Mini brut Bowie WIP

[El Mucho Hombre]

Banged out this one today from some 1"X.250" 80crv2, ended up making it 1" too short for the order without much thinking about it so it looks like I get to keep one of my knives.

Still deciding on what to do for handles and pins.

Tried out my new hammer as well, a 3# curved Japanese pattern from Jackpine Forge, worked great for hammering in the bevels and getting the plunge and choil worked in.

Cycling it and heat treating tomorrow, this one should go pretty fast.

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Tweaked the grinds a little bit, got it ready to normalize again and finish grinding for heat treat. Should be doing that tomorrow.

 

[Park Swan]

Great work so far!

 

[DEllis]

Nice:thumbup:
Darcy

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Seemed kind of pointless to post a new topic, so here.

Forged another mini brut Bowie yesterday. 6.5" cutting edge on this one, haven't done any grinding on it yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Still have to apply a few more coats of oil then burnish it, and put the edge on it, but it's mostly done.

 

[East Branch Knives]

Wow, great work!

Do you mind if I ask how you grind/sand your tang? In the second pic of your first post, the vertical sanding lines make it look like you use a belt grinder, but the point at which the sanded part meets the unsanded part is not a straight line, but instead looks like it will approximate curve of the top of your handle scale. How'd you do that!?

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

I grind the flats of the tang on the belt grinder, I forged in the tang taper which accounts for the absence of a straight line if I understand what you're asking correctly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

East Branch Knives,

I didn't take any pics of the cross section of the tang before I put handles on, but I did get some of the one I'm currently working on:

When doing this, you can forge in some extra material for grinding away. In this case I left enough in to grind even lines for the handles to butt into.

 

[East Branch Knives]

I think so, but maybe I didn't explain very well. I mean the transition from sanded tang to forge finish is not a vertical line representing the edge of the sanding belt, but instead is contoured, like this:

The second one is the result I'd like, and it looks like you've been able to achieve it. The straight line transition (in the first one, what I currently get from using the belt grinder) makes gluing scales a problem because the top of the scale does not match the transition from sanded surface to forge finish.

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Do you mean like this? The curved front of the scales showing no grinding on the tang?

 

[East Branch Knives]

Do you mean like this? The curved front of the scales showing no grinding on the tang?

Yes, exactly. Currently if I want that effect I'll have to cover up some of the forge finish with the top of the scale, but then there's a gap created between the scale and the tang, because the forge finish is not perfectly flat like the sanded surface of the tang. It looks like you're able to butt the top of your scale right against the edge of the forge finish transition.

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Forge your tang surface slightly higher than the flats of the ricasso area, use soap stone to mark out where you want the scales to go and leave some extra meat there, so when you grind it you can bring it down level with the forge finish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[East Branch Knives]

Forge your tang surface slightly higher than the flats of the ricasso area, use soap stone to mark out where you want the scales to go and leave some extra meat there, so when you grind it you can bring it down level with the forge finish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome, thank you!

 

[JakeMakes]

Beautiful knife man. I love the knives that have the perfect combination of good craftsmanship and yet look rustic and usable. Yours hits the spot.

 

[El Mucho Hombre]

Finished up the second one today, it has a pretty robust full convex edge profile and a scary sharp tip.

It got some extra attention at the choil area.

I'm real happy with how the plunges turned out on it, it's tricky (for me at least) to get a nice plunge on a brut de forge.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk