Texas History Bowie WIP

Thanks, Jason. I was wondering if you were going to re-weld it (or if you had some other magical way of dealing with these when they show up while grinding).
 
Finish ground the knife today. Was able to grind out one delamimation near the plunge, and minimize the one near the edge. Still undecided on what to do with the swedge. I am out of the belts to polish it any further than 220, so I stopped.
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Looking good Jason!
I'm going to do a similar project if I can get the materials. There were a ton of mining outfits out here in the Big Bend region and I'm hoping to get some historic cable from one of the mines to make the blade, some old iron for the guard and pommel and maybe some figured mesquite for the handle.
Very cool project!
 
Sorry, only boring steps...

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I always grind my false edges in after heat treatment, as it makes it grind slower, so you screw it up slower. This is one side at a clean 800 grit hand finish. If you’re not using Rhynowet, you’re missing out.

I also forged out a piece of the nails/1084/powder can billet for the guard. Fitting that is next. Also on this week's agenda, squishing the grape shot for the spacer behind the guard, and getting the harness decorations rolled flat. I'm thinking I'll use the harness stuff to make domed pins for another knife, but may use a piece on this one. Messed with cleaning up the chosen piece of the Sam Houston oak also.
 
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Hit my first major snag. I had the harness decorations rolled flat and annealed, no problems. The grape shot was too big for the jewelers rolling mill, so after talking with him, I decided to try to squish it with the hydraulic press.

At pink heat, with just a little squish, it cracked all apart :(
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So what do you do next, when you have ruined plan A on your irreplaceable thing? You try Plan B.

Built a little bar mold that could double as a crucible. Threw it in the forge a bit and melted it down.
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That part worked as planned. Took the can off and the billet was real porous. Going to have to try it again.
 
Centrifugal casting or using steam may help with the porosity issues. Part of the issue is that you don't know the actual alloy you are using. It is probably a scrap bronze alloy and may have many other metals in it. Temperature control is critical to avoid porosity. You might be best to go back and make a ball out of it and work from there again. Put the chunk on a charcoal block with a depression in it and use a torch to melt it into a clean ball as in the instructions at the end of this post.

What went wrong with the squish is you did it too hot. You don't work copper, or any non-ferrous metal hot. Pink is way to hot for sure. Some can be wroked at dull red if you have the skills, but a hard blow or high pressure will mush it apart.

Copper and bronze should be forged to make it flat/thin - assuming it is a suitable alloy. Heat it to dull red and let cool to black, then dunk in water. Forge/press to reduce thickness, stopping to re-anneal as soon as it starts to stiffen up. With copper that is after just a little work. I find using a ball peen first and then smoothing it up with a flat faced hammer is the fastest way to spread out and thin down a thick piece.


I sent you a personal answer but thought I would post it here, too.



Copper melts at a tad under 2000°F. Depending on the source of your scrap, what you are melting may melt a bit lower or higher. You want a reducing atmosphere on the torch. It can be done in a forge or melting furnace for large crucibles, but a torch works best for a smaller amount. Clean the metal well by pickling before melting and keep the reducing flame on it at all times once you start the melt. Stir with a carbon rod. A little borax/boric acid helps keep the scum down, but don't use too much or it will make a crust over the metal. Pour into the mold as soon as it is shiny and as liquid as mercury. Give it a last pinch of flux just before pouring. Warm molds work best if not doing an investment mold.
I have never found it worth the trouble to try and cast my own copper. I always buy bars inthe size I need. In this case that isn't part of the project.




 
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Part of the issue is that you don't know what you're actually doing.

Fixed it for you, lol.

So plan C... build a mold. Melt the billet in the kiln, with a little bit of borax on top. Pour the melted copper into the mold. What temp should I shoot for? 2000? Any benefit to adding some silver shavings? Would this make it better or worse? Don't have acetylene. Would electric kiln be preferred over propane forge?

Tell me about this pickling... It does seem like a good idea to clean the existing slug as much as possible. What should I clean it with?

My goal is only to make a solid bar that I can grind or otherwise work down into a spacer for a bowie. Needs to be .8 wide by 1.2 long, but whatever finial thickness I can end up with is fine. Also, whatever shavings I end up with from the grinding, milling, etc process I think I'll add to some dedicated Ferric Chloride so I can copper wash etch Damascus with the historic copper.
 
Silver would help. You would likely lower the melting point and increase malleability. What you would get is shibuichi. 5% to 50% silver is the range.
I would add about 25% silver.


Or, add 5% to 10% gold instead of silver and make shakudo.
 
Well, second attempt was a fail as well. I'm going to have to end up adding some modern copper to the mix in addition to the 1836 silver scrap and the cannonball. Just not enough material left after all the failures.

Regardless of what else happens, some of the copper bits are getting put in a special container of ferric, so I can copper wash etched blades with the copper from the cannon ball.
 
you refer to the copper as being from a canon ball? I thought it was a piece of grape shot?
 
Stacy has admonished me privately several times to use an acetylene torch as my heat source. I’m sure he’s right, going to have to go to a buddy’s shop and try it. Don’t have acetylene at my place.
 
Probably bronze of some sort.

Propane and oxygen will work fine. That is what I use. Any torch set suitable for brazing works good as a melting torch. A mid-size tip is about right for most melting. Copper may take a larger tip. Balance the flame toward reducing, not as a screaming bright blue flame.

A trick for casting things like brass and bronze that like to build up lots of dross is to make a flux from one part borax, two parts boric acid, and one part powdered charcoal. This reduces the oxides and leaves a bright flowing metal at the pour. Add a little when starting the melt, a little more when stirring the molten metal to get it alloyed up well, and a bit just before the pour. The same flux works well for silver.
 
Still haven’t got the melt done, but I am working on this project a little bit. This picture is the two pieces of the Sam Houston Oak that I’m going to use on the two knives pictured. The big one is the one from this WIP, and the small one is forged from the leftover piece of the same billet.

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My file guide broke, so I sent it back to Bruce Bump for rehab. Should be back this week. Going to try and keep making progress. I sold a couple good ones to my archery shop guy for some cash and a dozen arrows, so the push to work is a little less urgent. This is supposed to be a hobby, LOL.
 
Got the guard fit and the tang threaded. The guard material is some of the original canister, 1084 outside, 1095 powder and nails down the middle. Still have to polish and etch. I’m to the point now that I can’t really progress without the copper melt. Pic is before I ground the tang and threaded it 8/32.
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I did layout the wood as well, but won’t drill and broach it till I have the copper spacer thickness nailed down.
 
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I'm planning some domed pins out of the harness decorations. Figured I'd better practice, so I made a few out of sheet copper just to try the technique. For sure these will go on the James Black style coffin handle that is the smaller knife pictured in this thread. I haven't decided yet 100% on the bowie, but I'm thinking of butt cap out of a harness decoration, held on with a threaded San Jacinto nail as the finial.
 
I worked a lot on the coffin handle this weekend, the bowie being still delayed by my getting around to melting copper again. I made 10 domed pins, plus 6 more that cracked, out of about 60% of one of the harness decorations. I got the Sam Houston oak shaped and rough fit, then ground through to the tang hole and also broke my broach. So I got to make that handle again... Polished the guard, drilled all the holes for the pins, etched the blade, inlet and installed stainless escutcheons, and glued it up. Next work session I'll install the domed pins and finish out the handle. Getting close!


 
Put some finishing touches on the smaller knife last night, but finished after dark. Here's a video of the roughed out handle. Hope to shoot a clean "finished" video tonight.


Still have to melt that copper to finish the big one.
 
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