The detail that jumped out at me first is that this is a true integral: the sculpted bolster, the flowing lines and the flared butt are all worked out of the steel itself, with only a short section at the rear made from African blackwood. Grooves are ground directly into the integral too, which must have demanded serious patience. The maker reports roughly forty hours on this one, and it shows in the carved ridges where the blade meets the handle.
The finish is the other standout. The blade went through a ferric etch and then got Birchwood Casey super blue over the top, leaving a dark, matte surface that looks very even. That matte black is interrupted by a thin, wavy copper-colored line running the length of the blade, since a copper layer sits sandwiched inside the steel. Combined with the slight recurve and the sharp point, the whole silhouette has a striking, organic flow to it.
The maker calls the Black Talon an art piece first and a functional knife second, and describes it as mostly steel with just that small handle section at the back. Interesting side note: the design predates the maker ever hearing of Dune, even though comparisons to a certain screen-used blade came up immediately.
One open item: the finger-to-heel clearance is stated as roughly ten to eleven centimeters, but that figure still needs a double check. Also worth mentioning, this December marks ten years of knifemaking for the maker, five of them full time, and a version with more curve is apparently on the way.