Cross-grained Maple Bowie

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
5,666
This is my second opportunity to use this cross-grained spalted maple that has been purposefully spalted by Larry Bailey. Being short-grained from side to side, it is also stabilized and the process then only need to travel WITH the grain a short distance! It is absolutely 100% saturated and solid.
Just great stuff.
This was forged down from my heavy 5160 and assembled in a take-down configuration.
Mild steel fittings hot-blued.
Overall 12 3/4" with a 7 1/2 " blade.
800 hand-rubbed finish - NO ETCH! (But you can see the differential HT.)
jsm8-1.jpg
 
Its a beautiful piece of wood, and a real nice knife.

I like your hot blued fittings, how is the finish holding up in the field? Can it be refinished as part of a clean and spruce up after a a couple of years use?

Cheers,

Stephen
 
karl...alot of your blades in pics look convexed...are they flat ground...convex or a mixture of both.....by the way that wood looks sweet !....ryan
 
ryan9977 said:
karl...alot of your blades in pics look convexed...are they flat ground...convex or a mixture of both.....by the way that wood looks sweet !....ryan
Click to expand...

Ya, that handle material is fantastic.
I do a combo grind a lot of the time.
I start out flat to set the fillet/grind line.
Depending on the size of the blade, I slightly roll the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the blade in a convex manner. The flat and the convex gradually merge as you approach the tip.
When looking at the blade in person, a person almost does a double-take on it and can't quite decide what it is!
Good eye on your part.
 
Stephen F said:
Its a beautiful piece of wood, and a real nice knife.

I like your hot blued fittings, how is the finish holding up in the field? Can it be refinished as part of a clean and spruce up after a a couple of years use?

Cheers,

Stephen
Click to expand...
I had to think about this for a while. To the best of my recall, I think I began hot-luing on a regular basis in late '04.
I have use it on everything - EDCs, hunters, fighters, bowies.
I have made MANY Every Day Carrys and hunters with hot-bluing, and have not go the first one back to re-do. Now, mind you, I do a lot of fixed assembly knives, but if there is any Stag, Damascus, hot-bluing, or etching to reveal hamon, it's gonna be a take-down for future service work.
On my hunters/EDCs (see my other post of today) I roll the leading edge of the guard. This serves two purposes:
1.) It sort of helps to "guide" the knife down into the sheath.
2.) If it is hot-blued, there is no sharp leading edge to rub the sheath and wear off like the edge of the cylinder face would on a revolver.
 
Great piece of wood, and the blade ain't too shabby either. :thumbup:
 
Stunning!!! I wish I had seen this before the OKCA show. Someone had a bunch of this maple. I would have bought a few pieces. VERY VERY NICE Karl.
 
NICE Karl!!!

The handle looks a little fat at the butt for the blade... but I know you and I think much alike in that area and would rather have it on the wide side than the narrow side. True? :)

I am assuming a little, but it's based on our knives and our talk at Blade about having a hard time finding blocks wide enough.

I think the knife is beautiful all around. I REALLY like this guard style with your blued finish... VERY cool.

Keep 'em coming Karl!!! :D
 
You've got a good memory, Nick!
Yep, I don't know whoever came up with that idea about 1 1/2" handle material. I don't even own any.
I had this and another one cut up just for me. I won't even order any material unless it's a minimum 1 7/8" wide. I like some curve to my handles and like most of them to drop at the rear.
This is really not as large as the photo angle makes it appear, but it fills the hand!
 
Karl thats a great looking knife and your photo work looks really good as well.

Hope I was able to help you out in anyway?

Spencer
 
Karl, do you ever make a ugly knife and if you do would you please share with the rest of us mere mortal makers? :D
 
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