My newest Damascus Bowie (pic)

Bruce Evans · Jun 15, 2001

Please let me know what you think of this one.The Blade is 8 7/8 inches long of random pattern Damascus with a long un-sharpened back edge,the guard is a shield shape from nickel Silver,the pins are also Nickel silver.The handle is Framed from The same Damascus bar that was used for the Blade and then I put Cow bone scales that I dyed with some different colors of dye and then stabilized.The handle length is 4 1/2 inches long.
I am trying something new with the bone and I was wondering what you thought about it.
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

Pretender · Jun 15, 2001

Bruce, you continue to astound and amaze! I like the cow bone. I haven't come across much info on using it. Does it have to be stabilized? What if it has been cooked; does that ruin any positive properties it has? Great knife!

Dan

barcbsa · Jun 15, 2001

WOW...looks great to me. Handle looks a lot like "bark" ivory. Very nice website, also. Lots of good information. THANKS

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I'd love to watch, but somebody has to work...

Bruce Evans · Jun 15, 2001

Thanks there pretender.This is the first time I have used the cow bone after it has been stabilized.I have used allot of it that wasn't stabilized.I don't think that it would hurt anything if it was cooked already since You can cure the green bone yourself by boiling it and bleaching it if you want a white bone.
Hope this helps out some.
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

NickWheeler · Jun 15, 2001

Excellent as always Bruce!

I'll show my ignorance and say that I'm not real clear on the construction of a framed handle.

That bone has a Mammoth/Giraffe look to it...I am dumbfounded by what you did with it!

Keep em coming Bruce!

Nick

RDT · Jun 15, 2001

Very nice Bruce !, very nice... I hope I can make a Bowie that nice in the future. Take care.....RDT

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RDT.

Bruce Evans · Jun 15, 2001

Thanks for all the kind words everybody.
Nick,The framed handle construction is showed on my tutorials under the coke bottle handle.
Basicaly all it is is a hidden tang knife and the handle is a piece of steel or what ever you want to use with a slot cut out in the center for the tang and then the scales are attached and then the whole handle is attached in one piece,this way you can have a wider handle than the riccaso area with a double guard that wouldn't fit over the handle any other way.
I hope I said this so you can understand it.If not just click the link to my website and then follow the link to the tutorial.
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

L6steel · Jun 16, 2001

Wow , you are amazing Bruce!! Wish I had your work ethic!

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Take care!! Michael

Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!

Cooper Custom Knives
Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms!!!

[This message has been edited by L6STEEL (edited 06-16-2001).]

sing · Jun 16, 2001

Very nice, Bruce, as usual. I like the small but classy changes you made with your stamp and the Spanish notch.

sing
AKTI #A000356

anvilring · Jun 16, 2001

Dang it Bruce you beat me to it! I've got a cow bone bowie finished as well but it looks different. How'd your bone look in the first place? was it already that old brown color? or did you dye it? I've got a veritable mountain of old cow and horse cannon bone. A friend of mine is a farrier and his girlfriend is a vet; together they have brought me a ton of the stuff. Some of it is old, bleached out and has a lot of little cracks running everywhere; that's the stuff I like, however it's the hardest to work as it chips easily. This new bowie is just super! I like you blade designs to begin with and now you are starting to do the antique style guards; that blows my dress up!
What is the billet made up from?

regards, mitch

P.S. I'll try and send your convex burr in the next few days...

ddavelarsen · Jun 16, 2001

Bruce, that's beautiful as usual. I'm going to have to make friends with a butcher, the cow bone works very well. What did you use for dye?

Fantasic knife, thanks for sharing.

Dave

Bruce Evans · Jun 16, 2001

Mitch,This piece of bone was from some a friend of mine found out in the woods and brought me,it was old and cracked up.I use liquid leather dye's to get the coloring.I ran up on a deal from a shoe repair shop on some different color dye and I take and wash the bone with acetone then let the dye bleed in to it just like if you was doing a water color painting.If you do not have a pressyre tank to stabilize with after you dye the bone you can soak it for a few days in some "Minwax brand wipe on poly" it is like water and gives a nice hand rubbed oil look finish to wood and it darkens the bone a little while sealing it and helps stop the chipping as it seals the cracks and stuff unless they are real big,then they buff real nice and doesn' let the compounds get into the pours of the bone since they have been sealed.I have been thinking of trying the liquid rit dye that you can get at the grocery store and using water on the bone instead of acetone to see what that looks like.Isnt it fun to experiment.I do know that you can get a deeper penetration on the bone with the dye if you will heat the bone up some first as the pours of the bone will open up some.If the bone is still a little oily when you dye it it will also get a different efect in the finished piece.I stabilized a piece that was still a tan color and it looks really cool,almost like the tan olored ivory bark.
I have some Ostrich leg bones that I didn't dye but did stabilize and am going to put one on a smaller knife that I am finishing that should look cool.A friend of mine came up with some Emue leg bone that we are going to see what it looks like also.You can dress up whitetail antler with the liquid dye also,and soaking it in the liquid poly hardens the iner pith really wel so it will make a more serviceable handle mterial.The chalky outside on the bones and the antler don't hurt a thing,it just lets the dye soak in better.
I am getting to long winded here so I better get to work and get off this computer.
I like doing the old style guards as they seem to have a classy elegance to them.

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

[This message has been edited by beknives (edited 06-16-2001).]

peter nap · Jun 16, 2001

Bruce, every knife I see from you strikes me as the best it can get. You just keep making me a believer.

By the way- I have been playing with "smoked cow bones" from WallMart. They are in the pet section and after the dog has them for a while, really look good.

Bruce Bump · Jun 16, 2001

Bruce I love that handle. Ive got to try that. During hunting trips I run across dead animals with bleached out bones. Next time Im hauling them home. Bruce B

Ebbtide · Jun 17, 2001

Another beauty

The guard really shows off the clean lines.
Is the 'nameplate' actually forged in?
In other words...how'd ya do that?
I really like the antique handle look!
Ebbtide out.

Bugs3x · Jun 17, 2001

Very nice knife, Bruce! I love the damascus, and the handle is really great! Looks like you dug it up after 10K years, or something. Am certain have never seen any bone I like so much. You could start a second business if you were friends with a buther or a packing house.

I'm impressed!

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Asi es la vida

Bugs

Bruce Evans · Jun 17, 2001

Thanks for the kind words everybody.
Ebbtide-I just took fingernail polish and resisted over my name before I etched it.I was tired of never seeing my name on the Damascus Blades very easy,and I was trying a Idea that I had.
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

[This message has been edited by beknives (edited 06-17-2001).]

Peter Atwood · Jun 17, 2001

Bruce, I think you should stick with that nameplate idea, it looks great. Of course so does each and every other part of that knife! You are quite the craftsman and are very generous to share your tips and tricks.

BTW, is that handle material epoxied on as well as pinned? Once the pins were peened did you use a Dremel or file to make them flush?

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Peter Atwood

email: fountainman@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by fountainman (edited 06-17-2001).]

Bruce Evans · Jun 17, 2001

Yes the scales were epoxied on first then peened and then I smoothed the pins on the slack belt part of my grinder as I finished shaping the handle.All this was done before the handle was attached with epoxy.
The tang has a threaded bolt silver brassed on it and the head of the bolt is left as the end of the tang,then this was flattened on the sides so it would fit into the handel,I left the threads as much as possiable and the wide part of the bolt head as a anchor for the epoxy to hold onto.I have done this before and tried to remove the handle to see how strong this type of construction is and I had to destroy the handle to remove it as the bolt head would not let the handle turn even when I heated the handle area from the guard up with a torch.It is a very secure way of setting a handle that you don't want pins showing in the center of the handle.
You can also resist the blade by applying a piece of tape in the shape that you want over the name as the ferric chloride doesnt eat the tape or glue,just don't try and rub over it until you are done etching as it can move.
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society

anvilring · Jun 17, 2001

Thanks Bruce for the info on your bone treatment. I've done the same thing as far as dyeing goes by just wetting the bone first, I'll have to try the acetone as it has such a low surface tension. I'll post a pic soon of a bowie handle I did from old bleached bone however in that condition, it sure chips'n cracks easily. Go have a look at B.Bump's journeyman knives when you get a chance, I posted his pic earlier today....

regards, mitch