I picked this Bowie up because they guaranteed me it was bigger than anything Red Badger owned. Not a bad blade for the price.
The 8 1/2" X 11" is of course the size of the paper for reference.
That's a very nice Bowie and it's more better than mine. Mine is a good solid one though. Wish I still had my Klingon Boy Scout knife; now THAT was a knife! By the way, I'd always heard that Badger wasn't allowed to have sharpened blades due to his habit of getting cut fingers and other boo boos. fncg
that`s not a knife ! ROFL this is a knife ! :mini-devil-28492:
Quote from: beowulf on April 19, 2019
that`s not a knife ! ROFL this is a knife ! :mini-devil-28492:
Yes that is a knife! I am looking to find a full tang classic Bowie over 20" long, but me being me, I want it for less than $50.
do what I did , make your own ! if you can build a cannon , a bowie should be a walk in the park ! thmbsup
Quote from: beowulf on April 19, 2019
do what I did , make your own ! if you can build a cannon , a bowie should be a walk in the park ! thmbsup
That is the plan. Went to a local pawn shop yesterday and scored a heavy duty portable band saw. I have springs from a 67 Camaro and some cold rolled 1/4" steel to play with. Have a couple of friends with small milling machines to help out if needed. Whatever I do, it has to be cheap, really cheap, but sturdy and useful.
good luck with the project ! thmbsup you will keep us informed on the progress ? that 1.4 inch cold rolled m makes for good fittings , I` use it for guards and sometimes butt caps ! leaf spring will make a nice blade dntn
Those two Bowies have good, he-man blades. Mine has a good, heavy blade also. I think mine is carbon steel. It has rust and very minor pitting on the blade but a few tiny shiny spots here and there. Carbon steel, guys? I've worked on the blade a little but still have a good bit of sanding (then sharpening) to do. The sheath is fairly "cheapy" and says Western on it. A good, tough knife but nothing authentic.
Quote from: Hanshi on April 20, 2019
Those two Bowies have good, he-man blades. Mine has a good, heavy blade also. I think mine is carbon steel. It has rust and very minor pitting on the blade but a few tiny shiny spots here and there. Carbon steel, guys? I've worked on the blade a little but still have a good bit of sanding (then sharpening) to do. The sheath is fairly "cheapy" and says Western on it. A good, tough knife but nothing authentic.
if the bowie has "western" stamped on it , you have a fairly valuable piece ! they`re going for over $300.00 and those carried in vietnam can go for considerably more !
hotfxr sadly I do not have a Bowie :'( (Yet) dntn But,..I do have a "Rifleman's Knife" and a "Hunting Sword" or "Small Sword" that is actually a "Epee du soldat" a French Solders sword of the 1720-1820s? +/- Time frame? The Sword is 35 inches long with a 29 inch blade. And the Rifleman's Knife is 16 1/2 inches long with a blade of 11 3/4 +/- inches... About 10 years ago? Crazy Crow was having a sale on the "Rifleman's Knife" for $29.00...and I bought the "Hunting Sword" from Danial Boone of Kentucky at Mississinewa 1812 5 years ago? for $60.00 They are both Carbon Steel but were polished like chrome.. So I blued the Sword Blade and used steel wool to take it back to a light gray,..A much more Correct looking French Gray look. The "Rifleman's Knife" was even more Chrome/Stainless steel looking and the Horn Scales looked almost like plastic...after consulting with an old reenactor friend, I buried it in the garden for a week! I then dug it up cleaned and "0000" steel wooled it and blued it as well... Between the work I did and the patina of time,..They look much better now (Well to me at least) than when the India / Pakistan smiths made them...They did nice work,. they just love to polish steel I guess?? [hmm]
I like them both. The beauty of being "on the cheap" is the willingness to modify our implements to suit our needs. dntn
Quote from: beowulf on April 20, 2019
Quote from: Hanshi on April 20, 2019
if the bowie has "western" stamped on it , you have a fairly valuable piece ! they`re going for over $300.00 and those carried in vietnam can go for considerably more !
Seriously, beowulf? It's a bit old but i thought it was a "knife for the masses" like the Bucks and some others. I'll have to check into this; I like the knife but I need the money more. I also have a Puma "White Hunter" I bought (ordered) it for a low price when I was a kid. Quality knife with a well made leather sheath and stainless blade.
Quote from: Hanshi on April 21, 2019
Quote from: beowulf on April 20, 2019
Quote from: Hanshi on April 20, 2019
if the bowie has "western" stamped on it , you have a fairly valuable piece ! they`re going for over $300.00 and those carried in vietnam can go for considerably more !
Seriously, beowulf? It's a bit old but i thought it was a "knife for the masses" like the Bucks and some others. I'll have to check into this; I like the knife but I need the money more. I also have a Puma "White Hunter" I bought (ordered) it for a low price when I was a kid. Quality knife with a well made leather sheath and stainless blade.
I'll give you $30 for it. But you have to pay the shipping. ;D
Quote from: Hanshi on April 21, 2019
Quote from: beowulf on April 20, 2019
Quote from: Hanshi on April 20, 2019
if the bowie has "western" stamped on it , you have a fairly valuable piece ! they`re going for over $300.00 and those carried in vietnam can go for considerably more !
.
Well Hanshi I know the old "Westren" Boy Scout hunting or sheath knife's are going for good money so it makes sense that a bowie would be quite valueble...
Seriously, beowulf? It's a bit old but i thought it was a "knife for the masses" like the Bucks and some others. I'll have to check into this; I like the knife but I need the money more. I also have a Puma "White Hunter" I bought (ordered) it for a low price when I was a kid. Quality knife with a well made leather sheath and stainless blade.
Quote from: hotfxr on April 19, 2019
I picked this Bowie up because they guaranteed me it was bigger than anything Red Badger owned. Not a bad blade for the price.
The 8 1/2" X 11" is of course the size of the paper for reference.
That is larger than anything I carry as I am a true mountain man and not a hollywood one... True mountain men were in the mountains in 1800 - 1840 and would have only heard about the issue of the Texicans when they came down the mountain to retire. pnic I carry a standard kitchen butcher knife just as the original mountain men did and do not use my knife for fighting, that's what my tomahawk and rifle/pistols are for. And in case of last resort My teeth and overpowering fierceness that leaves mortal men cowering in fear.... Immortals like hanshi I just leave alone :)
I never saw a bowie I didn't like. I always wanted a custom Bowie knife but just lacked the funds, so like Beowulf said, I decided to make my own. I read about everything I could get my hands on about knife making and metallurgy. I started out on mild steel as much out of ignorance as anything, but it did give me experience in grinding technique even though all I had was a table top belt sander. I made a really pretty nice bowie but couldn't harden the blade so it would hold an edge. A few years later I discovered a method of hardening mild steel but by then I had advanced to high carbon tool steel and had several knife projects under my belt. I was into the old west weaponry 1870-1900 so my Bowie's were not of the earlier era although I did make a copy of a bowie supposedly found in the Alamo of the Searles design. I have always wished I would have kept that knife but I sold it. Here is a photo of one of the Bowie's I made. The overall length is 16"
I wish I could post pics of some of the knives I have, but that seems to be imposable. I have one of Western bowies and like me is a viet nam vet, and I do not think there is enough money to buy it as I will take it to the grave with me.
Quote from: old salt on April 29, 2019
I wish I could post pics of some of the knives I have, but that seems to be imposable. I have one of Western bowies and like me is a viet nam vet, and I do not think there is enough money to buy it as I will take it to the grave with me.
Mine is a "Western" bowie of indeterminate age. Is this what you're referring to?
I have two lengths cut from a set of leaf springs from a '67 Camaro sitting in the forge (hopefully) annealing. Probably not since my coal, that has been sitting out in the weather for 5 years getting wet and crumbling into tiny pieces, just flat out refuses to burn. If regular charcoal doesn't do the trick then I will pick up more coal tomorrow and try it again. I want to make what I call a Classic Bowie, or at least my interpretation one. It will be at least 21" long with at least a 16" blade.
Really just as it's bigger than anything Red Badger has, knife wise. strpot
Illustrious leader dude, notice I said knife, not sword. fncg
hotfxr, just a comment FYI and you may already be aware of this. Leaf spring steel can warp when hardened again after annealing. I read it once and also know from personal experience. As I said you may already be aware of this. Also, I don't know if it occurs in every case since I only made one knife from leaf spring steel. Too, one might consider the longer the blade the higher the risk of warping. Just a thought.
Quote from: hotfxr on April 30, 2019
I have two lengths cut from a set of leaf springs from a '67 Camaro sitting in the forge (hopefully) annealing. Probably not since my coal, that has been sitting out in the weather for 5 years getting wet and crumbling into tiny pieces, just flat out refuses to burn. If regular charcoal doesn't do the trick then I will pick up more coal tomorrow and try it again. I want to make what I call a Classic Bowie, or at least my interpretation one. It will be at least 21" long with at least a 16" blade.
Really just as it's bigger than anything Red Badger has, knife wise. strpot
Illustrious leader dude, notice I said knife, not sword. fncg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HCVPg4MXOU
Beowulf, that is an excellent video especially when using blank billets for your knife blades. Normalizing is essentially the same as annealing. My reason for cautioning hotfxr about spring steel warping is because it has been warped and hardened as a leaf spring for a long time. You can anneal (normalize) it and flatten it in order to shape and fashion it into the knife style you want but when you reharden it for tempering it will often warp to the spring shape it once had. Sometimes the warping will be slight and as I stated previously, I don't know if it occurs every time.
I just know it can be disappointing if you spend a lot of time and effort in a project expecting a specific look and when about finished it comes out curved instead of straight. Normalizing it several times may prevent it from warping. I attempted making a knife from leaf spring steel only once.
Beowulf, thanks for the link. I just watched the first couple of seconds of it, but it looks to be more than helpful. Shiloh1944, thanks, I was not aware of the tendency for spring steel to have shape memory. I am meeting with a friend who does this kind of thing and he is going to give me some tips to keep the blade straight.
normalizing the steel two to three times is a good idea , relieves the stresses in the metal , and leaf springs will sometimes have microscopic cracks . good luck with your project , and we will be wanting pictures and updates ! thmbsup
Back to the video. I got sound but no picture??
So the forge was a bust, coal would not light, I'm too cheap to get more and the blanks were really too big for it anyway. Tried to anneal them on a propane burner, just to see if it would work, it didn't. So today I am burning a brush/wood fire in the back and have a nice bed of coals going. I dropped the blanks in and buried them in the coals. I'll dig them out tomorrow morning and see how they turned out. I took some pictures but don't have time to go through the dance it takes to post them right now.
Quote from: Shiloh1944 on April 30, 2019
hotfxr, just a comment FYI and you may already be aware of this. Leaf spring steel can warp when hardened again after annealing. I read it once and also know from personal experience. As I said you may already be aware of this. Also, I don't know if it occurs in every case since I only made one knife from leaf spring steel. Too, one might consider the longer the blade the higher the risk of warping. Just a thought.
My knife maker friend says to overcome this he takes it further than flat, forges an "opposite" curve in them and then back to flat.
He makes some really nice blades out of some '57 Studebaker springs he has.
Finally I can post some pictures. I seem to have lost some but here is what I can find. Note this may take several posts.
First off, the brush pile burn I used to anneal the steel and how I clamped them together to mostly straighten them out.
My computer seems to have eaten the pictures where I was cutting it out, so now we pick up with it almost looking like a (bigger than anything Red Badger owns) Bowie knife..
Pinning the guard in place.
My jig to grind in the blood/stiffening groove.
Close to being done. Needs some hand filing on the cutting edges, some more sanding on the scales and hardening and tempering. I got a coal fire going in the forge so heat and quench three times (two with water, one with oil) and into the Weber grill for tempering.
I have it nest to the Timber Rattler, the previous bigger than someone else's knife. As you can see it comes in at just 20" and still weighs upwards of two pounds. But this is just the practice one. I have two more blanks left to make into blades and I have a better idea of what I am up against now.
I got to admit, hotfxr, I am impressed with your work. I'm also very happy that you're eating, ahem, you-know-who's lunch. thmbsup
:mini-devil-28492:
not bad thmbsup just one question , I`ve been making knives of one sort or another since 1975 , what in tarnation is a stiffening groove ? skrt ROFL ROFL ROFL A fuller is a rounded or beveled longitudinal groove or slot along the flat side of a blade (e.g. a sword, knife, or bayonet) that is made using a blacksmithing tool called a spring swage or, like the groove, a fuller.or ground into the blade using a modern grinder . A fuller is often used to lighten the blade. When combined with proper distal tapers, heat treatment and blade tempering, a fullered blade can be 20% to 35% lighter than a non-fullered blade without any sacrifice of strength or blade integrity. This effect lessens as the blade is reduced in length. A blade is said to be "fullered" after introduction of the groove.
Fullers used to be called "blood grooves" or "blood gutters" by some antiquarians, although their purpose has nothing to do with blood.
Quote from: beowulf on May 15, 2019
not bad thmbsup just one question , I`ve been making knives of one sort or another since 1975 , what in tarnation is a stiffening groove ? skrt ROFL ROFL ROFL A fuller is a rounded or beveled longitudinal groove or slot along the flat side of a blade (e.g. a sword, knife, or bayonet) that is made using a blacksmithing tool called a spring swage or, like the groove, a fuller.or ground into the blade using a modern grinder . A fuller is often used to lighten the blade. When combined with proper distal tapers, heat treatment and blade tempering, a fullered blade can be 20% to 35% lighter than a non-fullered blade without any sacrifice of strength or blade integrity. This effect lessens as the blade is reduced in length. A blade is said to be "fullered" after introduction of the groove.
Fullers used to be called "blood grooves" or "blood gutters" by some antiquarians, although their purpose has nothing to do with blood.
LOL The reason I wrote it that way is because I know nothing about making knives and my cadre of armchair quarterbacks have called it several different things. The two top ones were blood and stiffening. I put it in because I liked the look of it. Now I'm going to go and look up what "Distal Taper" means.
you`ll like distal taper !
http://myarmoury.com/feature_properties.html shows both distal taper and profile taper. Handy stuff to know! thmbsup
~WH~
Quote from: Winter Hawk on May 16, 2019
http://myarmoury.com/feature_properties.html shows both distal taper and profile taper. Handy stuff to know! thmbsup
~WH~
Thanks!
Forgot I had this post going. Just for general knowledge, that groove is called a "fuller" and is used to lighten and strengthen the blade. Lightened because it is removing material and strengthened because it increases the surface area that is tempered. Just thought I would throw that out there.
thmbsup
Quote from: hotfxr on January 28, 2020
Forgot I had this post going. Just for general knowledge, that groove is called a "fuller" and is used to lighten and strengthen the blade. Lightened because it is removing material and strengthened because it increases the surface area that is tempered. Just thought I would throw that out there.
thmbsup far you have come young padawan !
Finished the first one, hated it. It was too long for the width of the blade and way too front heavy. Sharpened it up and gave it to a friend who lusted after it for pig hunting. Yeah, we have some seriously unbalanced folks out here on the West side of the country. Got two more blanks to work on, but they are for another post.