KA Custom Bastard Son

The Kingdom Armory Bastard Son is essentially the love child between the Butcher and the Spade designs. Carrying the deep drop belly of the spade, yet incorporating the sweeping nose swedge and trailing point the butcher is so known for.

This Bastard was made using Chad Nichols stainless boomerang pattern San Mai damasucs with an Armor core. In lay-man's terms, that means Chad took layers of damascus and sandwiched a non-damascus steel in between, in this case an "armor core". The net results of that is a pattern that disappears as the material is ground into, leaving a unique interrupted pattern.

As the core varies a bit throughout its center, no two blades are ever the same... in fact, each side of the same knife is unique to the other. This blade revealed a wave pattern on the presentation side, yet on the lock side almost looks like a topo map with lakes. 

The manner in which Dave finishes San Mai damasucus varies from other makers out there, in that he prefers to tumble the blade after it has been acid etched. With an armor core material in particular, that adds a lot of dimension to the damascus pattern which almost appears three dimensional afterward. 

The frame work on this folder is configured as an all Ti 6al4v grade bolsterlock. Essentially, the knife has been made as a framelock, then the forward "bolster" area has been milled down and a set of scales hand fit. In this case with thunder-strike Kevlar material. Not only does that create a bolstered folder, but does so in a thinner and stronger profile by not having to use interrupted materials with affixed to a thin liner. The added benefit when installed to a framelock is that the bolster also acts as a lockbar stabilizer and over-travel stop....hence the denotation as a "bolsterlock". A nice rounded contour to the frame give it a great feel in the hand, and a few milled details such as fullers help set everything off. Additionally, the milled spine detail carries forward into milled jimping on the blade. 

Titanium clip and backspacer were both hand fabricated from small billets of the same material the frame was constructed from. All Ti was given a glass bead blast and tumbled finish, which nicely matches the armor core in the blade. Custom hardware complete the package using Dave's over-sized shouldered stop pin and a titanium pivot fabricated by Steve Kelly at TiConnector. Blade rides on phosphor bronze washers, utilizing a ceramic detent and a carbidized lockface. Lockup is solid and secure at 25% on face with a clean release. 

OAL: 6.75" 

OAL when closed: 4"