- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 106
I recently completed a Ladder Damascus Bowie that I had made for someone and thought I might share it here with you all. Probably the most difficult project I've done so far, but it was definitely worth it in every way, and the finish product really showed that (to me anyway haha). Perhaps being overly honest isn't always the best thing, yet I feel the need (especially since I know that most of you are incredible knife makers far above my skill and ability) to say upfront that this knife is far from perfect, yet at the same time I did my 100% best and I guess that's all anyone can ask in the end anyway. Down to business. It's "inspired" if you will by the "Chief Tah-Chee" bowie. The individual I made this blade for made a drawing with several changes but tried to keep some general features related to said Bowie e.g. the coffin handle, nameplate and general blade shape. He wanted it out of ladder damascus (320 layers) and although damascus (or pattern welded, which ever you prefer) is not necessarily a huge deal, and ladder pattern is not necessarily the most complex pattern, I lack the benefit of a press or power hammer currently so I had to forge this entirely by hand using sledge hammers etc. I used 15N20 and 1095 for the Damascus. I wanted to eliminate as many welds as possible so I would draw and cut it into four pieces and then weld it together causing me to only have to do that step twice (3 times welding in total, started with 20 layers, drawn, cut & cleaned into 4 new billets, stacked welded, and repeated once more to get 320). After getting the billet I forged in the general shape of the knife and then cut the ladder pattern trying to accommodate dimensions when forging in the shape and drawing out the ladder to help save as much steel as possible etc. The grain structure seemed to turn out quite well as the edge seems brilliantly razor sharp, perhaps one of the best I've made so far. I lost count of the number of normalizing cycles after about 5 or so I think. Anyway I would continue to go into detail but I realize that this post is already quite lengthy so I'll try and make it short so as not to bore you haha. I ground the blade from full thickness, quenched in oil , tempered for several cycles, continued to grind to the final edge thickness of about 20000s (the edge looks high because I started sharpening at a bit of a wrong angle and thus had to convex it somewhat, oh well, should get better anyway 
), finish sanded, went through all the etching cycles with a finish cycle in instant coffee to help bring out a better contrast etc. Never done the instant coffee before but it seemed to work quite well. The guard is stainless (from scrap, no idea of the composition), the fitting is solid cast silver (lost wax) the handle is "Tiger" Maple with a mixed stain. Nameplates are cast silver, pins & Lanyard are copper. Coffin handle style with a slotted hidden tang construction. Few Okay, I'll stop now haha, time for a few pics, something else I need to get better at too! Anyway, feedback on what you think is always appreciated! 
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), finish sanded, went through all the etching cycles with a finish cycle in instant coffee to help bring out a better contrast etc. Never done the instant coffee before but it seemed to work quite well. The guard is stainless (from scrap, no idea of the composition), the fitting is solid cast silver (lost wax) the handle is "Tiger" Maple with a mixed stain. Nameplates are cast silver, pins & Lanyard are copper. Coffin handle style with a slotted hidden tang construction. Few Okay, I'll stop now haha, time for a few pics, something else I need to get better at too! Anyway, feedback on what you think is always appreciated!
