Making a Bowie the Patton way, start to finish.

Phillip Patton

Phillip Patton

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
5,343
Howdy all,
I always enjoy when other makers have in-process threads, where they show how they do things, and I know from the responses to those threads that most everyone else likes them too. :) I've been wanting to do one myself for quite a while now, so here goes.

The knife is going to be a 12" Bowie. This is going to be by far the biggest Bowie I've made. :cool:

Here's all I have of it right now. The design. I'm actually making the gentleman two Bowies, to go with one he already bought from me.
I'll just be featuring the larger one in this thread.

IMG_0220.jpg



The ingredients:

Steel: Forged L6

Guard: 416 ss

Spacers: Nickel silver and black paper Micarta

Handle: Exhibition grade desert Ironwood

Thanks for your attention. :D
 
I like PP work when I first saw his knives here, was wondering how busy you were. That project looks like your going to enjoy working on it :)
 
Thanks guys for the encouragement and interest. :)

Right now it's about 5 degrees outside, and the power hammer gives up at anything below about 40 degrees, so I won't be able to do much until it warms up, or I can figure some way to warm up the power hammer. :grumpy:

Anyway, I did do something today. When I'm forging a blade, I like to have a pattern that I can hold up to the workpiece, so I know I'm making it the right shape. I like to use something like 18 ga sheet metal, because it's stiff and sturdy, but all I have on hand is some aluminum flashing, so that's what I'll be using.

First, here's the original drawing showing where the tang will be:

tangdrawing.jpg


Here the aluminum pattern:

Bowiepattern.jpg
 
The drawing looks very impressive, can't wait to see it develop. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Stephen
 
C'mon Phillip - break out the old hand hammers and forge one the old fashioned way. Shouldn't take you too long to work down some 1" round bar - just put a little muscle into it :)

(Yes, I'm really looking forward to seeing this one take shape as well)
 
Wulf said:
C'mon Phillip - break out the old hand hammers and forge one the old fashioned way. Shouldn't take you too long to work down some 1" round bar - just put a little muscle into it :)

(Yes, I'm really looking forward to seeing this one take shape as well)
Click to expand...


Ugh. I did actually forge a blade (completely by hand) from 1" L6 once. It wasn't too bad actually.
Just get the steel hot enough, and use a big hammer. :)
I'll be forging this from 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" :eek: :D
 
Can't wait Phillip. I really like the design - the dimensions and lines are very harmonious. I look forward to seeing the 3-d version. And L6 is a great steel. I passed my cutting and bending test with an L6 blade and will forever hold a special place in my heart for it.

In fact, I banged out a southwest bowie blade from some 1" round L6 just the other day (flattened the bar with my air hammer last fall, forged it with hand hammers a few days ago). Too cold out to do anything but forge right now - it was 14 below when I came back in that night!
 
Subscribing... can't wait to see your progress on this one Phillip. I really like your knives. :thumbup:
 
Well, the weather's finally warming up (it's all the way up into the 30's!), and I figured out why the power hammer wasn't working.
So, I plan on forging out this blade tomorrow.

Here's a picture of the 1-1/4" bar of L6 I'll be forging it from:


L6bar.jpg



One end of the bar is already flattened from another project, but it's been reduced too much for this big blade, so I'll be working off of the other end.
In case you're wondering why the bar is white, I took the picture a week or two ago when it was really cold, and I brought the bar into the house to take the picture, and the bar frosted up in a matter of seconds. :eek: :D

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have photos of the forging process
 
Is this for a customer or a personal piece? That is a big ole hunk a steel there. This should look great when this one comes out.
 
Here we go. Feel free to interrupt anytime to ask questions. :)
The pictures follow the explanations.


The first step is beveling the end of the bar by hand hammer, otherwise the power hammer tends to make the end "mushroom" over, and makes a cold shut. Which can be a real pain, when you start grinding the blade and keep running into a black line...


beveledend.jpg



Next we go to the power hammer and establish a flat on the bar by forging with the bar at right angles to the power hammer dies. The reason for this flat is explained in the next step...


startingflat.jpg



In this step I'm widening the bar to 1-3/4" by forging with the bar parallel to the dies. The reason for putting the flat on is so it's easier to hold the bar on the rounded drawing dies. Trying to forge a round bar on round dies can be a pain.
Flat dies tend to squash the steel in all directions, whereas rounded dies push it more or less in two opposite directions. The radius on these dies is 6"


widening.jpg



Here it is widened to 1-3/4" It's 7/16" thick, and 12" long.


rectangled.jpg



Next step is to draw it out lengthwise until it's 5/16" thick.


drawingout.jpg



Here it is drawn out, with most of the distal taper forged in also. At this point, the whole thing is 46" long, which is to long to maneuver in my tiny shop, so right now it's cooling down, and I'm going to cut it in half, then take up where I left off.


toolong.jpg
 
Allan Molstad said:
I think you may wish to shop around for a new handle for that hammer soon...
Click to expand...


He he. Which split are you referring to? The small one on the side has been there for years, the big one I put there because it's supposed to reduce shock...


Here is the bar cut in half. After lunch, I will hopefully finish forging the blade.


cutinhalf.jpg
 
Phill, you must have a large homemade air hammer? Is it made off the plans of the simple airhammer? If it is how many blows per minute, & pounds per blow ?. From the stroke it has It looks like it would work that large round bar down pretty easy.
Shawn Ellis
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top