The Making of Bowie Nol 1- (WIP)

Gary Mulkey

Gary Mulkey

Joined
May 14, 2001
Messages
1,414
Last February I had the privilege of viewing "A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife" display while at The Arkansas History Museum. This was the largest collection of original Bowie knives ever assembled at one time and quite an inspiration for me. I decided at the time to try to recreate one of them, The Bowie No. 1 by James Black.

ham_gal_knife08.jpg


Here's the progression of it:

The initial steel, a two inch diameter round of W2:

bowie11_zps4cee769b.jpg


Drawn into a billet:

bowie12_zps3549f902.jpg


Forged & rough ground:

bowie13_zps73a7c5f9.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here's some of the filework done to the top & bottom of the tang. (The slot is for a silver overlay at the back of the blade.) The rope roll filework will be silver plated later.

bowie14_zpsd7a136b3.jpg


The silver overlay soldered to the back of the blade as well as the handle scales roughed out:

bowie15_zpsfc1a07ca.jpg


The silver wrap attached to front of scales:

bowie16_zpse1a573d3.jpg


Scales ready to attach to tang:

bowie17_zps96749c11.jpg
 

Attachments

  • bowie16_zpse1a573d3.jpg
    bowie16_zpse1a573d3.jpg
    32.8 KB · Views: 20
Last edited:
Xrays showed that the original scales were attached with hollow pins since the fine silver wire used to attach the domed pins would have been too weak. This shows both the hollow pins & domed pins:

bowie18_zpsf6c3b329.jpg


Here is the handle with domed pins fully attached:

bowie19_zps755b0387.jpg
 
Here's the fully assembled knife. Right now the blade has a 400 grit finish & the silver 600. The handle scales have 12 coats of a wipe-on poly finish. I should finish the handle work tomorrow as there are a few places to touch up.

bowie1complete_zpsa97066e1.jpg


bowie1sidehilt_zps2d2ddf82.jpg


bowieno1hit_zpsb37c89e1.jpg


Once fully completed I'll have Chuck Ward take some better photos of it. The overall knife is very close to the dimensions of the original thanks to the help of Lin Rhea & Roger Massy, who supplied me with the dimensions.

Let me know what you think.

Gary
 
Last edited:
Impressive! :thumbup:

A question.
How did You make the domed pins?


Regards
Mikael
 
Good work.

That design is a real fighting knife. They hold edge up and natural hand position has the blade tip point straight at the opponent
 
Great job, Gary. That's one of my all time favorites!!!
There is much to be learned about making a full tang knife that lasts generations from No. 1.

Tad
 
Gary, that is very, very cool. :thumbup:
Quite and undertaking and from what I can see, you did ol' James Black proud.
 
Considering you knack for creating fine historic renditions, this one comes quite natural.
Great job.
 
Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it.

Black had a lot of unique features to his knives that were a lot of fun in recreating. It forced me to rethink both my forging & handle work in order to accomplish some of them.

While I was building this one I often wondered how some of it was done back then without our modern day tools. It sure makes you respect the skills of the old time makers.

Gary
 
To put a cap on this WIP, the knife & I made a trip to Little Rock this week to visit it's inspiration:

linphoto_opt_zps384dbcca.jpg


BillWorthenampI_opt_zps0b7e56ae.jpg


I would like to thank Lin Rhea , Bill Worthen and all at the museum for their wonderful hospitality. It was a day that I will long remember.

Gary
 
Great job, Gary.....that looks to be the perfect way to end this WIP......congrats on such a fine rendition my friend. :)
 
It took me years to appreciate the design of old #1, but it has grown on me.
A most excellent and well executed homage to the important knife, which is steeped in Bowie history.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top