Wedding Knife Bowie

Willie71

Willie71

Warren J. Krywko
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
12,214
This knife is a bunch of firsts for me. Its my first time using horn for a handle (excepting the mini, which used the tip of this horn for its handle. This is my first attempt at a hamon, and its OK. It is too low at the ricasso, but I am happy with the activity for a first attempt. This is my first W2 blade ( I have used it with two smaller blades in the interim and really like it) and my first but cap.

Specs:

3/32 W2 Rc should be 62, if HT worked as planned.
OAL 16"
Blade 11"
Handle: Ibex horn It slipped slightly when I was setting it, and the horn doesn't line up perfectly with the ricasso, but I was able to get it pretty close.
Guard and but cap are brass.
I filled the Ibex horn with 24h epoxy, and there are two pins in the tang to secure the tang in the epoxy. I used two angled pins in the but cap as well, and set it in 24h epoxy as well.

9541206131_6bd334aba6_c.jpg


Here is the mini that I made for the KITH:

9228056124_b615f43d52_c.jpg
 
Both look pretty good to me!

You (I) wouldn't have known the horn didn't line up from the photo.
 
Hello Willie71, I have enjoyed watching you learn on here and learned right along with you and many others. I have also truly enjoyed watching you "pay it forward" to others. I like the over all shape and proportions as well as the material selected. I do not truly have the expertise to judge the fit and finish however one thing I think I have learned for my own project is that I should look at using a flat guard to make the handle/guard transition easier to blend or hide. I will be tackling many of those same firsts shortly and would like to ask a couple of questions;
1. How long is the tang and is it straight or curved?
2. How big was the cavity in the horn that had to be filled with epoxy?
3. Would you do anything differently as far as the actual attachment of the horn to the tang?
 
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The tang is curved, and has two stainless pins to help lock everything in place internally. The tang goes 3/4 the way up the handle. The horn is mostly empty. The thickest wall was 3/16" thick. It took about 100cc of epoxy to fill. I have another horn for another bowie, and I will use spacers between the guard and handle. At the spacer/horn junction, I will use an internal spacer that fits inside the horn snugly, so the horn won't be able to move. The other option would be to use a couple small pins like you would see in a takedown to set the handle in place. It is much harder to get a horn to line up, as it isn't symmetrical in any direction. No matter which way I look at it, something looks a bit out. I considered using a threaded rod in the tang, and making this a takedown, but decided to go with the epoxy. On the next one I might use threaded rod on the but cap to set it in the epoxy. The threads would have a lot of grip area for the epoxy to form around.
 
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Thanks, that's a good idea with the internal spacer. Also explained why spacers aren't just for decoration. I will be using elk horn on a puukko and while it should be thicker walled with a punky center I was concerned with the space around the tang and fitting. Thanks again for sharing your learning experience with myself and everyone else.
 
Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am too new at this to really know anything for sure.
 
I know Nick does some bedding of his hidden tangs atleast in a couple of his posts he mentioned it. It may work pretty good for your project. Do the bedding procedure with acraglass or any epoxy really, then when you go to do your final epoxy it should line up really nice if you did the bedding properly. I imagine even a body shop type glass filler mixed with the epoxy would work well for the larger space.
 
Like glass bedding a rifle's action except epoxying it in on completion. That rings a bell and I think I remember reading about that. Thanks, regardless I see how that can work.
 
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