Ravenpoint Handmade Damascus Push Dagger with Ebony Wood Handle & Leather Sheath | Collector EDC Knife | BMK-1195

Description

Put a Ravenpoint on the bench beside the rest of the rack and it looks almost severe. No bolster, no bright collar, no contrasting spacer — a forged Damascus point rising straight out of a block of ebony so dark it reads black until raking light finds the grain. The restraint is on purpose. On a knife this compact, every extra fitting is one more thing arguing with the pattern in the steel.

That pattern begins as a stack of alternating high and low carbon bars, drawn out under the hammer, folded, and welded back onto itself at welding heat until the layer count runs into the hundreds. Acid then eats the softer bands a fraction deeper than the hard ones, and the relief that lifts out of the flats is what you are looking at: contour lines, tight where the bar was squeezed and loose and looping where it flowed around the fuller. Our workshop notes on how a Damascus billet is forged and folded follow the whole sequence if you want to see it step by step.

Ebony, and why we chose it

Ebony is one of the heaviest cabinet woods on earth. It sinks in water. Sanded through the grits and burnished on a wheel it takes a gloss without a drop of lacquer, and that gloss is the wood itself rather than a coating that can chip. Practically, the density is what you feel: a four inch blade on a T-grip should feel like a toy, and this one does not. The mass sits in the palm and the knife stays put when your hand is cold or wet.

How it sits in the hand

The crossbar rides across the meat of the palm with the blade emerging between the second and third fingers. Nothing about the hold depends on grip strength, which is the whole argument for the format — the wrist is not doing the work, the forearm and shoulder are. Both edges are ground and sharpened by hand, the ricasso carries filework, and a shallow fuller runs the length of each flat to shed weight without thinning the spine.

The sheath

Black vegetable-tanned leather, wet-formed over this exact blade so the shoulders of the ricasso catch on the throat, stitched around the perimeter and finished with a snap strap and a fixed belt loop. It draws with a deliberate tug rather than falling free. Leather that is molded rather than cut flat holds its shape for years.

Keeping it well

Damascus is carbon steel and it reacts to moisture. Dry the flats and both edges when you put the knife away, and give the blade an occasional pass with a rag and a little camellia or food-safe oil — that film also keeps the etch reading crisply instead of going flat and gray. The ebony wants nothing more than an annual rub with the same oil and a life away from radiators and car dashboards. Leather traps humidity against steel, so store the knife out of the sheath, not in it.

Before you order

Push daggers sit in their own legal category in a good many states and municipalities, and several countries ban them outright. The rules are not consistent and they change. Confirm what applies where you live and where you travel before you buy — our overview of which knife patterns are most heavily restricted in the US is a starting point, not legal advice, and the responsibility for checking is yours.

Common questions

Is this a display piece or a using knife? Either. The billet is hardened and tempered like any of our carbon blades and the edges are put on by hand at the bench. Plenty of these live in a case; the ones that get carried do fine.

Will mine be identical to the photo? Not exactly. Each billet folds differently and ebony varies from jet black to faintly streaked with brown. Shape, dimensions and construction are the same; the figure is unique to your piece.

How do I sharpen two edges? Work them as separate jobs. Pick an angle, keep it, and move along the edge in short overlapping passes from ricasso to tip. A ceramic rod or a small pocket stone beats a full bench stone on a blade this short.

Anything else in the range like it? If you want the same silhouette in a synthetic handle, the Nightspike push dagger in black G10 shares the profile with a very different feel in the hand.

Gifting

Say the word at checkout and we will pack it for a gift rather than a shipment. Everything we send out is forged, ground, fitted and finished in our Memphis, Tennessee shop and carries a lifetime guarantee covering faults in the steel, the fittings and the work that went into them, backed by more than two thousand verified five-star reviews.

Model: BMK-1195