Bowfishing Knife (Floats too)

[J.McDonald Knives]

Well after a few years I finally put my ideas onto paper after doing research to find the handle material and posted up ideas for the bowfisherman to vote on. This is what we came up with and I tested it with mild steel and cork used for duck decoys. Tapered the blade almost to a complete point and beveled it. Slapped on the corked and tested before shaping and then after shaping with the aluminum taped to the blade and it floats with about 3/4" of the pommel above water. Will be dipping the pommel 3 times in Lure Lac blaze orange. For the blade I will be using 1080 since the guys hate stainless steel and the cork is going to be Grade B cork from www.pickybastardcork.com and paint is from Bohning Archery. Here is the CAD drawing I did of the final knife and then the mock up knife minus the aluminum. What do yall think? Waiting on tax return so that I can order the cork, aluminum, and paint.

 

[Phil Dwyer]

Fascinating Jacaob!

There's no end to the journey and diversity in this world of knives. I did a little bow fishing as a kid. It was just kids play though and didn't leave me with enough insight to understand all of your design.

What are the notches on the spine for?

Will you be putting any aluminum on the guard end of the handle, even just a thin piece to help strengthen separating the finger from the sharp blade edge?

If you don't mind another question, I'm also wondering why you dropped the blade down so much. Why not lift it up so the spine lines up with the handle top, thus leaving more "guard" material for finger protection? You could even have a little more cork that way as the handle wouldn't have to notch down to meet the spine.

Eager to learn more, Phil

 

[oconeedan]

I LOVE bowfishing. And I know what the bottle opener is for! What about the other notch, and I don't understand the aluminum in it?
Blade looks very weak where the bottle opener/notch is. I may be wrong, just pointing out my observations.
A lightweight knife that floats has it's merits. Not a bad idea on any boat.
Especially with that bottle opener!
Dan

 

[hoputt01]

Hi I agree with Phil, the spine could be raised to be level with the top of the handle to give a little more strength. By its shape, I'm assuming the first notch is a wrench to work on your equipment with. If your going that route, why not take it one more step and square off the point for a screwdriver. And it could use a guard or is that what the aluminum you mentioned is for.

 

[zerogee]

The thin blade is great, but I think making up one for real to do a destruction test on after heat treatment would be a very good thing to do. My polite way of saying that I think it's going to bend and/or break big time at those notches with any real stress (and I really don't think they'll do anything good for you when you're slicing with this knife either). The only times I've seen tool notches on a knife back were in mall ninja "tacticals" that had stupid thick and wide blades that were only expected to be looked at and never actually used. (Edited to add: not meaning to be mean or kick your efforts -- just expressing my thoughts a bit bluntly.)

The half hex notch you could take care of by extending the tang out the butt of the knife a bit. What is the other notch for? (Edited to add: saw your explanation elsewhere - a 1/2" hex and a combo bottle opener+1/4" hex if I remember it right.) And what is the aluminum for?

 

[Phil Dwyer]

Wow, I hope you aren't put off by all our feedback. I believe it's all a genuine attempt to dialog. It illustrates, to me, how much earnest energy you've put into your blade that it can elicit so much response.

All the best, Phil

 

[herlihy433@yahoo.com]

Awesome!

 

[Fletch Helical]

Another thing to consider is if you're planning on using it as a filet knife a lot of flex is going to happen where those notches are cut out.

 

[hellgap]

Well I know where your last knife went so I dont need to ask about this one if it floats or not cuzz I know youve tested it in a pail of water lol. A couple of bubblie and ooooppsss dam fell in the lake lmao

 

[Mace]

Jacob,
I'm glad you ground one out and asked for some feed back here.
You should loose the bottle opener alltogether. If your buddies cant open a beer with out a bottle opener...they should go without.
Mace

 

[zerogee]

Jacob, here's a notion of how to cut out some of the huge holes in your blade - take a look at my extremely sophisticated (not-at-all)CAD (not quite to scale) drawing:

The 1/4" hex can be inset into the corner of the 1/2" hex (and oriented toward the handle) -- and the whole opening with the lip above the 1/4" hex creates the bottle opener for you (and that's why you want the 1/4" hex inset oriented toward the handle). Note: you don't have to fully enclose the sides of the nuts in your cutouts -- you can make the sides shorter and the whole cutout shallower -- maybe half or slightly more of the length of each side should work -- if I'm looking at this right, this should still leave at least a 1/10" or so "lip" above the 1/4" hex cutout (note: this lip is flat - it's part of the 1/2" hex cutout).

This whole cutout is only about 3/4" wide and need only be about 3/10" or so deep (a standard 1/2" hex is 0.577" wide across opposite corners) -- if you make your ricasso a little long, you could include this whole thing there where your blade's the strongest and keep the actual blade free of any cutouts.

Or if you really want to simplify things, just square things off (with well rounded inside corners of course - not shown in my sophisticated (not quite to scale) drawing):

The main opening is 0.5"wide x 0.35" deep (half a 1/2" hex is less than 0.3" deep (across opposite corners)), with a 0.25" inch wide inset, leaving a 0.10" lip.

-- Dwight

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

Thanks for the input guys, sorry I didn't respond earlier, was out next door at my neighbors celebrating her 42nd birthday with a bunch of their friends and family and ate some good food and also went down the street with some of their friends who live around the corner and shot pool for 5 hours. Turns out I now have a billiards teacher who after seeing me shoot pool said I have potential.

The aluminum will go at the guard and also at the pommel underneath the cap to act like a washer so that I can sandwich all the cork together as the epoxy dries. The cutouts were done the way the guys wanted them and also the reason why I need that extra lip on the 1/4" tip wrench is so that it helps grip the tip since the tip is a hexagonal pyramid and is hard to grip. No one else has ever designed a wrench for the tips before so this is the first one ever. A few suggested a bottle opener and with the blade being 3/4" wide I'd rather them not risk cutting themselves using the spine sideways to pop the top. I'll have 1 blade water jet cut and heat treated and tempered to see if I get any stress cracks and then if need be I can always spend a few minutes to radius some of the corners. I am going to choose 3 field testers/Pro Staffers to do my testing on the knife so that I can fix any bugs they come across.

I think I answered all the feedback questions. Did I miss anything?

 

[rayban]

My opinion is take along the tools and bottle openers you think you'll need ( in a handsome carrying case) and make the knife just be a knife.

 

[indian george]

Nice Job JR.

 

[Mr. Bad Example]

My opinion is take along the tools and bottle openers you think you'll need ( in a handsome carrying case) and make the knife just be a knife.

I agree--why not design a little tool as a separate piece--availabe with or without the knife? It could fit in the sheath (or not) and/or attach to the knife (inside handle?). I think the knife looks great, I just don't like the gee-gaws in the blade (with all due respect).

 

[unky_gumbi]

I agree with the extra tool on the sheath idea, it would be safer and not that hard to pull off. You could make it float too, it would really suck to lose your bottle opener while fishing

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

The guys have the tools in their gear bag but keep them at the center or back of the boat. They wanted the tools in the blade, otherwise the knife would just be a floating 5" fillet knife and they wouldn't have an interest in it cause they could buy any knife from the store. This knife is only going to be $150. If I had to make the tools separate and make them float as well it would greatly increase the price and then they would only want the tools and just buy a cheap knife. To them this knife is simple, no searching for the right tool. They have all the tools on their side in one thing.