Overview of the Street Scalpel custom knife by Sam Eddleman.

I've been getting into custom knives more and more over the past few years. Custom knives offer so many different unique designs/materials, and the attention to detail is almost always top notch. It honestly becomes hard to go back to loving just plain jane production knives (at least in my case). I've stumbled upon a handful of makers over the past 2 years who's work I've drooled over the thought of owning. And, I have to say, Sam Eddleman is definitely one of those makers. I found his work through BladeHQ when they had some of his custom balisongs up for sale about 13-14 months back, and I've just been dreaming of being able to get my hands on something of his. A lot of his work ends up being out of my price range, usually around $750-1250 or more. You could get some of his more basic TantoDashi's in the past for around $220-250 as well. I got lucky enough and scored this Street Scalpel through the man himself, during an auction he was running for just under $500.

The Street Scalpel comes in a 5 3/8" overall length, with a 1.5" blade. It's blade shape and design is that of a scalpel, which should be obvious. In the knife world it's a bit of an odd duck I would say, but as soon as I saw it I knew I needed to grab it. The blade is made from Dragonskin Damascus, which is a newer material in the knife market of recent years. It's quite hard to get your hands on from what I understand, the material is forged by one man who sells it in small batches to bigger makers and at local knife meetups/swaps in his local area. The color and design this material provides is absolutely stunning, and one of the most unique knife materials I've come across. It also seems to take an edge pretty damn well, as this knife came hair shaving sharp. I'll have to wait and see how the edge holds up with use and how hard it is to sharpen in the future.

The scales on the knife are fairly small and only cover a small portion of the tang. Although they're on the smaller side, they don't make the knife too thick and it's actually quite comfortable to hold in the hand. I can easily fit all 4 fingers around the knife with my thumb on the back of the blade. They're made from hand polished green twill abalone. Abalone is a type of sea snail that lives in a shell. The material Sam used for this knife is taken from the inner layer of an Abalone's shell, and Abalone varies in color. (This type has been altered a bit though with the twill added in.) It's also secured to the Dragonskin Damascus with titanium screws that have been flame anodized.

The only downside with this knife thus far was that it didn't come with a sheath for carrying. That in itself isn't an issue, as I'm sending it off to get a custom leather sheath made very shortly. Normally I would just have a kydex sheath made instead, but with this type of material it wouldn't work too well. The kydex would more than likely leave some massive wear and tear just from being taken in and out and ruin the finish of the knife. This is why leather is a much, much better alternative. As well as just being more classy, in my humble opinion. Other than that, I have absolutely no issues with the quality on this knife. Sam totally knocked it out of the god damn park with this knife, and it's probably the most gorgeous knife I'll own. He was super easy to deal with and extremely friendly to chat with for a bit. The strange design suits my taste for odd things perfectly, and I can't wait to start carrying this thing with me all over the place.

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