Daniel’s KITH WIP

Alrighty guys I’m at a crossroads. The San mai is just about drawn out. It’s at 1/4” with some cleanup left but the core got a little catty cornered. It looks alright on one side but not so much on the other. So do I try and make something out of this or do I continue with mono steel? If I continue with the current billet it will be a small vest Bowie as the billet is only 7” long. I underestimated what I would lose to scale. 97D1CD06-EE84-43EA-9E48-8CABA1837233.jpeg7EE7A709-F6AD-47A8-B62B-A4BB01868ABD.jpeg812DA2F0-817D-4D25-9588-474346FAF744.jpeg83638671-4B53-4EDD-8BD8-9B3CA8AFFDDB.jpeg
 
Do you think 1/4” is a little thick for a vest Bowie? You could draw your tang out, forge the knife down to about 3/16” and forge in a distal taper kind of split the difference between very thick and short to a little thinner and longer? Either way it’s a cool billet I hope it turns out.
 
Chris Railey said:
Do you think 1/4” is a little thick for a vest Bowie? You could draw your tang out, forge the knife down to about 3/16” and forge in a distal taper kind of split the difference between very thick and short to a little thinner and longer? Either way it’s a cool billet I hope it turns out.
Click to expand...

it’s a little under 1/4” right now and I’ll lose some more cleaning everything up.
 
Jason Volkert said:
I would do what ever you think will get the Job done. Time is running short:). I Gotta get moving ASAP on mine too
Click to expand...

I know it! Going to be cutting it close. I made a decision overnight to not use the San mai. I feel like it simply wouldn’t be my best work which is what I’m going for. I’ve got a piece of 1084 coming and have some neat ideas for the fittings. Going with the original design.
 
That's a serious amount of work right there. I'm getting tired just looking at it lol.
It might be hard to coin wrought iron. especially if it has inclusions in it.
 
Jason Volkert said:
That's a serious amount of work right there. I'm getting tired just looking at it lol.
It might be hard to coin wrought iron. especially if it has inclusions in it.
Click to expand...

Certainly going to be a project but I don’t think it’ll be quite as bad as it looks. This wrought seems pretty clean but I have a backup plan if needed. Going to have to bust my butt to get it done on time but it’ll get done.
 
Just a quick update on this. I will be posting a bunch of pictures over the next few days have been super busy and flat out exhausted so I haven’t had as much shop time as I would like. Still hoping to get the Bowie done in time.
 
Welp I attempted to heat treat the Bowie And it warped like I’ve never had a blade warp. I would take a picture but I may or may not have chunked it as hard as I could into some pasture and can’t find it now. With the blade that long I ground it to thin pre-heat treat I should’ve done all grinding post heat treat. Oh well. There won’t be another bowie for the KITH but I have another blade Lying around I’ll finish off
 
Daniel Macina said:
Welp I attempted to heat treat the Bowie And it warped like I’ve never had a blade warp. I would take a picture but I may or may not have chunked it as hard as I could into some pasture and can’t find it now. With the blade that long I ground it to thin pre-heat treat I should’ve done all grinding post heat treat. Oh well. There won’t be another bowie for the KITH but I have another blade Lying around I’ll finish off
Click to expand...
Been there and done that. There is more than one unfinished knife or other forged tool/item in the bottom of the small lake I live on. One day in the distant future some archaeologist will uncover them and scratch his head wonder what happened...
 
Knife makes don’t go ‘mad’ they just retain a constant air of frustration when things don’t go quite right. I don’t know how I know this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top