Hunting Knife

I'm very proud of this knife. It's by far the most complex knife I've made. Also, this is my first venture away from kitchen knives. I make kitchen knives because I love to cook and bake. However, I wanted to venture outside of my comfort zone a little bit and expand my skills. I mean...that's why we're into making stuff, right? To learn and expand?

The hunter is the bottom one. The top knife is a tanto...and not quite finished. This is right before heat treat.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Consider this as a bit of a public service announcement.

If you EVER show an allergic reaction to a wood species, get it out of your shop. Every piece. Every scrap. Every damned speck of dust. Get it out.

This applies more to tropicals, as I don't know of too many people showing allergic reactions to domestic woods (though it's possible...I think I heard of people being sensitive to pine). Anyway, I use several tropical woods. They make great handles for kitchen implements.

A few years ago, I had a strong reaction to honduras rosewood. It was bad. I broke out in hives and had respiratory issues. I've been fine as long as I didn't work with it. Several weeks ago, while working with Bocote I had a skin reaction. "Bummer," I thought. I like that stuff. Last week I made the stupid mistake of making a knife handle from a piece of mystery wood. There was only two things it could have been. I'm allergic to both of them. I should have stopped and thrown it away.

Red, swollen, don't forget the hives!!! This arm isn't as bad as the other. The thing with these allergies is that they get WORSE each time you're exposed. It hurts like hell and itches even worse. This picture is a week after the initial reaction.