- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Greeting all,
The mailman just arrived with a highly anticipated package, so I thought I'd share a first look with you all.
My custom bowie orders of late have run more to the slender / sleek end of the scale. In fact, that's a style at which Russ Andrews excels, with his signature loooong clips than run the length of the spine. But for this piece, I really wanted something big and bold - something that said "bowie" without need for any qualifying adjectives.
The broad-bladed Southwest bowie has always been high on my list of favourites, so I gave Russ some fairly broad parameters to make me something in that style, with amber stag for the handle and damascus for everything else.
Here's what he came up with:
This bad boy features a blade of 11 5/8" in length and just under 2" in width - 5/16" at the thickest point of the (beveled) spine.
Duplex ladder pattern of 960 layers shimmers all the way down the length of the blade and back again.
The sheath was done by Russ as well - and is absolutely killer. The custom damascus frog button is the icing on a very tasy cake.
The fittings are just beautifully done - and I'm grateful to Coop for capturing them is a second photo montage:
The guard is a very tight twist with alternating accents, and Russ' signature filed butt cap is random damascus with a filed and forged sunburst pattern.
I asked Russ to expain how he did it:
"I've rough filed in a groove around the edgeof a piece of 240 layer damascus, then with a small round file,
cut the sun burst in.
The shallow hole in the center is for even termination of yhe
small file cuts. The cuts are deeper toward the outer edge.
[/I]
"Here, the piece has been reforged to force the filed pattern in.
I use a nearly flat, Japanese style hammer to start, then re-flatten
the piece on the treadle hammer.
The etched area will be slightly crowned, then re-etched deep, and hand
polished."
Finally, I'll add in a pic to show the pattern a it crests the beveled spine:
Misson accomplished - big, bad, bold. Also beautiful.
Thanks for looking and big thanks to Russ for his very fine work on this piece.
Roger
The mailman just arrived with a highly anticipated package, so I thought I'd share a first look with you all.
My custom bowie orders of late have run more to the slender / sleek end of the scale. In fact, that's a style at which Russ Andrews excels, with his signature loooong clips than run the length of the spine. But for this piece, I really wanted something big and bold - something that said "bowie" without need for any qualifying adjectives.
The broad-bladed Southwest bowie has always been high on my list of favourites, so I gave Russ some fairly broad parameters to make me something in that style, with amber stag for the handle and damascus for everything else.
Here's what he came up with:
This bad boy features a blade of 11 5/8" in length and just under 2" in width - 5/16" at the thickest point of the (beveled) spine.
Duplex ladder pattern of 960 layers shimmers all the way down the length of the blade and back again.
The sheath was done by Russ as well - and is absolutely killer. The custom damascus frog button is the icing on a very tasy cake.
The fittings are just beautifully done - and I'm grateful to Coop for capturing them is a second photo montage:
The guard is a very tight twist with alternating accents, and Russ' signature filed butt cap is random damascus with a filed and forged sunburst pattern.
I asked Russ to expain how he did it:
"I've rough filed in a groove around the edgeof a piece of 240 layer damascus, then with a small round file,
cut the sun burst in.
The shallow hole in the center is for even termination of yhe
small file cuts. The cuts are deeper toward the outer edge.
"Here, the piece has been reforged to force the filed pattern in.
I use a nearly flat, Japanese style hammer to start, then re-flatten
the piece on the treadle hammer.
The etched area will be slightly crowned, then re-etched deep, and hand
polished."
Finally, I'll add in a pic to show the pattern a it crests the beveled spine:
Misson accomplished - big, bad, bold. Also beautiful.
Thanks for looking and big thanks to Russ for his very fine work on this piece.
Roger
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