Handmade Pack Bowie

[mcswood]

I get the steel from an outfit that makes farm impliments.1/4" thick X 1.5" wide.
I grind the details and weld the hilt in place. The hilt is made on the blade ( 4 pieces ). The steel then gets heated cherry red and shocked hard in cold , used motor oil. Then it's cleaned/ lightly polished and tempered to 350 degrees for 30 min. The handle is P.V.C. resin poured to the full tang . It passes through 1/2" holes that were drilled for that purpose. The finished handle is the same as a piece of P.V.C. pipe. Very, very strong. And it can be easily carved.
The sheath was made by an Omish Harness Maker to my specs.
Please let me know what you think.I hope to improve through your imput.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[fishface5]

I can't really see much detail in the pics r.e. grinds or fit & finish, but it looks pretty cool! How does it perform on the trail?

 

[mcswood]

Sorry for the pics. poor quality. That's my camera at it's best setting. It's old.
As far as the performance of the knife. I made it ( for myself ) to withstand extreme abuse. It's a shovel , an axe, hammer and prybar in the field.
As far as fit/finish. The hilt is welded to the full tang ( piece by piece ) , then formed. The handle , being poured in place ensures a perfect fit to the back of the hilt. I simply trim it down untill the edges of the tang show.The P.V.C. resin takes dye nicely , if wanted.
Indistructable with perfect fit.
I don't spend much time buffing and pollishing if the knife is headed for a rough life . I guess I'm more tool oriented . If I'm making one for someone I give them the option of spinning their own buffing wheel to save a lot of money.
Mike

 

[Jason Cutter]

Feedback ?

Like the others here, we have been spoilt with closeups and detailed pictures, but that too is one of the MANY skills acquired when making knives and becoming web-savvy !! Its always a skill in development for most of us.

Looks a very nice bowie. Aesthetically speaking, I really enjoy the lines and profile on this one. The handle material is quite unusual and you have done some interesting work on it.

Do you know what steel it is ? The details will have many knife nerds quivering in their seats !

The important thing, however, is that you have been using it and that it performs to your needs, and is tough enough to put up with real-life use and abuse.


What are the actual dimensions on this knife ?

Looking forward to more work from you. Jason.

 

[Mr.BadExample]

That looks nice, a big'un. The handle looks really interesting, I'd like to see a closer picture. Are those designs in the PVC or did you carve it in?

 

[mcswood]

The blade is 11 1/4" long , 1 1/2" wide , and a 1/4" thick.The OAL is 16 1/4".
The steel is used in cutting edges of farm impliments and tines . It is very spring like and doesn't bend easily . It is heat treated ( by me ) .I test seperate pieces of the same steel before making a "good " blade. With most I get a close to sharp edge before heating it to glowing red. I then quench it in cold motor oil. I don't dip it .
I drop it in. I take it out when the oil stops boiling. This gets the steel hard enough to brake it easily with a hammer . After cleaning it up , I only heat ( temper ) it till it can be sharpened somewhat easily. I like them to hold an edge. I know most of you will assume that the blade is Too hard , but on a 1/4 " thick blade I haven't had problems with chipping. Thinner blades I tend to temper at higher degrees just to soften then to avoid braking ( if rough use is expected ). I can hack down a small tree with this knife without any noticable loss in sharpness .
I carved grooves into the pvc for a better grip. Nothing fancy . The pvc I use comes in a 2 part mixture . It pours like water and sets up ( de-molds ) in 30 secs. It can be dyed to almost any color and carved without the problems of wood ( no grain ). It can be polished to a glass finish and isn't effected by anything other than extreme heat. Check out a piece of pvc pipe. see what you think of a handle made from the same material.
Thanks for looking,
Mike