La Brea Bowie Build (PRO PHOTOS ADDED)

Wow. It is really progressing. Are you tig/wig welding the tang to that frame?? It would see like that would be the way to go. Perhaps you are then re heating the knife?? Interesting stuff. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
Zemapeli, no welding necessary. The frame will be attached to the scales via six hidden pins and the scales will attach to the spacer via two hidden pins, then the tang and scales will be attached together via a single exposed and domed pin. So all in all this knife will contain eleven pins , but you will only ever see one of them.
 
Well yesterday was a slightly major back, but I will get to that more later. At this point the knife and hardware are successfully heat treated and on to clean up. But first for a quick test of the knife.

A 1 x 6 pine board:



And a complimentary arm shaving picture:



I also test chop using antler as well, but I was running short on time at the end of the day and skipped the pictures. I'm still not really used to stopping and photographing every step I do for these WIPs so I apologize for some missing photos.

Now rewind to earlier in the day. I was very excited that my bronze wire finally arrived so that I could begin the inlay on my spacer...

This is when disaster struck, as I was inlaying the bronze I was expanding it with a flat punch to fill the slot and that expanding metal found an undiscovered weld flaw, blowing out a small section of the bottom lip. I was just quiet for a few minutes....

After going out for lunch and cooling off for a bit I was convinced I would have to start over from scratch with a new piece of damascus, I was resigned to this fact and told my wife I would be home until near midnight. As I began the prep work I went over to my round bar pile to grab something to use as a handle. And lo and behold a MIRACLE! A small left over piece of the same bar of damascus!

So still not great having to start all over, but at least I was a few steps ahead, so after a bit of work last night I have the slot ready to go and the rough shaping in.



More to come tonight.
 
Glad you were able to find the extra piece of stock. I can imagine it would be very upsetting to run into that weld flaw.
 
:black_eyed: Glad you found that piece, it sucks when something goes wrong but at least it's not from the absolute beginning. :applause:
 
Yeah finding a flaw always sucks, but I 'd rather find it now than the customer find it later. Unfortunately today ended up being a lot of fiddling which I hate but finally everything is now fitting back to where it should be.



And now I have the opportunity to change aspects I wasn't so fond of in the original spacer by tweaking the file work. Still another hour to finish roughing everything out and cleaning it up, but at least it is getting back on track.



And onto something new! Sanding! Yay!....


And one side brought up to 400 grit:



More to come soon, lots of pattern revealing in the next post so stay tuned!
 
Finally I have something interesting to show you all. Dah Dah Dah Dah...!





Still one more etch to go and final clean up, but an exciting moment none the less. Now on to polishing and etch the guard.
 
Thanks fellas I was pretty pleased with this combination and it was a fun pattern to put together. Here is today's progress, small but important. I am still waiting for my bronze sheet to arrive to make the guard shield, but that won't stop me from working on the rest of the guard.

Here I am cleaning up the file work post hardening and tempering:



Then it was polished, etched, and heat blued:







And some pictures showing off some of the chatoyance in the pattern:





Tomorrow I will be finishing the spacer and then depending on whether the bronze arrives either making the shield or starting to work with the ivory. Thanks for following along everyone!
 
Here is today's progress.

I started off by sanding and polishing the spacer to prepare it for the etch:


Etched and gun blued:


I will be heat bluing it a little later on to darken up the spacer to match the guard and make the pattern much more subtle. And now for a quick explanation about what you will see int the next photo. 99% of people do not does this, but it is simply what I do and I have a reason for it. Several years ago I was talking to Ray Rybar about an integral knife he did that used ivory and he talked about needing an expansion barrier or compensator. In essence, a material to allow for the difference in expansion and contraction rates between the ivory and the steel to prevent delamination and cracking many many many years down the road. I am a believer in this philosophy and I also quite like the aesthetic it can have when done right. So even though my frame is surface ground truly flat and my ivory has been ground truly flat I still add in a leather spacer to act as an expansion barrier fifty years down the road.

Now that that is explained you will see in the next photo me fitting the hidden pins which are 3/32 inch stainless steel sunk about halfway into the ivory.:





And now finally the handle is ready for profiling so I can begin the filework on the frame.



And the other side:



And for the first time 99% dry fit:



With the frame, handle shaping, and shield left to go this project is nearing the end of the tunnel; but, oh wait I forgot about the sheath too. Nevermind... :P
 
Thanks for the comments guys, if all goes well the knife should be done today as the bronze is due to arrive. I spent a good part of yesterday playing around with the bronze pin as the bronze wire I was able to buy ended up having more of a rose gold look about it which was okay, but didn't match. So it took a few hours of monkeying around with the mix and casting pins to get the color right, but we are finally a go! Thanks for sticking with me through the whole build and following along. Oh and I did just confirm yesterday that Caleb Royer will be photographing this project so you won't have to suffer with my poor photography skills too much longer. :D
 
Very nice work!

Really have enjoyed the WIP.... thanks for taking the time.

The knife is stunning!

Steve
---------
Member, W.F. Moran Jr. Foundation
ABS Apprentice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top