Show me your custom camp knife/chopper.

My hand forged chopper collection... so far.
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This knife was made by my late Dad over fifty years ago using the stock removal method. The blade is 2" wide and slightly under 1/4" thick, being created from a vehicle leaf spring after cutting out and grinding from a pattern that I drew up. I had always been fascinated by the Iron Mistress movie with Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie, but when I saw the later TV series I had many more chances to look at the knife and study its proportions while I was still a youngster. As I wanted a blade which had a screw on butt rather than a riveted scale handle the shaft tang was threaded at the end to accept a bronze butt and inner cylinder nut. The leather washer handle was created using sections of an old lathe drive belt from my Dad's lathe which is now in my own workshop. Dad found a local foundry that would cast the bronze cross guard which I finished to size to make it a tight fit on the blade and the whole assembly was fitter together with the stacked washers being glued and then trimmed in situ. To give you an idea of its size I compared it decades later to a “Rambo III” Bowie and they are virtually identical in dimensions. Needless to say I never saw another one just like this Bowie blade which has served me well over the many years since.
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popgun pete said:
This knife was made by my late Dad over fifty years ago using the stock removal method. The blade is 2" wide and slightly under 1/4" thick, being created from a vehicle leaf spring after cutting out and grinding from a pattern that I drew up. I had always been fascinated by the Iron Mistress movie with Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie, but when I saw the later TV series I had many more chances to look at the knife and study its proportions while I was still a youngster. As I wanted a blade which had a screw on butt rather than a riveted scale handle the shaft tang was threaded at the end to accept a bronze butt and inner cylinder nut. The leather washer handle was created using sections of an old lathe drive belt from my Dad's lathe which is now in my own workshop. Dad found a local foundry that would cast the bronze cross guard which I finished to size to make it a tight fit on the blade and the whole assembly was fitter together with the stacked washers being glued and then trimmed in situ. To give you an idea of its size I compared it decades later to a “Rambo III” Bowie and they are virtually identical in dimensions. Needless to say I never saw another one just like this Bowie blade which has served me well over the many years since.
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what a great first post!
Welcome to Bladeforums
 
Pretty cool story and knife. Thanks for sharing and Welcome to BladeForums, and like mentioned what a great first post.
 
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