Big Bowie

[Shiloh1944]

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"

[old salt]

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.

[Hanshi]

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?

[hotfxr]

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.   

Illustrious leader dude, notice I said knife, not sword.   

[Shiloh1944]

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.

[beowulf]

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.   

Illustrious leader dude, notice I said knife, not sword.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HCVPg4MXOU

[Shiloh1944]

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.

[hotfxr]

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.

[beowulf]

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 ! 

[Hanshi]

Back to the video.  I got sound but no picture??

[hotfxr]

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.

[Dogshirt]

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.

[hotfxr]

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.

[hotfxr]

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..

[hotfxr]

Pinning the guard in place.