- Joined
- Dec 17, 2007
- Messages
- 984
So here we go this represents about 20 hours of work over two weeks. The progression is from design to finished Item. This came about when I had a small piece of CPM-154-CM, 2 inches by 5 inches, left over from another project. So the challenge was to use this fairly expensive material in the most efficient way. From the 2 X 5 inch piece of 5/16ths thick material. The solution was a Push Knife and a 4 inch (blade length) Bowie. Overall size of the Bowie is 8.5 inches. Here is the progression with pictures
1. Lay out the patterns, I eventually chose 2 of them.
2. Transfer the designs to the steel.
3. Rough cut the blades out.
4. Bowie is perfect so far the Push knife sort of got away from me. So lets try something organic looking.
5. Here is the antler before I go to work on it and the punch knife has benn rounded on all edges. I think that is what you would call an organic design.
6. Bowie Blade is almost finished and the "bark has been removed from the antler.
7. The rest of the pieces that will make up the knife are roughed out. he butt nut is out of 416 the All Thread is stainless. The guard is made from 154CM. Black and red fiber spacers and a thin piece of brass between them. This is how it all fits together. At this point the blades have to be hardened and tempered. The antler will be brought up to 1500 grit then polished.
8. Some pictures of the hand made nut which will pull it all together. I decided to add a butt plate I was uncomfortable with all that pressure on the porous part of the antler. The random facet pattern on the nut is continued onto the plate as well as the ends of the guard. The hole you see in the plate will eventually have a brass peg inserted through it into the antler to keep the off center plate positioned correctly.
9. A picture of the high temperature silver braise attaching the tines of the blade to the All Thread. If you look closely you will see there is no discoloration on the tines where it sits up close to the guard. At this point the blade is hardened and tempered to a Rockwell 60. Blade was wrapped in a wet cloth when the operation was don so as not to affect the temper. Excess heat goes off as steam.
10. All put together now and a picture of the brass pin in the butt end. The knife is unbelievably comfortable in the hand the vertical tine fits very comfortably into the web of you hand. Pretend you are holding a fixed blade knife and look down at your hand. The forefinger contacts the lower guard. The web of your hand is back some.Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................the small Punch knife is now finished 4.5 inches long Rc of 60 with Bacote scales. Bowie has a 4 inch blade and is 8.5 inches overall.
11. Both knives will go up for sale on the forum later this week unless it sells sooner. Not going to put a price on them here but if you are interested get in touch through the forum. Thanks for following along., Ken
1. Lay out the patterns, I eventually chose 2 of them.
2. Transfer the designs to the steel.
3. Rough cut the blades out.
4. Bowie is perfect so far the Push knife sort of got away from me. So lets try something organic looking.
5. Here is the antler before I go to work on it and the punch knife has benn rounded on all edges. I think that is what you would call an organic design.
6. Bowie Blade is almost finished and the "bark has been removed from the antler.
7. The rest of the pieces that will make up the knife are roughed out. he butt nut is out of 416 the All Thread is stainless. The guard is made from 154CM. Black and red fiber spacers and a thin piece of brass between them. This is how it all fits together. At this point the blades have to be hardened and tempered. The antler will be brought up to 1500 grit then polished.
8. Some pictures of the hand made nut which will pull it all together. I decided to add a butt plate I was uncomfortable with all that pressure on the porous part of the antler. The random facet pattern on the nut is continued onto the plate as well as the ends of the guard. The hole you see in the plate will eventually have a brass peg inserted through it into the antler to keep the off center plate positioned correctly.
9. A picture of the high temperature silver braise attaching the tines of the blade to the All Thread. If you look closely you will see there is no discoloration on the tines where it sits up close to the guard. At this point the blade is hardened and tempered to a Rockwell 60. Blade was wrapped in a wet cloth when the operation was don so as not to affect the temper. Excess heat goes off as steam.
10. All put together now and a picture of the brass pin in the butt end. The knife is unbelievably comfortable in the hand the vertical tine fits very comfortably into the web of you hand. Pretend you are holding a fixed blade knife and look down at your hand. The forefinger contacts the lower guard. The web of your hand is back some.Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................the small Punch knife is now finished 4.5 inches long Rc of 60 with Bacote scales. Bowie has a 4 inch blade and is 8.5 inches overall.
11. Both knives will go up for sale on the forum later this week unless it sells sooner. Not going to put a price on them here but if you are interested get in touch through the forum. Thanks for following along., Ken