Damascus Fish Pocket Knife, Scrimshaw Camel Bone Handle

What Is the Damascus Fish Pocket Knife?

A folding knife whose handle is carved into the silhouette of a fish, complete with forked tail and tapered head, then scrimshawed with a fish rendered in fine black line work. Scales, fins, gill plate, and eye are all drawn into the bone. A mosaic pivot pin sits where the fish’s body is deepest, reading as a small roundel against the pale surface.

The blade is hand forged Damascus, 2.75 inches, folding into a 4.5 inch handle for an overall 7.25 inches open. A handmade leather sheath is included.

What Are the Specifications?

Blade material: Hand forged Damascus steel
Blade shape: Hawkbill
Blade length: 2.75 inches
Handle material: Genuine camel bone, carved and scrimshawed
Handle length: 4.5 inches
Overall length: 7.25 inches open
Decoration: Scrimshaw fish, mosaic pivot pin
Includes: Handmade leather sheath

What Is Scrimshaw?

An engraving technique where the design is incised into bone or similar material with a fine point, then pigment is rubbed into the cuts and wiped off the surface, so colour sits only in the lines. The result is a drawing held in the material rather than painted onto it, which is why scrimshaw survives handling that would wear printing away.

The practice belongs to nineteenth century whaling crews, who had long idle stretches at sea, sharp tools, and an abundance of bone and teeth. Lampblack from the ship’s lamps provided the pigment. What began as a way to pass a voyage became a recognised American folk art, and the technique transferred to pocket knife handles almost immediately because bone scales were already standard.

Hand scrimshaw shows line weight that varies as the point moved and small irregularities where a stroke restarted. Printed or laser applied imitations sit at uniform weight with no depth to the line and no pigment held below the surface.

Is Camel Bone the Same as Ivory?

No, and the distinction matters legally as much as visually.

Camel bone is bone, a byproduct of the food industry, cleaned, bleached, and stabilised for use as a handle material. It has been used that way across North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia for generations because it is dense, takes a fine polish, and holds engraving cleanly. Nothing about it is restricted, and no animal is taken for it.

Ivory is tooth, principally elephant tusk, and trade in it is restricted or banned almost everywhere under CITES Appendix I. Any knife advertised as ivory needs documentation, and most cannot cross a border legally.

Visually the two are close, which is why bone served as the working substitute long before ivory became regulated. Bone shows fine pore structure under light where ivory shows a cross hatched grain, and bone takes a slightly warmer cream tone. For a knife meant to be carried and used, bone is the more practical material anyway, since it is tougher against impact than ivory is.

Other natural handle materials across the range sit in the pocket knives collection.

What Is a Hawkbill Blade For?

A hawkbill curves the edge downward in a concave arc, so the blade reads like a talon and the cutting edge faces inward rather than forward.

The shape cuts by pulling. Material entering the curve cannot slide off the way it can off a straight edge, so the blade feeds itself through the cut and the force concentrates at the deepest point of the arc. Rope, cord, line, netting, webbing, and anything under tension part faster under a hawkbill than under any conventional profile. The same logic is why pruning knives and carpet knives have used the shape for over a century.

On a fish knife it is a sensible choice. Fishing line, leader, net repair, and cutting bait away from a hook are all pulling cuts on material that would roll off a straight edge.

What a hawkbill cannot do is push cut, slice on a board, or pierce. The point aims downward rather than forward, so there is no stabbing geometry, and the concave edge cannot be laid flat against a surface. Buyers wanting a general purpose profile should see the EDC pocket knives collection or the Damascus folding knives.

Sharpening takes a round file or the tip of a ceramic rod rather than a flat stone, since a concave edge never meets a flat surface along its length.

Why Is the Handle Longer Than the Blade?

A 4.5 inch handle carrying a 2.75 inch blade is an unusual ratio, and the fish silhouette is the reason. Tail and head both extend past what the blade needs, because cutting the outline short would leave the fish truncated.

Two practical consequences follow. Grip is more generous than the blade length suggests, and a hawkbill is pulled rather than pushed, so a hand that fills the handle is an advantage. And the knife carries flat, since the profile tapers at both ends rather than ending in a squared butt.

The folded package stays compact at 4.5 inches, comparable to any standard folder, with the extra length going into shape rather than bulk.

How Should You Care for Damascus and Bone?

Two materials with different enemies, and neither is complicated.

Hand forged Damascus has little or no corrosion resistance, since the steels paired to make the pattern are carbon steels rather than stainless. Wipe the blade dry after every use and keep a thin coat of mineral oil or dedicated blade oil on it between uses. Avoid cooking oils such as olive or vegetable oil, which oxidise and go rancid against steel. A soft grey patina developing over months is normal and protective. Active orange rust is not, and comes off with oil and a non-abrasive cloth before it pits.

Anyone using the knife around saltwater should treat drying as mandatory rather than advisable, since salt accelerates corrosion on carbon steel dramatically. Rinse in fresh water, dry fully, re-oil.

Bone is stable but dislikes extremes. Rapid swings between wet and dry, or between hot and cold, can open hairline cracks over years. Keep it out of dishwashers, off radiators, and out of prolonged direct sun, which bleaches it. An occasional wipe of mineral oil keeps the surface fed.

Scrimshaw needs the gentlest handling of all. Pigment sits in incised lines, so solvents, alcohol, and abrasive cloths will lift it out and leave the drawing faint. Soft dry cloth only, and nothing stronger.

Our knife sharpening guide covers edge work, and the steel comparison sets forged Damascus against carbon and stainless.

Who Is the Knife For?

Anglers and fishermen, most obviously, where the hawkbill handles line and netting and the subject matter needs no explaining. Collectors of scrimshaw and of novelty shaped folders, which are a recognised category in their own right. Gift buyers looking for something for a man who fishes, where a generic knife would say nothing and this one says something specific.

Less suited to general EDC, since a hawkbill will frustrate anyone expecting to open boxes and slice an apple with it. The Damascus tanto folder covers that ground, and the hunting knives collection covers field work.

Why Choose the Damascus Fish Pocket Knife?

A handle carved to shape rather than cut to a rectangle, scrimshaw worked into the bone by hand, a forged Damascus hawkbill suited to the cutting an angler actually does, and a handmade leather sheath.

Every knife is forged and finished by hand, and we have been making knives since 2001.