what it is touching.

The second is caping and detail cutting around the head, the legs and the joints. That is the fiddliest work of the day and it is almost entirely done in the first inch and a half behind the point.

The third is quartering, which means working around and through joints and separating large muscle groups. That is the only part of the job that wants length and belly, because you are making long sweeping cuts and pushing through connective tissue.

Four and a half inches is where those three requirements meet. It is long enough to sweep through a quarter without sawing, and short enough that the tip stays under control when you are working close. Longer blades look more capable in a photograph and are worse in the hand for two of the three jobs. The Damascus bolster at the front of the grip is part of the same design: it puts a small amount of mass forward of your hand, which steadies the point, and it gives your index finger a defined stop so a wet hand does not slide onto the edge.

If you are choosing between this and a dedicated skinner, the difference is the belly. A skinner has a deep sweeping curve and almost no usable point, because it is optimised for one job. This is the knife you carry when you want to do all three.

Why Damascus and not stainless

This is forge welded Damascus: two carbon steels, 1095 and 15N20, bonded at welding heat and worked down together to 352 layers. They harden compatibly and they take an acid etch differently, which is what makes the light and dark banding. It is not a coating and it will not sharpen off.

At 58 to 60 HRC it is harder than the stainless in a supermarket knife, so it takes a finer edge and holds it through more hide and cartilage before it needs attention. In return it wants a wipe of oil, because underneath the pattern it is high carbon steel and high carbon steel rusts. That is a good trade if you clean a knife when you finish with it, and a bad one if it is going to sit in a wet sheath in a truck all season. The honest version of the argument is in is Damascus steel good, and the direct comparison is in Damascus versus stainless.

The stag antler handle

The antler is cut, shaped and polished by hand, with turquoise spacers set between the antler and the Damascus bolster. Two practical things follow from using antler rather than a synthetic. It is warmer in the hand than steel or micarta on a cold morning, which matters when you are working for an hour with wet hands. And its natural surface texture, the pearling and the shallow grooves, gives grip without any checkering being cut into it, so it does not become slippery when it is wet the way a polished smooth handle does.

Antler is a natural material and it wants a little care. Keep it out of prolonged soaking and away from direct heat, since both dry it out and can cause fine surface cracking over years. Wash the blade, dry the handle, and two or three times a year work a small amount of mineral oil or a wax based conditioner into the antler with your fingers and buff it off. The same routine covers antler, horn, bone and wood and is written up in wooden handle care. Sheath care is a separate subject, covered in leather sheath 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. On this knife the blade flat above the edge is the clean field for lettering, because antler is textured and uneven and does not hold fine work as reliably as steel. Placement and sizes are covered on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

A minute after use is all this knife asks. Wash it, dry it properly, and put a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on the steel. Leather holds moisture, so store the knife out of the sheath for long periods rather than leaving it sheathed all summer. A grey patina will build on the blade with use and that is protection rather than damage. Orange rust is different and should be taken off with a soft abrasive and oil before it pits.

Sharpening is ordinary whetstone work. Set the edge on a medium stone at a consistent angle with light pressure, refine on a fine stone, and strop if you want the last of it. Avoid pull through gadgets, which grind a rough shoulder onto a thin edge. Angles and technique are in sharpening with a whetstone, and the oils and rust questions in steel care.

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 Memphis, Tennessee. 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

This knife is hand forged, not machine made and not bulk produced, so the knife that arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. A 352 layer billet never draws out the same way twice, so the banding along your blade is unique to it. Stag antler varies more than almost any handle material there is: colour runs from bone white through cream to a deep weathered brown, the pearling and grooves are the record of one individual animal, and the crown and the taper of the piece it was cut from decide the exact shape of your grip. Turquoise varies in colour and in the matrix running through it.

The dimensions, the steel and the build are identical every time. The character is not. That is what buying from a forge means.

Frequently asked questions

Is 4.5 inches enough blade for deer and hogs?

Yes. Field dressing and caping are close control work, and quartering wants sweep rather than raw length. Most experienced hunters end up carrying something between four and five inches for exactly this reason.

Is the antler shed or taken from an animal?

Antler is shed naturally every year and regrown, which is what makes it available as a handle material at all. Every piece carries the marks of the individual animal that grew it.

What is the difference between this and a skinner?

A skinner has a deep sweeping belly and a very short usable point, because it is built to pull an edge along hide without puncturing it. This has more point and less belly, so it handles opening, caping and quartering as well as skinning. It is the one knife choice rather than the specialist.

Is it sharp when it arrives?

Yes. It is sharpened on a stone before it is boxed and it will work the day it lands.

Can I have it engraved as a gift?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for an Elder Futhark line, or choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button. The blade flat is the usual place on a knife with an antler handle.

How long does shipping take?

One to two weeks of processing plus transit, free inside the United States, with returns accepted within 7 days of delivery.

What is in the box

• One Yumastag 352 layer Damascus hunting knife, 9 inches overall
• Fitted leather sheath
• Protective packaging
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Comparable knives sit in hunting knives, Damascus skinner knives, Bowie knives and Viking knives. The steel, the antler and the leatherwork are covered in the guides.