Carving a Bowie Handle

EdCaffreyMS

EdCaffreyMS

"The Montana Bladesmith"
Thought I would post some pics while I was working on a bowie handle..... the handle material is African Blackwood (my favorite for carving).


First I get the handle near the finished shape I want, then layout what I want to do with a contrasting color china marker, or a colored pencil that will show up on the material I'm using.....





Next, I rough in the straight lines with a coarse tooth file.....





Working slowly and carefully, I refine what I want, and go to finer toothed files.....








After things are far enough along, I then go to my "secret weapon", which requires a trip to one of the local beauty shops/stores for a bag full of "sanding sticks" (nail files). From there its just a lot of time and effort until I can get things finished finely enough to do a bit of buffing. I'll add to this thread as I progress.


 
THANKS ED!!! I've often thought about this process and how you'd come up with an original idea and then execute it,
but this looks like it will be pretty sweet! And an awesome touch to a Bowie!
Keep it coming, Rex
 
Ed, you and other skilled folks just amaze me how easy ya'll make it look - all those nice touches ya'll do. Reading and watching how ya'll do it makes me think "I can do that"...... until I try and it's just not as easy as it looks! Takes LOTS of practice.... and true talent! Ya'll da' man!

Ken H>
 
Calling it a day....so far theres about 9 hours into the handle. The Chevrons are just about done, just a bit of touchup. Now on to carving the rear of the handle.

 
9 hours in just the handle and still not finished - and folks have to ask why custom knives cost so much money?

Ed - you are a true artist! That handle is impressive!

Ken H
 
16 hours into the handle.....but I think its just about done. All that remains is a bit of touchup just prior to assembling everything.


Going to blackout the fittings, and hope to have it together tomorrow.





 
WOW!!! Ed - that is just so impressive. 16 mhrs in the handle - not bad at all. I can see why your knives are displayed as museum works of art.... and I really mean that. Your prime pieces are GREAT.

Ken H>
 
Ed, I really like the texturing. Is it done with carving gouges, or a burr in a rotary tool?
Click to expand...

A rotary tool. I started out doing it with a "turbo carver", but wore that tool out pretty quickly. I now use the 850 rotary tool from GRS engraving, its one of the better invenstments I've ever made in tools. I generally used a FG-8 burr on wood, and a
FG-4 burr on metals. (carbide dental burrs).
 
Its not the best pic (I snapped it with my iphone while in the shop), but heres what the handle was for......

 
EdCaffreyMS said:
A rotary tool. I started out doing it with a "turbo carver", but wore that tool out pretty quickly. I now use the 850 rotary tool from GRS engraving, its one of the better invenstments I've ever made in tools. I generally used a FG-8 burr on wood, and a
FG-4 burr on metals. (carbide dental burrs).
Click to expand...

Thanks for those tips Ed, I'm so glad someone asked what tools you used, as that was part of my question,
the rest of my question I would LOVE to know is, "Once you have the equipment, how do you go about moving
the burr around?" My guess is, a random in and out kind of motion, not moving it around once you make contact with the wood?
The random part is with the depth, and possibly different sizes of the burrs used, or is it only one single burr?
I can see how it could be done with a single burr, maybe by the angle its held? Possibly, I'm probably over complicating the
process as I so often do! But! Like I like to say, "Its easy once you know how to do it!"
Thanks for doing this, its something I've wanted to learn for a very long time, but the concept has eluded me, I've looked at this
type of texturing so many times, and it's such a beautiful, useful touch to a knife's handle, some of the texturing I've seen on your
knives have really sent them over the top! Plus, I love it, just for its ability to give a handle better traction, better grip, we all know what
that does for knife SELLS! Because, it's got to affect the 'feel' and when you improve the 'feel' of a knife, everyone tends to like it, not to
mention, when you use a subtle artistic touch to it, it's even better!
THANK YOU! Ed, I know many more than me appreciate this, and have wanted to know this info!
THANK YOU, SO MUCH ED! Its this type of info we ALL LOVE!
Rex
 
Heres a much better photo of the finished product:




Rex: It takes a bit of practice to figure out the stippling thing. I can't say I do it "the right way", but it works for me. I first draw out what I want to do with a china marker, or a colored pencil in a color that will show up on the material I'm working on. I then lightly outline what I want with a FG8 burr on wood, or a FG4 burr on metal. Once the outline is there, I clean it up with files and sandpaper until its "clean" (no bumps or dips). The stippling is done with a "tap" motion, and SLOWLY.......its basically one "dot" at a time, and you have to overlap every single "dot". The stippling portion on the handle above was about a 5 hour process. The hardest part for me is keeping the stippling random. If you start going in a line, then it shows up badly. What I've found is that if I go in spirals when stippling, and overlap about 1/2 way on each spiral, things stay random looking.

Whenever I think I'm done, I alway go under a very strong light, and tilt whatever was stippled back and forth in the light....if you see anything that "sparkles" those are flat spots that I missed, and its back to more stippling. I use the air hose often to blow off the dust, and before I look at it under the light....brush it with a soft brush, and blow it off with air hose again.
 
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Ed, I want to thank you for explaining the stippling as well! I know it can't be an easy process, and requires good old practice. Well done, that knife looks great! Best of luck with selling it quickly.
 
This piece of work is absolutely phenomenal. Thanks for sharing. It's posts like these that leave new makers like myself to strive for more excellence.
 
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