WildGoo #4 - Bowie in the works......

Wild Rose

Wild Rose

Joined
Aug 23, 2002
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This is an in the progress thread on the new Wild Goo collaboration. It's a shot of the blade forged to shape. It's aprox., 10 inches, (not counting the tang), from 1065.
wild_goo_4-1.jpg


During the forging process Tai uses a bench grinder to clean the profile up a little, forge a little grind a little as he goes. The flats are strictly hammered so far. He'll do some filing and sanding on the bevel, then on to heat treating.
 
Here it is as sent to me by Tai - he said, "Chuck, feel free to modify it or do whatever you need to with the finish." All I can say there's not much to do to this blade other than I will add file work on the spine per the customer's request.......

wild_goo_4-2.jpg


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Here's a pic of the blade along with the parts for the handle:

wild-goo-04-1.jpg


and no the guard is not going to be that big!

The large piece of metal is wagon wheel wrought iron - it will be used for the S guard and the buttcap, the small piece is WI from an anchor chain, and the handle is Sambar stag.
 
Here's the blade all file worked and the guard (wagon wheel WI) and ferrule (iron pipe from an old wagon piece - the anchor chain piece didn't work out) fitted up - at this point they are just lightly glued in place for the photos - still need to forge/grind the guard to shape):
wild-goo-04-4.jpg


The Sambar stag grip partially fitted - still have to fit the front end into the ferrule but that will come after the guard is shaped - I like to fit the grip though so I can better visualize the overall lines. Once all the rest is fitted up the grip will get a wagon wheel WI butt cap to match the guard.
wild-goo-04-5.jpg
 
I was asked elsewhere about how I will attach the butt cap - on this one I forged a "bolt" out of some old (circa 1880's) US Cavalry harness chain -

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I glued the buttcap on using a couple of small alignment pins, which help keep it keep it from twisting and then hand filed it to shape - once shaped I center drilled a hole for the "bolt" which is then glued in place - it will also be pinned through the grip and bolt (I'm a suspenders and belt kind of guy when it comes to stuff like this..... :D )

Here it is all fitted up:
wild_goo_04-9.jpg
 
Here's a top and bottom shot of the of the wrought iron guard all fitted up, file worked (this stuff wears out files fast!), and etched....

wild_goo_04-10.jpg


I left as much of the original patina as possible on the top around the blade
wild_goo_04-11.jpg
 
And here it is all fitted up - only thing left is to etch the ferrule and buttcap, glue it all together, and add an iron pin or two through the grip and tang -
wild_goo_04-13.jpg

The ferrule is not yet etched - it will be getting some pewter "inlays" - I need to bring the balance back a bit, so I cut away a bit of the grip under the ferrule and will drill some holes in the ferrule and fill with leaded pewter - the aged pewter color against the etched iron will be subtle but neat looking ......

Here it is with the sheath which is about half done - It's a Mexican Loop style out of bark tan leather covered with deer rawhide. I'll be doing the edge beading today (about 4-5 hours of steady beading.....) and can then color the rawhide and fit it all together........if everything goes right I'll have it finished up tomorrow or Monday.......
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What a beauty! I want one. It reminds me of being a kid again, watching Daniel Boone on TV. I love it. Thanks for the great series of photos.
 
Here it is - all finished.........

wild_goo-04_knife-sheath.jpg


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The sheath is bark tan "repaired" with deer rawhide. The beaded "replacement" loops are braintan buckskin over rawhide. The center hangy down is a buffalo tooth turned upside down and the hair "fringes" are buffalo hair.
 
Chuck,
Reminiscent of something "liver-eatin' Johnson" would have strapped on his waist. :cool:
Thanks for posting the step by step process,can see the amount of work you put in this. :thumbup:

Doug
 
Thank you all from the three of us! It's nose to the grindstone time so I've been a bit re-miss in getting back here - on the workbench right now is:

5 full carved holsters
1 stamped holster
3 gun belts
1 mexican loop sheath
and last but not least Wild Goo#5 - a small (yay!) Bowie and sheath........

of yeah and patching the bloody roof! :grumpy: :mad: :grumpy:
 
I truly enjoyed the WildGoo #4 experience, and am looking forward to the WildGoo #5 thread that I HOPE is forthcoming. (hint hint)
 
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