A closer look at the Samurai art folder from Noblie Custom Knives.

The engraving depicts a fight between a samurai and ninjas on the rooftops of a Japanese castle.

The titanium handle scales feature hand engraving with gold, silver, and copper inlays. The recessed background was darkened with black engraving paint to bring out the details, while the copper was patinated using ammonia to give it an aged appearance and additional contrast. The knife has a Damasteel blade and a liner lock mechanism.

An interesting part of this project was combining three different inlay metals, chemical patination, and darkened engraving within a single composition.

First folding dagger from a new series currently being developed by Noblie Custom Knives.

This one is almost finished: RWL34 blade, titanium scales, and Samurai-themed laser engraving.

The initial mini-series is planned as:

6 folding daggers with laser engraving

4 with hand engraving

Timascus versions are also planned

There is still quite a lot of work ahead before the series is complete. More workshop photos will follow as the project progresses.

Would be interested to hear what you think of this design direction for a folding dagger.

We had this Shirogorov titanium lanyard bead and decided to build a custom lanyard around it.

The bead is paired with a hand-braided paracord section and a larger attachment loop, keeping the overall setup fairly clean and functional.

We do quite a bit of custom lanyard and keychain work at Noblie, and currently have more than 550 different paracord beads in stock, so customers can choose a bead and have us braid a complete setup around it.

This particular Shirogorov bead is available as well.

What do you think of the blue/grey combination with the titanium bead?

Hey everyone! Wanted to share this recent build and get your feedback.

It’s a folding knife featuring a titanium handle with hand-engraved Japanese Dragon and Koi motifs, detailed with multi-metal inlays (gold, silver, and copper). The blade was forged from Swedish Damasteel.

I tried to give the blade profile a subtle Katana-inspired shape to match the traditional Japanese artwork on the handle.

How do you think the Katana blade styling turned out? Do you feel it flows well with the engraving, or would a different blade shape fit the theme better? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Noblie folding dagger, engraved titanium scales. Dark field, accent color kept to a few small spots, plant work in outline.

I've seen this theme done badly enough times that I spent longer subtracting than drawing. Whether it landed on the right side of that line, I honestly don't know.

The engraving is on a Noblie folding dagger. Dark field, three colors, most of the surface left alone.

The design side gave me more trouble than the machine side. First version was too dense. Egyptian iconography wants to fill everything, and once it does, the scale stops reading as a scale. Second attempt: keep the two portraits, keep the scarabs, everything else gets outlined or dropped.

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First layout had too much gold in it. The symbols were all there, correctly drawn, and the knife had disappeared underneath them — it looked like a souvenir plate with a blade attached. Redrew it with most of the field left empty and the plant work reduced to outline. Accent color only on the sun disks and the border.

Obvious objection first: Egypt is an overworked theme and most of what gets done with it is kitsch. I know. That was the whole problem I was trying to solve, and I'm not certain I cleared it.

Happy to go into the drawing or the finish if anyone wants.

New Bowie in my own collection. Mosaic Damascus body, twist Damascus billet along the cutting edge, handle in stabilized mammoth ivory.

Thanks to my friend Francisco Wlach, who forged the mosaic. The pattern control on that billet is beyond what I can do — hat off to him.

The ivory is fossil mammoth, stabilized before shaping. Untreated tusk checks on me every time.

Not my shop and not my hammer. Diogo specializes in twist Damascus and he's forging the blade for a Bowie we're doing together — this is his video, sent while the billet was still under the press.

Welding heat, drawn to square, twisted, flattened. Scale piles up under the dies with every pass. Looks like a plain glowing bar right now; the pattern only turns up after grinding and etch.

Frame lock folder. Scales are crystallized titanium made in my own shop — the color and the crystal figure are the oxide layer on the metal, not a coating.

Blade is Dragonskin Damascus from Bertie Rietveld. His billet, my grind and finish.

Torx hardware anodized to sit with the scales.

Happy to answer questions about the crystallization or the finish work.

I make knives under Noblie.

Bronze, silver and brass

Currently in the shop testing and dialing in the laser settings on titanium for our new folding art dagger project. Titanium is always a fun challenge to work with, but we decided to go with a deeper gray background here to really make the artwork pop and give it that sharp contrast.

Still a ton of detail work and tweaking ahead, but the gradient and depth are coming along nicely.

Thought this might be appreciated here.

This is a finished titanium knife scale, cut entirely by hand in deep relief, with a few gold inlay accents. The biggest challenge was fitting the Engineer and Xenomorph into the narrow shape of the handle without losing the biomechanical feel of the Alien universe.

If anyone’s interested, I can also post some photos of the engraving process from start to finish.

Concept and sketch are mine, the engraving is by Ed Master. I do the design, he cuts.

The sketch went back and forth more than I'd like to admit. First version had the figure too centered and it fought the shape of the handle — the scale narrows toward the pivot and the composition has to narrow with it or it looks pasted on. Redrew it so the arm and the ribs run with the taper instead of across it.

It's cut deep, not flat. That's the whole point of doing it this way. Flat engraving on titanium photographs fine and then looks like nothing in the hand. Here the head and the forearm stand proud enough that the panel shifts as you turn it.

Titanium is miserable to engrave. It grabs the graver and it work-hardens, and there's no correcting a slip on a scale that's already got weeks in it. Ed's the one taking that risk, not me.

Gold is inlay — cut in and set, not plated. The line down the handle had to be re-cut once where it met the relief and the depth didn't match up.

Before someone says it: yes, the theme is obvious. It was the point.

Blade's PM damasteel, pattern running lengthwise.

Disclosure — I make knives under Noblie, so this is my own work I'm posting, not a find. Happy to get into the engraving process or the sketch stage if anyone wants.