Neo-Tribal Bowie

Kumdo

Kumdo

Joined
Mar 7, 2000
Messages
1,048
This is a one-off that I've been working on for many months in between my regular models. I need to do something different once in a while to keep things interesting.

A few "firsts" for me on this one. It's basically my first hidden tang knife (did some "floating tang" horn-handles, but they don't count). Also, the fittings are cast bronze, done by the lost-wax method.
ntbowie7.jpg


Check out the wood. It's a (stabilized) spalted amboyna burl that I got from Chuck Bybee. I love the way the spalting almost mimics a bolster-- like a second piece of wood.
ntbowie9.jpg


ntbowie8.jpg

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Specs:
9.5" blade, 14.5" OA
Diff. hardened 1095: HT by Michael Burch
antique finish with very subtle hamon
fileworked spine
cast bronze guard and pommel cap

ntbowie5.jpg


Comments/feedback are appreciated. Thanks for looking!
 
That has "Crocodile Dundee" all over it. In a good way!! "That's not a knife, mate, THIS is a knife!"
 
If that's some seriously defined grain structuring in the blade, that is one NICE piece of steel! (so... tell us how ya did it!!!)

The wood's very attractive, too - Chuck gets some nice stuff in!

Gotta love a big ol' recurve bowie like that!!! :thumbup: :cool:
 
I agree. This is a great knife.

Love to see a closer picture of the steel itself...it does seem to have an intriguing granular structure.

The wood -- well, that's just amazing!
 
I love everything about that knife. The shape, the materials, the workmanship. Youll have to send it to me to see if it cuts as good as it looks. :D

Inspirational work mate; keep it up!
 
Thanks guys.

I just sent this knife out so to the customer I can't take any closer pics of the steel. Basically the combination of "prematurely aging" the steel, along with the differentially hardened heat treat (w/ clay-induced hamon) makes all kinds of neat stuff happen with the finish. The trick is that I need to take it down to a high enough grit, in this case 2000 (although in the pics it was only to 1500), while retaining the pitted aged appearance, which I get by rusting it before final finishing. Since the grain "pop" and "aged" finish is so pronounced, it tends to nearly obliterate the hamon. Not sure if that makes much sense (it's all pretty ambiguous to me as well ;)).
 
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