Alpine Turquoise Handmade Damascus Drop Point Ladies Folding Knife | White Buffalo Bone & Turquoise Inlay | Liner Lock EDC with White Leather Pouch | BMK-1217

Description

A pocket knife you will not want to hide

The Alpine Turquoise is a liner lock folder built the way a fixed blade gets built: forged Damascus, natural handle material, solid brass hardware, no injection-molded anything. Closed it is a little over four inches, which is small enough to disappear in a jacket pocket or a bag, and it clips tip-up on a brass pocket clip that was machined rather than bent from spring stock.

Open it and the pattern arrives. The blade is hand-forged Damascus, etched so the folded layers show as long flowing waves down the grind that tighten and swirl as they run into the tip. The bright bands are the harder alloy and the dark ones the softer; together they give the edge both wear resistance and toughness. That is the original reason smiths laminated steel long before anybody cared how it looked, and the difference between forged and factory-blanked blades is worth understanding before you compare prices.

Bone and stone

The scales are pure white buffalo bone, cut, shaped and polished by hand, with a band of turquoise inlaid across the middle of each side and framed in brass. Turquoise is a soft stone and it carries its own matrix veining, so the piece on your knife will have its own map of dark lines running through the blue. Bone and stone both warm quickly in a pocket. Neither will ever feel like plastic.

How it opens and locks

A thumb stud gets the blade moving; there is no spring and no assist, so the action is entirely down to your thumb and to the phosphor bronze washers riding on either side of the pivot. Those washers are the reason the blade swings smoothly rather than grinding. Once open, a leaf of the steel liner springs across behind the tang and holds it. To close, push the liner aside and fold it back. Everything is held with brass screws, so the knife can be taken apart, cleaned and re-tensioned instead of being thrown away when it gets gritty.

Size and carry

Open it measures a little over seven inches and the blade is three inches, which lands inside the limit most American jurisdictions set for everyday carry, though local ordinances vary and are worth checking. Closed it is compact enough to sit in a coat pocket without dragging the fabric down. The brass clip holds it high in the pocket so only the pommel end shows.

Built here, not assembled here

The billet is forged and folded in our Memphis, Tennessee shop. Blades are profiled, ground, hardened, tempered and etched on site, the bone is cut and inlaid at the same bench, and the frame is fitted, tuned and sharpened by the person who ground it. Nothing arrives as a finished part waiting to be screwed together.

Sheath, origin, upkeep

It travels in a hand-stitched white leather slip pouch made alongside the knife in Memphis, Tennessee.

Grit is the enemy of any folder. Flush the pivot with warm water if sand or pocket lint builds up, dry it thoroughly, and put a single drop of light oil at the pivot afterwards; our pocket knife cleaning walkthrough shows the sequence. Keep the blade dry, since patterned steel spots when it sits damp, and store it open in humid weather so nothing is trapped inside the handle. Sharpening is straightforward despite the pattern; you are grinding ordinary steel and the etch reappears on the new bevel by itself. The fixed-blade version of this design is the Turquoise Dawn.

Model: BMK-1217