Firing Blanks? DIY Pistol Grip Sgians?

[Tomo]

Despite owning a couple of sgians from Comrie Crafts (love their stuff, simple and elegant) and an unusual carved stag horn sgian (my first purchase), I decided to have a bash at making a couple myself using some damascus blanks. Both pretty simple starters and some lessons learned - but suspect many more to come. I'm not entirely happy with these but think they are kind of OK:

#1 Boar-Tusk Sgian - actually this was the starting point, saw this tusk and thought it would work as a handle, I liked the way the curve molds itself around the top of my calf...
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#2 Stag Horn Sgian - just loved the patina on this piece of stag horn...
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Finally decided to have a crack at a dirk. Again it could be better, much better - but it was fun (and made a great "cake" knife, and talking point, at my wedding):

#3 Stag Horn Dirk:
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