Littlewalnut Hand Forged Damascus Skinner Knife with Walnut and Pakka Wood Handle | Compact Full Tang Hunting and Camping Gift | RK-371

Littlewalnut is a skinner knife for people who notice the difference between a knife that was made and a knife that was manufactured. The blade is fire pattern Damascus at 3 inches, the handle is walnut and pakka wood over a full tang, and the whole knife measures 6 inches overall and weighs 5.5 oz. It is compact on purpose. Which shape you actually need depends on the job, sorted out in hunter against skinner.

Pakka wood is often described vaguely, so here is what it actually is. Thin hardwood veneers are stacked, saturated with a thermosetting resin and then compressed under heat and high pressure until the resin cures through the whole stack. The result is a composite that keeps the layered grain of real wood but behaves like a hard plastic: it does not absorb water, it does not swell or shrink with humidity, and it is considerably harder and denser than the timber it started as. Pairing it with natural walnut gives you the warmth and figure of a wood handle in the part your palm sits against and a hard, stable, waterproof section where the handle meets the steel.

The knife is forged, ground and handled in the Czech Republic, and it ships free within the United States with the edge already set.

Specifications

What a 3 inch skinner is actually for

Most skinners are 4 to 6 inches, so a 3 inch blade is a deliberate choice and it does a specific set of jobs better than any of them.

Start with how you steer a knife. On a long blade the working part of the edge sits well out in front of your hand, so you direct it with your arm and shoulder, and the further out it is the less you can feel what it is touching. On a 3 inch blade the edge is right at your fingers. You steer with your wrist, you can hold it in a pinch grip with your thumb on the spine, and you can feel the exact moment the edge meets connective tissue rather than hide. That is the difference between a knife that skins fast and a knife that skins precisely.

Precision is what the small skinner is for. Caping a head for a mount is the classic job, because you are working millimetres from the hide around eyes, lips and ears and a hole in the wrong place cannot be fixed. Feet, tails and the fiddly work around joints are the same. So is anything to do with small game, squirrel, rabbit and birds, where a 5 inch blade is simply too much knife for the animal.

The other advantage is that it goes with you. A 6 inch knife lives in a pack. This one fits in a jacket pocket, a bag pocket or a glovebox and weighs almost nothing, which means it is there on the day you did not plan to need it.

The trade off is honest. It is slow on long panels of hide on a big animal, and it is not a camp chopper or a food prep knife. It is a detail tool and it is excellent at being one.

The full tang matters even at this size. Skinning loads a blade sideways rather than down the spine, and a short stub of steel set into a handle block is weakest in exactly that direction. Here the steel runs the full length and width of the grip with the scales pinned to either side.

Why Damascus and not stainless

Damascus here means 1095 and 15N20 forge welded together, folded and drawn out until the layers read as a pattern, then etched so the two steels show as light and dark bands. The pattern is structural rather than applied. It goes through the blade and sharpening will not take it off.

At 58 to 60 HRC the edge is harder than a soft stainless blade, which matters more on a small knife than a large one. A 3 inch edge has very little length to spread the work over, so it is asked to do more cutting per inch of steel than a long blade is, and edge retention is what stops you stopping halfway through a cape. It also takes a finer edge, which is the whole point of a detail knife. The cost is that under the pattern it is high carbon steel and it will rust if it is put away wet. Dry it and oil it and that is the entire maintenance story. The full trade off is set out in Damascus versus stainless.

The walnut and pakka handle

Walnut has been the standard for gunstocks for centuries because it is stable, stiff and absorbs shock without splitting along the grain, and those properties transfer directly to a knife handle. It finishes to a warm mid brown that darkens with handling. Pakka wood, as above, is layered veneer set in cured resin, so it is waterproof, dimensionally stable and harder than natural timber.

Care is light. Wash the blade rather than soaking the whole knife, dry it, and keep it out of a dishwasher, where the detergent will pit carbon Damascus regardless of what the handle is made from. The pakka sections need nothing at all. The natural walnut benefits from a light coat of mineral or tung oil once or twice a year, worked in with a cloth and buffed back, which keeps the colour deep rather than grey. The routine is written up 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. On a 3 inch blade the space is limited, so initials, a short date or three or four runes read far better than a full phrase, and we will tell you honestly if what you have sent will not fit legibly at this size. Placement and lettering are covered on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Damascus is carbon steel underneath the pattern, so treat it as carbon steel. Wash and dry after use, put a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on the blade, and do not leave it sealed in a damp pack. A grey patina will build and that is protection rather than damage. Orange rust should be taken off with a soft abrasive and oil before it pits.

A short curved edge is easy to sharpen and easy to sharpen badly. Do not drag it straight down a stone, because only the middle of the belly will touch. Sweep the handle up as you draw the blade back so the contact point travels round the curve to the tip, and keep the angle constant. On a blade this short a small stone or a ceramic rod is often easier to control than a large bench stone. Method in sharpening with a whetstone, and oils and rust in steel care.

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 Memphis, Tennessee 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 the knife that arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The fire pattern belongs to the individual billet, and on a 3 inch blade you are seeing one small window into that billet, which means the swirl on yours can look quite different from the one photographed. Walnut is a natural timber and its grain, colour and figure vary from board to board. The pakka layers vary in how the banding falls across the shape. The grind lines and the exact sweep of the belly shift by a fraction because they are cut by eye.

The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same on every one. Only the character changes, and on a hand forged knife that is what you are paying for.

Frequently asked questions

Is a 3 inch blade too small to be useful?

Not for what it is for. Caping, small game, feet, tails and detail work around joints all want a short blade you can steer with your wrist. It is the wrong knife for long panels of hide on a big animal and the right one for everything fiddly.

Is it full tang?

Yes. The steel runs the full length and width of the handle with the scales pinned either side, which is what carries the sideways loads skinning puts on a knife.

What is pakka wood?

Hardwood veneers stacked, saturated with resin and compressed under heat and pressure until cured. It keeps the layered grain of wood and gains water resistance, stability and hardness.

Does it come with a sheath?

This model is supplied as the knife itself in protective packaging. If you want a fitted leather sheath made for it, contact us before you order and we will tell you what is possible.

How much engraving will fit on a blade this size?

Initials, a short date or three or four runes. A full name and phrase will not read clearly at 3 inches, and we would rather tell you that before we cut it than after.

How long does it take to arrive?

One to two weeks of processing plus transit. Shipping inside the United States is free and returns are accepted within 7 days of delivery.

What is in the box

• One Littlewalnut Damascus skinner knife, 6 inches overall
• Protective packaging
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Comparable knives sit in Damascus skinner knives, hunting knives, folding pocket knives and Viking knives. The steel, the tang and the handle materials are covered in the guides.