D guard bowie help

[JTknives]

After doing my hammered bowie i decided to do a D guard bowie. does anyone have any tips. i have been looking at some pictures of civil war bowies and have noticed that there is no Butt nut to hold the botom of the D guard on the butt, yes IG i said butt nut . how is this done? i am going to forge the guard from wrought iron and do a stacked handle from water buffalow horn and copper or nickle.
thanks all

 

[Will Leavitt]

The tang pierces through the guard and is peined back over the butt of the guard. The 2 Civil War D Guard bowies I've handled were both constructed in the same manner.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I have made many D-guard bowies (one was used in Blade for an article on D-guards about 8 years ago). There are several ways to lock on the guard. The most common is to peen the tang tight to the rear plate and lock it all together. Other ways are a drift pin and an acorn nut (AKA Butt Nut).Those two allow for removing and tightening of the handle.

A D-guard was originally made from a broken sword, so make it just like a sword. Any way of attaching the handle is correct.

The photo is one of mine (still for sale at $395 ) made in 1095 and 5160, with a 1080 and 5160 guard, and Black dyed Box Elder burl handle.
Stacy

 

[John Frankl]

Get Harvey Dean's 2 dvd set. You will get a ton of great informaiton on D-guard bowies in particular, and on knife making in general.

Best,

John

 

[SteelSlaver]

Stacy nice knife. I did one recently but, I used a "butt Nut"

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here is the knife from the Blade article. It has miniature bowie knives as the drift pins that lock the guard on. Guard is sterling with 18K overlay.Handle is Mammoth, Blade 1095 and 15N20. All 9 handle parts come off the blade when the pins are released. I have made similar versions of this style for a Ken-do instructor, using all 1095, etched as dark as possible, and with one drift pin in the end of the tang to allow disassembly for cleaning and maintenance (this is very important to the Japanese blade enthusiasts). Each of those came with a little wooden hammer to disassemble the knife.
Stacy

 

[the possum]

Stacy-
I remember seeing that knife in the magazine. That was 8 years ago?! No way! Where does the time go so fast?

 

[L6steel]

I made a D-guard bowie with an antler handle.

For the butt cap I cut a diamond shape out of 1/4" brass and then soldered a 1" section of 5/16" threaded tube to it. The tube screws onto the tang to pull the handle and guard up tight. Before I put the knife together, I domed the brass diamond. I guess I could have made the knife so it could be disassembled but instead, I filled the hole in the handle with epoxy so it would be stronger.