Brasswood Hand Forged Damascus Folding Pocket Knife with Wood Handle and Engraved Brass Bolster & Cowhide Leather Sheath | Everyday Carry Gift for Him | RK-380

Look at the Brasswood from the side and the first thing you notice is the bolster. It is brass, it is engraved, and it is doing real structural work as well as carrying the decoration. Behind it sits a wood handle and a 3.5 inch hand forged Damascus blade, 7.5 inches open, with brass file work cut along the spine. The whole knife weighs six ounces, which is enough to feel deliberate in the hand without becoming something you leave at home. How this compares with the rest of the folding range is covered in the folding knives compared.

Brass has been the standard furniture metal on working knives for centuries for two reasons that have nothing to do with looks. It does not throw a spark when struck, which mattered a great deal when knives were carried in the same pouch as black powder, and it stays soft enough to be worked cold, which means a graver can cut a design into it by hand without heat or annealing. Every engraved bolster on a nineteenth century Sheffield or Solingen pocket knife was cut that way, one push of the graver at a time, and brass was chosen because it took the cut cleanly and then held it. The bolster on this knife is in that tradition.

Forged and finished in the Czech Republic. It ships with a cowhide leather sheath, protective packaging and a working edge already on the blade.

Specifications

What the bolster is actually for

People read a bolster as trim. It is not. The pivot end of a folding knife takes every bit of load the blade generates, and it takes it as a twisting force trying to spread the two sides of the handle apart. A bolster is a solid block of metal wrapped across that end, tying the liners together and giving the pivot pin a thick, hard seat to run in. Take it away and the pin starts to work its way loose in a softer material, and the blade develops side to side play.

It also protects the most vulnerable part of the handle. The front end is what gets knocked against a bench, dropped on concrete and pushed against a pocket seam ten thousand times, and wood on its own would eventually chip and split there. Third, it moves mass forward. A folder with no bolster balances back in the hand and feels light and nervous; with a brass bolster the balance moves to the pivot, which is where you want it for controlled slicing. The brass file work along the spine is the same idea applied for grip: filed jimping gives your thumb a positive place to push from, and brass is soft enough not to bite your thumb pad the way sharp steel jimping does.

Why Damascus and not stainless

Forge welded from 1095 and 15N20, this blade carries a pattern that goes all the way through the steel rather than sitting on it. Printed and laser etched blades look similar in a photograph and vanish the first time a file touches them. Hardened to 58 to 60 HRC, the 1095 gives edge retention and the 15N20 gives toughness and the bright line in the pattern.

Stainless would ask less of you. It has enough chromium to resist neglect, and if the knife is going to live in a damp toolbox and be ignored, stainless is the sensible answer. What you give up is edge. Kitchen and pocket stainless is generally run softer, and it will not take or hold the same apex that a well tempered carbon Damascus will. This knife asks for a wipe and a film of oil in exchange for a better edge, and that is the whole bargain. It is set out fully in Damascus versus stainless.

The wood handle

The scales are wood, cut and shaped by hand and pinned through the liners. Every handle comes off a different piece of timber, so the figure, the colour and the way the grain runs across the scale shift from one knife to the next. Wood is still the most comfortable handle material there is in cold weather, because it does not pull heat out of your hand the way steel or bone does, and it has enough surface texture to stay put when your hands are dry.

It is finished with oil rather than lacquer, which is a deliberate choice. A lacquered handle looks perfect until it chips, and then it has to go back to a shop. An oiled handle dulls slowly and is brought back at home with a wipe of mineral oil and a soft cloth. Do that once or twice a year, keep it out of long soaks and away from radiators and direct sun, and it will not dry, shrink or work loose around the pins. 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. That applies directly to this knife, because the brass bolster arrives with a pattern already cut into it; if you order your own engraving, yours takes its place. Options and lettering are shown on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Left wet it will spot. Dried and oiled it will look the same in twenty years. Wipe the blade after use, especially after fruit, onion or anything salty, and put a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on the steel before it goes away for any length of time. A drop of light oil in the pivot two or three times a year keeps the action smooth and flushes grit out of the joint.

The brass will dull to a warm gold over time, which most owners prefer, and a metal polish will bring it back to bright if you want it. Sharpening is straightforward on any stone: 1000 grit to raise a burr, 3000 to refine, keeping the angle that is already on the blade. Do not store the knife inside the sheath for months, since vegetable tanned leather holds moisture against steel. Full method in steel care and sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

Every Brasswood is hand forged rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Timber is the most variable material we use: two scales cut from the same board can differ noticeably in tone and figure, and no two knives get the same grain. The Damascus pattern lands differently on every blade, the file work is cut by eye, and the brass takes its own polish.

The dimensions, the steel, the hardness and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and on a wood handled knife that is the most obvious thing about it.

Frequently asked questions

Can the engraving already on the brass bolster be removed

If you order your own engraving, it replaces the existing design rather than being added next to it. If you order the knife plain, it arrives with the bolster pattern shown in the photographs.

Will the brass go green

Brass tarnishes to a darker gold and can pick up a slight green cast if it is stored damp for a long time. It wipes off, and a light polish restores the shine. Keeping the knife dry prevents it entirely.

Is the wood handle sealed against water

It is oiled, not sealed. That means it can be maintained at home but it does not like being soaked. Wipe it dry after wet work and re oil it once or twice a year and it will stay tight around the pins.

How does a 3.5 inch folder compare with the 2.75 inch models

Three and a half inches gives you noticeably more cutting capacity and a handle that fills an adult hand, at the cost of a knife you feel in your pocket. The shorter models disappear more easily but do less work per stroke.

Is this a good first hand forged knife

It is a sensible starting point. The size is useful, the maintenance is genuinely a minute a week, and nothing about it needs special equipment or knowledge to look after.

What does free US shipping include

Standard shipping anywhere in the United States at no cost, after one to two weeks of processing while the knife is made and finished. Returns are open for seven days from delivery.

What is in the box

• One Brasswood Damascus folding pocket knife
• Cowhide leather sheath
• Protective packaging
• Care notes for carbon steel, brass and wood
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Compare it with the rest of the folding pocket knives, or look at the Viking knives and the hunting knives for a fixed blade. Steel, leather and handle care are covered in the guides.