Southwest Bowie Progression Thread

Hi Craig,
Forgot to mention how much I like your use of damascus in guards and fittings on some of your work.
And thanks for your help identifying the hardwood on that Bowie/fighter of yours that I picked up from Danbo. :thumbup:

Doug
 
Craig,
That's a great series of pictures. It really shows all of the steps in making the knife.
Jim Treacy
 
This one is going to get raised clam shell guards. This is something that I haven't tried before. I am unsure what process that others use but this is the method that seemed to work best for me. I tried just raising the domes with a ballpien hammer but I could not keep things even.

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Here is a pic of the dapping block and the top part of the guard. I have already forged the raised dome in this one and forged the bend into it.

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This pic shows the guard right after I have started forming the lower dome.

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Here is the raised dome.

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Here is the S-Guard with the raised dome. Now I have alot of clean up and filework to do.
 
Okay got some more shop time in and got the assembly all finished up.

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Here is a shot of me drilling the holes for the spacer. All of the holes are marked and center punched to keep the drill bit from walking. After the holes are drilled I take it to my mill and remove the webs between the holes and bring the slot to size for a nice snug fit.

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At this point it is time to make sure everything is really flat. I tape a sand paper down to a granite surface plate and sand away.

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At this point I have the spacer has been fit to the tang. The handle is then pinned to the spacer with hardened pins.

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Here is the knife with the basic assembly completed. The but cap has a coupling nut silver brazed to it and is then screwed on to the tang. Tomorrow I will start the cleaning and blending process on the guard. I will also be fileworking the guard, buttcap and spacer. Then a little etch in ferric chloride to bring out the damascus pattern on the fittings, then final assembly and I will be done.
 
I got more shop time in today. I spent it all on the gaurd. I wanted to take some time and blend and contour the gaurd and domes a bit. I didn't want it to be too blocky and overwhelm the knife. I spent the better part of the morning grinding everything in nice and smooth.

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Then I spent what seemed like a lifetime of cleaning the face and back of the guard back up from the mess left from forging the domes in. I sanded awhile took a deep breath and rememebred why patience is good then sanded some more and repeated this process over and over. :)

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My shop elf came into the shop and wanted to take a picture so I let him snap an action shot of me knocking the sharp edges off of the guard.

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Here is the top clam shell bing filed in.

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This is a pic of the lower clamshell all filed and polished back up.
 
enormous Energy put into this thread Thank You..cant wait to see how she finishes
 
Coming together nicely Craig! Great blade profile, I think this shoul become a standard pattern! Where did you find the great stag?
 
Thanks to Nick Wheeler's post on the Knife Makers Forum I "discovered"
this one. I'll be visiting this place on a daily basis:thumbup:

Thanks, Craig, for the post. I also bought a few 3/4" dia W2 from Tracey
Mickley and want to try my hand at forging a few knives. What kind of clay are
you using for your hammons? I was planning on using some satanite.

Best regards,
Dana Hackney
Monument, CO
 
Hey Craig
are those your notes on this piece or feedback from the owner?
 
The stag came from Culpeppers at the Little Rock show. I use Satanite for my clay, I have always gotten along well with it. I never have to worry about it popping off at unexpected times. The notes that that the knife is on is the rough drawing of the knife and notes that I made when me and the owner were hammering out the details.
 
Worked on the knife more this evening. I got pretty far along.

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I started off the evening filing agroove in the spacer. This is an area that I get asked about regularly. People are curious how the groove gets put into the fittings. It is just good old fashioned elbow grease and files.

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The shop elf took this pic along with all the action pics I will post this evening. He is six and takes clearer more focused pics then me, it is frustrating! Here I am cleaning up the groove with sandpaper wrapped around the file.

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Here I am cleaning the nooks and crannies of the clam shell prior to etching in the ferric chloride. Everything must be clean to get a nice even etch.

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This pic show the guard suspended from my acid hanger. I have just did a quick dip in the acid and have pulled it out to make sure there was no spots from grease or anything. It was clean so back into the acid it went.
 
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The knife know has the final assembly completed and I just took a few pics to show the different parts of the knife. this is the knife looking down the spine. Of coarse it is not focused, but look in the back ground at how sharp and crisp that elusive, hard to capture roll of tape is.

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Here is a side shot of the guard to show how the profile of the guard evolved from the first few pics.

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Here is a little better shot of the guard and handle. Tomorrow night I will remove the excess material from the butcap and blend it to the handle.
 
Like I said earlier great stuff. Love the stag and thanks alot for posting this progression can not wait to see it done
 
Good pics and explaination of some difficult work. looking forward to seeing what's going to be a neat Bowie,

John
 
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