Combat Bowie disguised as Vest Bowie in Cru Forge V

NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
9,437
Hi Guys- :)



This knife was forged from Cru Forge V. It has the exact same blade profile as the concealed carry combat Bowies I recently posted, but it has a hidden tang with ss guard, and has been dressed up. It's essentially a small-ish knife with the heart of a big one. :)


I'm very impressed with the steel from a performance standpoint! :thumbup: But it sucks to hand sand it. :eek: Handle is stabilized Masur Birch from Alpha Knife Supply with copper+black G10 spacers, 416 ss guard and domed/polished pin. Sheath is fully tooled veg tanned leather, hand saddle stitched and antiqued.


OAL- 9-7/16"
Blade- ~4-13/16"L x 1-1/8"W x ~1/4" thick at the guard


Thanks for looking... :)



[video=youtube;j_VYaktxKgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_VYaktxKgU[/video]

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love your Guards, Nick. The smooth transition from stainless steel to wood/resin is always a treat to behold.
 
The knife is excellent as always, but that sheath is out of this world!
 
That's almost too fine.....what a package, both pieces are really exceptional. :cool:
 
that's very sweet. You could probably call it a chute knife and I don't think anyone would complain :)
 
Nicky, great work again or still or as usual. The sheath work improves with each one:thumbup:

Lorien, email me and I'll send you some photos of chute knives. This one is not.;)

Paul
 
sheathmaker said:
Nicky, great work again or still or as usual. The sheath work improves with each one:thumbup:

Lorien, email me and I'll send you some photos of chute knives. This one is not.;)

Paul
Click to expand...

my chute knife is pretty close in dimension to this and shares many of it features. But we can agree to disagree :) It's all just words and stuff.
at any rate, it's a beauty!
 
Looks awesome Nick.

I just forged a hunter out of Cruforge V. Performance is awesome.

I haven't hand sanded it yet. What grit did you take this to? It looks like a fairly high polish........................which means you might be crazy! ;) :)
 
Nice work Nick. I think as you continue to work with the stuff you'll find it's gains in performance and overall characteristics far outweigh the additional work required to finish it. I'm interested to hear what your process was like - drop a line some time and let me know!


Excellent combination of materials on this one, too, bro.
 
Good Lord that is a beautiful knife... I would totally carry that every day. What advantages does Cru-Forge offer over regular carbon steels do you think? Is it more rust-resistant? I can see from the vid it cuts like a mofo but just wondered if the added vanadium would improve its corrosion resistance. I live in a high humidity environment so tool steels are a major problem for me to maintain.
 
Great work! Think I lean more to the Micarta versions, but I like the hidden tang construction.
 
Great little fighter Nick. Love the full length grind on the clip.

Now you only need mad handling skills like Joe for your videos. ;)
 
Thank you guys! :)

Matthew--- I called you out (in the first video I shot) as the spur that finally kicked me hard enough to use the CruForge I've had but that video was even longer than this one... And since this one is 2-1/2 minutes longer than Coop's video attention span, I figured I better not upload it. :eek: :foot: ;)

Seriously though, your praise for the steel is what pushed me to finally use it. Thank you for that, and for the help and advice from you and Dan... It is very much appreciated.

This was going to be a machine finished blade, but me being a bit thick in the skull, I decided to try hand sanding it to see if it's as bad as everyone was saying it is.

It is... :eek: :D

I have a giant 52100 fighting bowie blade on the bench that is about 11"L x 2" wide x 0.300" thick, and it was easier and faster to hand sand it than this small fighter blade. I sanded this blade to 500X... With most steels, you will definitely feel 500X "bite" in the steel. On the Cru Forge, it just slides off like there's no grit on the paper.


Buffalohump- quick answer is no, unfortunately.

The composition of the steel is very simple (pared down specifically to work well with the "backyard heat treat" set-ups many bladesmiths use). Chromium is the main deciding factor in a steel being stainless--- most cutlery grade ss has around 14-17% Chromium. CruForge only has 0.50%, which is the same as most melts of O1... so it is definitely not anywhere near a stainless.

The amount of vanadium added to the steel forms hard vanadium carbides in the microstructure... which is a fancy way to say it is VERY abrasion resistant... so it will stay sharp for a very long time. :cool:
 
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