First Bowie WIP...Tips?

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

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Oct 30, 2002
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Since I'm waiting for some handle material to arrive so I can finish two orders I'm working on, I decided I'd spend some time in the shop on something new.

A while back, I helped Ed (Edro20) heat treat a knife, and as a very kind gesture, he gifted me with a piece of Aldo's 1/4" 1084. I decided it's time I go for a hidden tang bowie.

After freehanding the general shape on with a sharpie, I bandsawed, angle grinded, and used the KMG to come up with something I kinda liked. Here's where it stands right now. I haven't done any cleaning up of the ricasso at this point, and I haven't tapered the tang.

IMG_0085.jpg


IMG_0086.jpg


Sorry that in that second picture there is a small drop of oil on the tip of the blade. It's a rainy day, and between work sessions, I usually spray a goodly coat of WD40 to prevent rust on carbon steels.

What do you think so far?

I'm going to finish this one out in a similar fashion to how Phillip Patton makes his knives from a tutorial I found a while back. The guard will be stainless and will be a press fit to the ricasso with JB Weld as a sealer. The tang will be snug-fit to the handle block (probably Mesquite for this knife), and will be secured with epoxy and a single pin through the tang and handle block. At only 1 & 1/2" wide, this will be a slim bowie with the blade being about 8" from guard to tip.

Any tips, suggestions, comments? This is new territory to me. Do you thing the tang is wide enough for this particular handle mounting method?

--nathan
 
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Looks great so far. Here's a link to a tutorial on how to fit a guard to a hidden tang in case you haven't seen it. http://www.tzknives.com/articles/GuardFitting.pdf
Something I do when I fit a guard is to put an end mill in my drill press and mill out between the the holes I drill. I also mill out the bottom side about halfway through the guard so that when I am filing I only have to file half the thickness of the guard instead of the whole thickness. Another thing that helps is to make sure you are keeping the file straight as you file the guard, it used to give me fits when I first started making guards. I would keep testing the guard and when I finally got it so that it would fit there would be a gap around where the guard and ricasso meet.
 
Rob, thanks for the tutorial link! I have a hardened file guide that will help me keep from muffing the filing up too bad. Times like these make me wish I had a mill :D. I've got to grind the clip, then grind the full flat grind and heat treat prior to fitting up the guard, but I'll take some pictures along the way so everyone can see my screw-ups. :) Thanks again for the tips.

--nathan
 
Looks like a Great job so far to me! That tang looks fine, It might needs a little tweaking in the fitment process but they ALL do.

Jason
 
Look forward to seeing it develop! Remember, it's not about making the screw ups, it's being able to fix them :D
 
Looks like a real nice blade shape...and that Aldo 1084 is some nice stuff!:D
The only thing is I don't think it proper to post a pic of a stock removal knife on an anvil!:eek:
Mace
 
Mace said:
The only thing is I don't think it proper to post a pic of a stock removal knife on an anvil!:eek:
Mace
Click to expand...

Ha ha, I wish I would have thought to say that...

Nathan, I like that shape. I've never made one of those, so I can't really add much, except the tang looks a little wide to me. When I imagine what the handle will look like, the handle material might get a little thin for clearance to the tang near the guard. But again, I don't really know, I've never made one.

Cool looking start.
 
Mace, I guess I didn't think of that faux pas! My workbench was cluttered so I was looking around for a place to snap a picture, and the anvil was clean. Sorry :o. Don't worry, give me another year or so, and I'll be *tying* to do the same thing by forging. I'll remove the pic once I get some others up so it doesn't confuse anyone.

Nathan, I see what you mean. I left it as wide as I could, so I could thin it down as needed. You can always take it off.... The handle will angle down slightly, but I'll likely have to clearance it. I didn't have the block of wood at the shop (not a stable humidity out there), so I couldn't draw it out.

Erik, if there's anything I've learned in making knives, it's that, for me, the difference between a decent blade and a poor blade is how well I can fix my mistakes!

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

--nathan
 
No real advice Nathan as I've put aside my hidden tang forged blades for a while after a few failed attempts at guard fitting, but I think the overall blade design looks awesome. I'd like a little more curve or radius where the edge ends at the ricasso, but that's just my personal taste.

Look forward to seeing this one progress along, and crossing my fingers that you make another WIP thread like your Groomsmen knives post that you previously did.
 
The pitch along the bottom of the ricasso looks Flat to me; just a slight rake downward makes the transition to the edge easier and more eyecatching.

The choil angle is too square; a radius at this juncture really adds flow to a blade.

Blades of this style can be things of beauty, but you have to look at all the angles to come up with a winner.

Just my 0.02 cents, Fred
 
Thanks for the advice, Fred. I've always admired your work, and I LOVE your bowies. I've ground the bevels and the clip, and I'll see what I can do to clean up the choil/ricasso area. Thanks again!

--nathan
 
Sam, didn't you know? I'm incarcerated at the moment. I've got a really understanding warden who lets me make weapons to give to the other inmates. :D ;)

It's actually a storage/shop complex. There's about 20 shops/storage units of 20X40' with 110/220 wiring, overhead lights, etc. And it's all gated with electronic pass key to get in. It's about 5 miles north of my house just outside of town.

Ed, I'm going to use mesquite, with possibly a black micarta spacer and a stainless oval plate guard. I'll hopefully get this heat treated tonight. I've been playing with cardboard cutouts for handle shapes. I'm not sure just yet, but I may decrease the width of the ricasso slightly (choil-to-guard width)to help with proportions.

--nathan
 
Nathan, I'm just busting chops....no need to remove the pic on my account.
Mace
 
Here' some pics. This is how I set up and modified the table of my KMG to grind the clip...sorry if they're a bit blurry. I only had my phone to snap pics:

IMG_0089.jpg


IMG_0090.jpg


This is the blade with the bevels and clip ground. Notice the filing guide to square the ricasso:

IMG_0094.jpg


Squaring the ricasso:

IMG_0092.jpg


And here's what I'm thinking for the handle. Cardboard gets me in the ball park and then I can transfer it to the block.

IMG_0258.jpg


Does the ricasso look too big from plunge to guard? I'm going to add a bit more drop and meat to the handle butt, and the shape may change a bit.

I look at it one minutes and it looks great; I look at it the next and the ricasso looks too big.

--nathan
 
Mace said:
Nathan, I'm just busting chops....no need to remove the pic on my account.
Mace
Click to expand...
Don't listen to him, Nathan. Mace has hunted down and killed for less. Speaking of which, what ever happened to Mike Spangler?
 
By the way, I think it looks pretty good so far! I think (personally) the ricasso is fine, maybe a 1/8" too long at the most. Maybe it's the handle length throwing it off to your eye (i.e. too short)?
 
I believe the guard is just a little bit small, instead of the ricasso being to big.

Fred
 
Yeah, I agree, Fred. I'm not very good at cutting out ovals in cardboard :D. I think I failed cutting in primary school. The guard will be a bit longer on the edge side. I removed about 1/32 more of the ricasso using the file guild to even things up a bit more, and that will take care of it as well.

Here is the final profile right before heat treating. I didn't change up too much, but I did slightly open the angle between the choil and the ricasso:

IMG_0261.jpg


It's in the oven tempering right now. I cleaned up the grinds and heat treated it this evening. I've also got the stainless cut for the disc and spacer (I'm going to use a stainless spacer instead of the micarta), and I have the centerlines marked so I can drill and fit it up tomorrow.

Oh, when quenching, I got a little carried away, and I think I partially hardened part of the tang. DOPE! I'm going to draw back the temper on the tang, ricasso, and spine with a torch, so hopefully that will help. Also, I'll pick up some carbide drill bits, and that should take care of the rest when I drill my pin hole. Do you think I'll have any trouble with drilling the hole after the eopxy is all set up since it got a little hard?

Thanks again for all the great advice on this thread and behind the scenes (thanks Nick).

--nathan
 
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