Bose Knives

Tony and Kerry, it must have been an interesting and satisfying project, making those Barlows. We are seeing dimensions here that are relatively rare in custom knifery, especially the stamping of the Bolsters, and the Matchstrikers!
On traditional/antique knives, I've always liked monogrammed Barlow Bolsters for their decorative value, and the braggin' rights associated with 'em.
Before (and after) written history our distant ancestors decorated their favorite tools and weapons, and these nice pieces you gents have created bring my thoughts to what it was/is like to value and appreciate - almost revere - one's tools.
The workmanship and obvious talent showing in these knives bring you honor in this knifely community of ours. It is appropriate that your shop signature be proudly displayed!!
 
I could not agree more with Charlies comments. But, one question remains for Tony and Kerry, after working on these two magnificent Barlows,

when are you two going to pick out the furniture?

I hope you enjoy my attempt at humor...

Jeff
 
waynorth said:
Tony and Kerry, it must have been an interesting and satisfying project, making those Barlows. We are seeing dimensions here that are relatively rare in custom knifery, especially the stamping of the Bolsters, and the Matchstrikers!
On traditional/antique knives, I've always liked monogrammed Barlow Bolsters for their decorative value, and the braggin' rights associated with 'em.
Before (and after) written history our distant ancestors decorated their favorite tools and weapons, and these nice pieces you gents have created bring my thoughts to what it was/is like to value and appreciate - almost revere - one's tools.
The workmanship and obvious talent showing in these knives bring you honor in this knifely community of ours. It is appropriate that your shop signature be proudly displayed!!
Click to expand...

I appreciate your thoughts, Charlie. There is quite a bit of difference in making bolsters with stamps verses no stamps. We pre-stamped the bolster material with a hydraulic press before we soldered it to the liners. We talked about rounding those bolsters over afterwards and how that would take out the top and bottom edges of the stamps. After rounding over the bolster/liner assembly, we were able to "rock" the stamp over to touch up the edges of the letters. That made me sweat a little :p.

We also use a hydraulic press to punch the match-striker pulls in the blade steel. Then we scribed the blade profile around the pull so that it is correctly positioned on the blank. We have to do things a lot different to add these extras that are common in old production knives but we think it is worth the extra pain.
 
Rocking the stamp in a hydraulic press!!
Makes me sweat thinking about it.
Thanks for the graphic explanations, Kerry.
I assume cutting the blade out around the matchstriker stamp assures the blade doesn't get "smeared" or distorted by stamping it afterwords
I recall watching the stamping process at Case. They put the tang stamp on the steel before they stamped the blade! It is all counter-intuitive at first glance, until explained.
 
waynorth said:
Rocking the stamp in a hydraulic press!!
Makes me sweat thinking about it.
Thanks for the graphic explanations, Kerry.
I assume cutting the blade out around the matchstriker stamp assures the blade doesn't get "smeared" or distorted by stamping it afterwords
I recall watching the stamping process at Case. They put the tang stamp on the steel before they stamped the blade! It is all counter-intuitive at first glance, until explained.
Click to expand...

We didn't rock it in the press Charlie, we rocked it while holding it with one hand and whapped it with a hammer in the other hand. Don't try this at home folks, not for the faint of heart.
 
Tony Bose said:
We didn't rock it in the press Charlie, we rocked it while holding it with one hand and whapped it with a hammer in the other hand. Don't try this at home folks, not for the faint of heart.
Click to expand...
Nothing less than the "old school" way! or the "old dog" way! Those are
two fantastic Barlows. The old working man's knife...

Jason
 
Tony and Reese are masters. I don't think I've seen all the pages of this thread, and I love coming back time after time.
 
There is something I must say about the third wheel at Wilford Works. I have Tonys' and I have Reese's and if I couldn't
have another knife from either of those boys, my next choice would be Kerry Hampton. He's is a gentleman and a marvelous
knife maker, I eagerly look forward continued projects. Kudos to Kerry!
Jeff
 
Moved random post to General. Carry on.
 
Tony Bose said:
We didn't rock it in the press Charlie, we rocked it while holding it with one hand and whapped it with a hammer in the other hand. Don't try this at home folks, not for the faint of heart.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clearing that up, Tony.
I must admit, knowing you as a guy who has an uncanny touch with the fine details of knifemaking (compare a handful of Tony's knives with a handful of good antiques!), it is hard to imaging you whapping a knife with reckless abandon!!:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top