blade/handle transition alignment problem/question

Knifemaker87

Knifemaker87

Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
1,073
hey everybody.
this is my first "big bowie" style knife with a large guard and hidden tang. i think that the ricasso (is that the right word?) is too wide and makes the handle look too skinny. the problem is.. i cant narrow it down any more without loosing the bottom shoulder for the gaurd.

what i need is.. does it look wrong... and if it does.. what should i do about it?


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thanks SO much
~chris
 
Maybe a spacer of some sort under the guard. Soory for the noob input. That is a beautiful piece. I think that the ricasso (sp?) is fine and should be a nice place to put your mark.
 
I agree the ricasso looks a little long to my eye, also. However, the length of the handle offsets it enough to look balanced. At least I think so. Would it make a difference (or even possible) for you if you added a slight 'S' to the guard by round the top backside toward the blade and the bottom front toward the handle? By just filing / grinding I mean, not actually bending it. Overall it's a fantastic looking blade and I love it.
 
I do not think that it is too wide, I like the handle and the blade being the same width so that it "flows"
 
you could do a cutout like this
 

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I think it's a great looking piece, clean and great fit. My personal opinion, however, is it's not the ricasso that's dwarfing the handle, it's the blade to handle proportion. I can see it from a mile away because I'm guilty of it on a regular basis. At least, it's a hidden tang and even though it looks like you have a lot of work put into it it can still be changed. In my case I always do full tangs, and trying to stretch those is a real pain :rolleyes:

how does it feel, balance wise?

the incut wouldn't look too bad, neither would just filing down the profile of the ricasso, maybe radius it...

Just my .02
I jusr re-read the question, and took a better look at the pics, the real culprit is the finger groove (which I personally think is awesome) I would just leave it and know that in the future when you do that type of finger groove you may want to go wit a narrower shoulder to prevent the optical illusion of a skinny handle even is it's not. in the mean time if it's giving you fits, you can scallop it or radius the profile to keep the shoulder "meat" but reduce the appearance.
 
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I think the blade shape and the grind line is perfect.At first look ricasso looks wide you're right there is something distracting the eye; but as pointed out before above the handle is too thin/slim compared to the blade length and shape may be that is the problem.

I have done a wide ricasso and made smaller by filing the guard shoulders at the tang joint making tang longer. Then I cut the tip of the tang making the tang just as same as the previous one. It is a simple process IMO. But I recommend make a bigger handle from clay and test the look. If ricasso looks wide again you have to make the operation :)

Edit: I think the cutout advise of "fishface5" is great...
 
Chris,
Fishface has it.
Make the choil under the ricasso an arc - from the guard to the edge.
I don't think it is too bad as is, but some visual reduction of the transition wouldn't hurt.

The other solution for over cutting the guard slot is adding a decorative seppa.

A couple yeas ago a dealer brought me a huge custom Randal bowie blade.It was the Vietnam era survival bowie, and had been made for a Colonel. It was the biggest one I ever saw. The knife had been badly abused, and was broken about 1/2" up the tang ( just the other side of the guard). Actually, it had corroded through most of the way, and then broken off. He had the badly beaten up guard, the broken blade, no handle,the original sheath, and hopes that I could restore it somehow. I welded a new tang on, got the blade cleaned up to look old but nice ( still age pitted on the flats, but a clean new grind - all the markings and original owner info were preserved ). The brass guard was a bit of work, but it came around,too.I had to put file work flutes on the edges because it was so badly beaten up. The problem was that the guard slot was now too sloppy for the blade. I made a decorative brass seppa ( Escutcheon plate?) in the shape of a long diamond, with fluted file worked edges. It was a snug fit to the blade. With the seppa installed on the blade, I soldered the blade , seppa, and guard solidly. With a new stag handle installed, the knife looked perfect. It made a $20 yard sale junker into a $700 knife. In mint condition it would have fetched around $1500.

Stacy
 
Right now the knife looks like one long blade and handle with a guard stuck in there. The handles is what's out of proportion.

I think a new handle, that is the same width and thickness that it is now at the guard but is wider and thicker at the butt will solve the problem.

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wow!
thanks for the help guys! my only problem is.. that i feel horrible wasting that glorious iron wood. I may be able to cill the shoulders up a bit... but i would rather not mess with them. I came to the conclusion last night that i would arc the ricasso area before i read any of your posts. the "small" handle does kind of make it look like a blade with a guard and handle... but the handle isnt very small..
i am going to mull over it.. take your advice.. and see what i can do.

btw.... i was browsing Don's site when i had this problem to see if i could figure out how to fix it... alot of awesome work on there.

i greatly appreciate all your help!
~chris
 
Chris - I really like that handle, but I also agree that it doesn't totally fit the knife. Can you salvage it and do a new blade and guard for this handle?
 
Remember handles always look smaller after rounding, same goes for the spacer behind the guard.

In the two photos of mine above (old knives BTW), the spacer looks more narrow than the ricasso but they're the same.

Grinding an arc the ricasso area would be a good fix.
 
hey guys! thank for your help!

i both put an arc in the ricasso, as well as putting a black micarta spacer between the handle and gaurd to give it a bit more width. what do you think?

I have actually had the blade done for about a week but haven't been able to get online with pics yet, and haven't really gotten any good pics. but here is the "fix"
the blade is up for sale, and hopefully will help pay for my honeymoon! I am going to post it for sale. Sadly i cant make it to the BLADE show this year.. so i will have a virtual table, however next summer i will be in atendance with a new wife and a bunch of knives.

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thanks so much!
~Chris
 
Hi Kyle,

Just my opinion, but I too think you need a flared handle, and if it had some more drop to it even better. I think it would balance the knife visually.

Dave
 
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