Josh Smith Dogbone Bowie

Marcel54

Marcel54

Joined
Jul 30, 2005
Messages
1,857
As some of you know I have (had) massive problems with Dutch Customs. This has made me decide to stop importing knives from abroad (US, Australia and so on) and stick with European based makers.

In all of this I had one final deal that had to be honored. That order was with Josh Smith. After some deliberation we agreed upon a Spearpoint Dogbone Bowie. In the last month and a half Josh has been working very hard on this project and sending me pics from time to time.

I will take possession of this knife by the end of November in Milan. Where it will be handed over to me by Rick Dunkerley who graciously agreed to bring the knife with him to Milan.

Well, Josh and Coop did their magic and here is the endresult.

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The blade is 10 inches long and overall the knife is about 15 inches. The blade is a modified W-pattern (Josh can explain that much better than I can) and the handle is blackwood. The handle has hand domed gold pins, gold liners and a gold and damascus escutcheon on both sides. All fittings are damascus from the same stock. This knife has some very nice details like the gold habaki, the fileworked damascus part of the escutcheon and the fileworked frame at the back of the handle. Those details make this knife even more attractive, so all in all I'm very very very pleased with this knife and the way Coop captured it in his pictures.

Marcel
 
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Holy jumpin! That's super cool.
 
Truly amazing piece, Marcel. Congratulations!!

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
Marcel,

Yesterday I traveled to Connecticut to Jim Cooper's shop to have some photos taken of some of my knives. Jim had just finished shooting your Josh Smith Dogbone Bowie.

I had a chance to see it as Coop was packaging it before sending it back to Josh for delivery to you in Milan.

It is a really wonderful knife! I am also a fan dogbone Bowies, the damascus pattern is outstanding, the gold trim really works with the blackwood handle. As you would expect from Josh, the fit and finish is first rate.

The pictures that Coop shot are outstanding, but it looks even better in person. I am very sure that you will be pleased with this knife. You might want to get more like this one if you can solve the customs/delivery problem.

Congradulations on getting a super knife.

Jim Treacy
 
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My only regret was that I could only own this one for 24 hours. Usually I get a longer visit. ;)

Every area of this knife deserves the closest of scrutiny. There is buried treasure everywhere.

It was superb enough that I dug out a small collection of antique receipts I own and utilized them for some 'effect'. That one was a gift to these good men.

Marcel is going to have a VERY pleasing Milan show. :thumbup: Thanks for posting!

Coop
 
:eek::eek:That is absolutely beautiful and Coop certainly photographed it appropriately.

Pleasure seeing it and i'm sure you will have the utmost pleasure of posessing it Marcel! Contratulations, and also my compliments to Josh Smith for making it.

Peter
 
Thank you for the kind compliments.

Thank you Marcel for the opportunity to build this knife for you. Working with you has been a pleasure.

I have to thank Tim Hancock for his advice on how to get through some of the difficult aspects of this knife. Larry Fuegen also gave me some helpful advice. I am lucky to have such great makers to draw from.

This is a through pin construction. I made the 18 karat gold domes, soldered them to a 18k pin and then peened the pins over on the opposing side. Rick Dunkerley engraved my name and MS stamp on the gold collar. The esscussion plates are the same Damascus as the blade and then have been faceted to match the grind of the blade. They have two pins brazed to the back side and were then epoxied in place.

This was a great learning experience and I look forward to building more dogbones. Thanks for looking.
 
This is the type of maker/collector project that does the customs community proud.
Exquisite piece. :thumbup:
 
That is a grand slam home run. A truly magnificent piece in every respect. Congrats to you both!

Roger
 
Kinves like this one could make me a fan of daggers. I can't find a thing I don't like about this knife. The dogbone handle works incredibly well with dagger blade, and the steel's pattern is fantastic.
 
Magnificent!!! :thumbup:

Jaw dropping work Josh. :eek:

Top drawer photos Coop (I love the antique receipts... that's some penmanship!)

Thank you for sharing Marcel!
 
I really appreciate all the compliments too. This was not only a learning experience for Josh, as he mentioned, but for me too. The way Josh worked with me on this knife, the many phonecalls, the explanations on the "how do you do that" questions on my part were all a new experience for me as a collector. For that attitude Josh deserves a great compliment because that shows that he is not only a very talented maker, but a good businessman and a gentleman too:thumbup::cool:

Marcel
 
If I'm a Dutch customs guy, you've got 2 shots at getting this knife . . . slim and none.

ken
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:D Ken, I deviced a sneeky method to get it through Customs......I'm transporting it by car from Italy. Although we have Customs at our (air and harbour) ports we have open borders because of the European Community. I will travel through 4 countries without having to stop once for a border control:D

Marcel
 
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