Preview of Z-FiNit Bowie Almost done

G

GrenfellsBrutalForge

Joined
May 23, 2016
Messages
115
Here's my latest, a Bowie made from Z-FiNit getting sent to peters for ht today.
7 3/8" to guard, 11 3/4" tip to end of tang.
0.210" at ricasso with distal taper
Profile was shaped with an angle grinder and files,
Full flat bevels were shaped with files and hand sanding. Edge is 0.02" at the moment.
Painful to get this far, have ~20hrs in it with my day job messing up my rhythm.









In the photos you'll see a piece of tang. This is an exact match to the knife and will allow me to work on the handle while the blade is out for ht.

Thanks for looking
 
Last edited:
Very impressed, you show true skill and dedication to this craft. Cant wait to see it finished, but don't rush it.
 
I think it would make sense for you to buy a quality grinder when you can. I think it will pay for itself soon if your handle work looks as good as your blade before heat treat.
 
A 2x72" grinder will be my next major purchase. I'm saving up for one now. I haven't found filing bad as I forge close to shape and clean everything up with files. This was pure stock removal however and was brutal.
This knife is intended to be used in and around both fresh and salt water, so materials were chosen to suit this.
This will have a stainless guard and spacers of red G10 and stainless. The handle will be made from G10. I bought the camo layered stuff for it. I'm not sure if I'll like the effect of it yet, but if I don't I'll use the tang template to fit it to another knife. Ive never used G10 before and since my handles require a lot of shaping this should be interesting.
 
Hello again,
I got an email yesterday and the knife is on it's way back from ht. in the mean time I made up a handle using the mock tang.
This is a frame style G10 camo with red G10 liners, ss and red G10 spacers. Glued up using marine epoxy.
I finished it up to 600G which is pretty slick. It's the shape that provides the nice grip for this one.
You can see the different topography because of the layered G10
Let me know what you think







 
Nice work. I'm on my first Z Finit project now and it will have toxic green G10 handle. I've been pulled away to far bigger things for WWW.TheChurchBarn.com over the past 2 or three weeks so the progress is pretty much at a standstill. The last week has been heavily devoted to rustic oak benches for seating. I've built three prototypes and thing I have it down. The challenge was to make the bench strong, cheap, attractive , and collapsible. Taking a break just now after running another dozen oak slabs thru the thickness planer. Damn heavy wood.
 
This was my first time working with G10, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to shape with a belt sander. Of course you MUST wear a respirator when working with this stuff.
Also, I forgot to mention the pin and lanyard tube are both titanium for this
 
So my blade came back from peters last week. I got dinged by customs, had to pay $70 to get it out of the post office.
Hand sanded it up to 600g gonna stop there as this is a user.
Clip is zero ground, edge is convex ground hair popping sharp.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get a nice fine edge on this.
Filed the slot in the guard yesterday, polished it up to 600g top and bottom this morning.
I think all I have left to do is flute it to match the collar, and polish it's edge.
I'm thinking about doing a scallop in the guard and extending in to the collar

This will break the fluting and I'm almost thinking it will be too much.
Here's a few pictures.
Any suggestions would be appreciated before I epoxy this all together





Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top