"Iron Wave" by Burt Foster | Custom Alliance #9

For over a decade, WILSON TACTICAL® the knife and tool division of WILSON COMBAT® has brought the finest in quality edged tactical tools to our discriminating clientele. For 2011 we are raising the bar and will be offering a limited collection of handmade knives by some of today's premier tactical knife makers without the long wait typically associated with special ordering a custom edged masterpiece.

These newly designed knives featured in the new CUSTOM ALLIANCE will be few in number, and will quickly become a valued centerpiece of your collection. These offerings will typify the WILSON standards of extraordinary quality, classic design and unmatched value.

Master Bladesmith Burt Foster of Bristol, VA has been impressing collectors for years with his superb fit and finish, clear artistic vision and use of rare and unusual materials in his high-performance hand forged knives. His latest creation exclusive to the Custom Alliance is the Iron Wave. With this unique bowie, Foster transforms simple materials-carbon and stainless steels along with spalted, stabilized maple into works of practical high art. Burt's technique of marrying stainless and carbon steel into a heat-fused, razor-sharp laminate renders an almost indestructible, yet intensely unique and beautiful knife. The rock-hard spalted maple develops it's characteristic black contrasting highlights over many years and every handle will be uniquely beautiful. Each Iron Wave will have a handmade leather sheath by Mr. Foster. This rare item is limited to 10 pieces.

"My laminated steel blades are unique in that they have a single piece of carbon steel forge welded between two pieces of stainless steel. This is also referred to in Japanese blades as "san-mai" or literally "three layers." There are basically two main advantages to my laminated steel blades. The first is that at the temperatures used to harden the carbon steel core, the stainless sides remain soft and support the hard center. This makes the knife very sharp at the edge, but very tough overall. The second advantage is that because my laminated steel is made with stainless steel on the outside, the knife blade has the performance of carbon steel and the maintenance of a stainless steel. The carbon steel core is exposed only near the edge, so 90% of the blade surface remains very stain resistant. The exposed carbon steel will darken with age, but this darkening adds to the look of the knife, and gives you a knife which when used, improves with age instead of the other way around. This composite blade construction is probably the most practical high performance blade you can have."

SPECIFICATIONS