This was a truly special piece. A friend wanted a special birthday present that took him back to his home country, Nigeria. He had fond memories of street vendors serving suya (spicy grilled meat skewers) using special knives shaped like this carver: long relatively narrow blade, upturned/hooked tip, with lots of flexibility to it.

Unfortunately, this is about as good of a reference image as we could find:

Relying on description and memories, we came up with a blueprint that made sense, and I got to work. I forged the blade out of 5160 spring steel (coming in the form of coil spring from a truck), aiming to work it "close to finish" — minimizing stock removal and grinding. I quenched it... and had to go back to square one. Despite multiple attempts and methods, it kept taking severe bends.

After a little more practice and research, I forged it anew from a new piece of spring, and this time it took a great quench.

It was then shaped, fitted, fitted and finished, testing the durability and flexibility along the way. Testing included manual bending to roughly 15°, dropping onto concrete, slashing through cardboard boxes, and chopping into my target block (made of 2x4 lumber) repeatedly, using both the blade and the upturned tip. All tests passed, and I am proud of how it turned out.

It now lives with its new owner, and will hopefully see many delicious years of use.