The Alan Davis custom knife picture thread

[d.r.h.]

Christmas came early this year when a great BF member and Alan Davis collector agreed to release to my care and loving attention three of his Davis folders! Three, I might add, that I really wanted snag when Alan first listed them for sale. I'll post them here over the next three days. Today is reserved for my favorite .... Alan's Elk Scene folder, which he originally offered for sale in September of 2015. It features a 3.125" Doug Ponzio Damascus blade in his Elk Scene pattern, Père David's stag scales and M3 composite bolsters. Père David's stag is somewhat rare, originating in China and almost becoming extinct. Here's some info on it taken from Animal Diversity Web.

"The name that the Chinese gave these deer was "sze pu shiang". This means none of the four. The deer supposedly has a neck like a camel, a tail similar to that of a donkey, antlers of a deer, and hooves similar to a cow. However it didnt resemble any of them more than the other (Harper, 1945).

In 1865, Père Armand David, a French missionary, discovered the deer in the Imperial Hunting Park (Nan Hai-tsu Park) near Peking they were believed to be the only surviving members of the species. About a dozen individuals from this group were imported to Europe. In 1894, a flood destroyed the Imperial Hunting Park and much of the herd was killed. Those that did survive were hunted by starving citizens during the Boxer Revolution in 1900. The Duke of Bedford gathered the remaining breeding population of 18 deer at his abbey in Europe and began to increase to population. During WWII the herd was moved because of the fear of extinction due to bombing.

In 1985 Père David's Deer was reintroduced to the Beijing Milu Park and a second group was released in 1986 in a site north of Shanghi called the Dafeng Milu Natural Reserve (Huffman, 2001). In 1997 an estimated 671 deer were surviving in the wild in China (Jiang et al., 2000)."

And now ... some pics of this one-of-a-kind piece:

 

[d.r.h.]

(Update, 1/25/17: This beauty now resides with a new loving owner)

Here is the second I received the other day from an Alan Davis collector. This one is a smaller gent's folder with a 2.6875" Swedish Damasteel (twist pattern) blade, Mammoth Bark ivory scales, and textured titanium bolsters. And, for some bling, you gotta love Alan's decorated back spacers!!!

Tomorrow, I will post the third ... my first Davis slip joint!

 

[book'em]

The file work on the blade is stunning!

 

[d.r.h.]

And finally .... here's the third I picked up. Alan doesn't make very many slipjoints, so I had to have one! This one features presentation grade desert ironwood covers, a 2.75" CPM-154 blade and fileworked titanium liners. Pull is about a 4 and can be easily pinched.

 

[d.r.h.]

To say I was super excited to get this Davis in the mail would be an understatement! The only thing I was more excited about was the fact that I spotted and bought the knife a mere 1 minute after Alan listed it for sale! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Anyway, this beauty features some very nice black lip mother of pearl scales, polished bronze Texture Tech bolsters and a 2.5635" Del Ealy Damascus blade in his Lion pattern. Alan also inlaid mother of pearl pieces into the textured titanium back spacer. This is one classy package that is very difficult to photograph in a way that the black lip can be fully appreciated ... but, I tried!

 

[d.r.h.]

Here's a real beauty that arrived today. For personal reasons, this is going to remain a special keepsake knife in my collection. The scales are beautifully colored Mammoth tooth. Blade is a special multi-bar Damascus by Del Ealy and is just under 3 inches in length. The Mokume bolsters, Damascus back spacer, and file-worked liners add to the elegance of this gent's knife. As always .... Alan dun good!!!

 

[d.r.h.]

This one arrived the same day as the Mammoth tooth above, but was too tired to take pics of it until today. Got this one from another Davis collector. It is dressed in some beautiful dark dyed box elder scales. It has a 2.875" Alabama Damascus blade. What is really interesting (and Alan did a superb job tying everything together, with the blue liners and spacer) are the bolsters. They are some blue shred carbon fiber. Very hard to see the iridescent blue highlights in the CF unless you have the knife under some bright, direct lighting ... making it really hard to photograph. My best attempt to show the bolsters (without washing out the rest of the knife) is the last pic.

 

[Lycosa]

Fantastic folder and photos!!
rolf

 

[marcus52AR]

That redwood burl knife that Alan made for you is stunning, I love the Damascus and the blade shape he used.

Beautiful knives Dennis!

Top notch Alan!

 

[d.r.h.]

While I carry, at one time or another, most of my Alan Davis knives ... there are a couple of them that pull regular duty as my EDC Davis. More often than not, it is my blue dyed sycamore or my buckeye burl. This one arrived today and will probably become my primary EDC for the time being. I debated buying for quite some time, as it is a little larger in the blade than I need / like. However, it is the blade that won me over. It is 3.375" of Zoe Crist's explosion pattern Damascus. Scales are Honduran rosewood. Alan added a very comfortable and sturdy clip for pocket carry (which this will see lots of!).

 

[d.r.h.]

Finally got around to taking some pictures of my newest Davis. It's a beautiful gent's sized folder with Amboyna burl scales, textured M3 composite bolsters (which are really striking) and a 3.0625" Del Ealy multi-bar Damascus blade.

 

[mtl76]

Alan Davis mammoth ivory framelock folder.

 

[d.r.h.]

Alan Davis mammoth ivory linerlock folder.

I remember Alan making that one (sometime back in late 2013 or early 2014). Always thought the bark looked so uniquely interesting. I had a similar one ... but with cream/brown bark (gifted to a friend). Very nice knife. Thanks for posting it.

 

[mtl76]

I remember Alan making that one (sometime back in late 2013 or early 2014). Always thought the bark looked so uniquely interesting. I had a similar one ... but with cream/brown bark (gifted to a friend). Very nice knife. Thanks for posting it.

Thanks. It's become my favorite knife, and opened my eyes to what the term "custom knife" really means.

 

[rodblder]

Just went thru this thread, Outstanding knives!!!!!

 

[d.r.h.]

Just went thru this thread, Outstanding knives!!!!!

Glad you enjoyed looking at some of Alan's knives. Alan personifies the term "custom" knife maker. And, speaking of Alan's knives .... picked this beauty up late last week and it arrived today! An outrageously beautiful combination of materials make up this folder. Scales are tiger coral, bolsters are titanium Texture Tech, blade is CTS-XHP (just under 3") that Alan acid and stone washed and he combined a variety of filing styles to the liners. I missed out purchasing the last folder he made using tiger coral .... didn't wait long to claim this one!

 

[d.r.h.]

It was a slow day here with temperatures above freezing and no snow to clear! So ... used the time to check my Davis collection and see if anything needed cleaning up and a coat of RenWax applied to keep them all dazzling! Also wanted to reevaluate some of my larger pieces to see if there were any I might want to consider letting go to a new home (I am becoming more and more happy with smaller knives). While they were out, decided to take a group shot (something I don't do very well). Currently there are 59 knives in the collection. While this pic does none of them any justice ... it does show the complete and current status of my Davis collection. What is truly amazing is that as you look at the picture, you will see that each and every one of them is uniquely different

 

[d.r.h.]

For those who may not know. Alan was featured in the April 2017 (yes, they come out early!) edition of Blade Magazine.

 

[d.r.h.]

Back in January my desire to take a late afternoon nap got the better of me. I let an outrageously beautiful and first of its kind Davis slip right through my fingers. It was quickly snapped up just minutes before I wiped the sand out of my eyes!! Fortunately, the owner took pity on me and recently offered it to me for my collection. That was an offer I could not refuse! This is the first knife Alan sent off to have the bolsters engraved. The bolsters are bronze and the engraver (Jake Newell) did an outstanding job on them. Scales are Mammoth bark and the blade is Doug Ponzio's Damascus (in a loose Turkish twist pattern), nicely sized at 2.6875". This is a drop dead gorgeous knife and am elated to have it in the collection.

I like this one so much that I couldn't resist having some stamps made up with its image!

 

[d.r.h.]

I have to admit ... I noticed this knife 4 minutes after Alan listed it. It really caught my eye, as I liked the trailing point blade and rough Mammoth bark. But, kept asking myself if I needed another "all jeweled-up" knife. Already had a similar design that Alan adorned with jewels. This one, however, had some very nice blue diamonds inlaid in the back spacer and thumb stud. Told Alan that I would give someone else a shot at it, but if no one claimed it by March 13th, I wanted it. You can't say I didn't give everyone a fighting chance!! Anyway, it arrived yesterday and I really like it. Blade is some of HHH's feather Damascus and measures in at 3.1875 inches. Scales are a dark brown bark and the bolsters are mosaic Damascus by Rob Eggerling. As I said, Alan set four blue diamonds into the file-worked back spacer and hand carved thumb stud.