Several years ago when we first getting started and still using my dad’s old farriers forge, a high school friend called me and asked if I could use Afghanistan bomb shrapnel to make a knife out of. Mike was in the army and found these in his tent the next morning after an overnight bombing. I said sure then anxiety set in because I was scared to death to ruin these pieces. This was our first attempt at Damascus and as soon as the items arrived we cleaned them up and got started. The shrapnel pieces are mild steel and wouldn’t make a very good knife so we used a San Mai technique and inserted a Nicholson metal file in the center. Once the knife was shaped and ground the pattern that was exposed was very unusual. We used some flint oak from Mike’s childhood hunting camp for the handle. This is one of the most memorable knives we have created to date. Mike is constantly sending me stuff from all over the country and so far we have met all of his challenges.