Making a bowie from a bought in blade.

B

Bladewayze

Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
2
Hi Folks,

Relatively new to knife making, but with woodworking, metal working and plastic handling skills, I wonderd if it would be considered as 'cheating' to buy a ready forged and ground 'Bowie' blade. I have seen one that I quite like, in the catalogue of an online supplier. I thought it would be a start in knife-making, to attach an appropriate handle to the blade.

What is the general opinion on this short-cut?

Cheers folks :)
 
Its only cheating if you try to say that you made it from scratch/ground the blade etc.

Go for it, its a great way to learn. Almost everyone here has made a kit blade at least once. In the end, you did make it a knife. They aren't much good without a handle, and even though grinding is a big challenge theres a lot more to good fit and finish.

There are some good bowie blade choices at www.jantzsupply.com and www.texasknife.com . Some of the better ones even use 440C, and for the price you can't do much better (if any) buying the steel and doing it all yourself.
 
I agree go for it get yourself started.

when you get the bug a little stronger I would suggest making a small blade first if you are doing it with files and sandpaper. You get to see the finished result quicker, lot less work and if you have a few little errors that is just part of the fun getting better at it.

just my opinion I know one fellow made a sword first.

One of my first jobs was to put some wooden handles on a .303 bayonet
 
Welcome to the forum, Bladewayze. I'm with those guys, go for it. Fitting the handle well is hard enough for the first challenge, and you'll find out whether this is what turns your crank without spending the bank on specialized tools. But watch out - once bit there's no going back. :)

Good luck and be sure to ask all the questions you have, there's no better place to learn this stuff than right here. You probably don't need to ask how I know... :cool:

Dave
 
Uh, that's how I started...along with quite a few others.

What we call "kit" blades is very good jumping off point. Darrel Ralph has a number of folder and a couple of fixed blade kits at KnifeKits.com. These are pretty good kits to say the least.

You can teach yourself an awful lot in the fit and finish area with a kit blade.

C Wilkins
 
Kit blades are a great way to get started. The real skill is in the finishing and handle assembly anyway. It usually takes me at least six times longer to finish the knife than to grind it.
 
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