Displayed Bowie

K

KenH

Well-Known Member
I finally rigged up a display rack for the big Bowie - the very first knife I made a few yrs back. Mystery steel, mystery heat treating, mystery is how it ever turned out as well as it did! Even with all those issues, it will still shave hair, and chop a limb size of your arm without damage. I tested it after I got my tester to find it's only about 52Rc. The handle is Guatemalan Rosewood cured over 25 yrs - some I brought back when living up a jungle river for a yr or so.

Early this week I got an old whitetail antler out and set it up for display in shop. My wife saw it and wanted it in house - so now it's displayed on top of cabinet in house.

Comments are welcome, but do remember, this was made before I found Knife Dogs or any other knife making forum. Just used my own thinking - won't call it "Knowledge" at all, just "thinking".

Bowie-Display-s.jpg


 
Ken, that turned out well as a display stand. Guys I have seen this one in person and the pics don't do it justice. Stop and think a second about what the man said, "I finally rigged up a display rack for the big Bowie - the very first knife I made a few yrs back."

This was his first knife!
jawdrop.gif
Oh man, I still got my first one too and I still use it occasionally but, it ain't on display!

It's good to see it on display in the house, instead of being relegated too an obscure place in the shop! :35: :w00t:
 
I have to admit that this is probably one of my least favorite knife patterns but it was extremely well done especially considering it was a first effort. I would say that the technical flaws were few. I also wonder if you are getting a good hardness reading considering it was mystery metal and without knowing where the readings were taken from.

Doug
 
Cliff, thanks for the kind comments, but I'm afraid you're being too kind. I look at it and see LOTS of faults.

Doug, I have no idea how accurate the Rc readings are - I took them up around the ricasso with 3 readings. When sharpened, the blade will shave arm hairs. I chopped a limb off a tree about size of my arm and edge wasn't damaged, but wouldn't shave any more.

I am NOT by any means trying to pass this blade off as a "good" blade, not at all. This is a true "Wall Hanger" - What else in the world could you use a knife like this for? Surely not to skin a deer or anything useful like that. Machete works better for chopping limbs.

I've always been a Jim Bowie fan from childhood with the "Jim Bowie" series on TV (boy that was a LONG time ago:)). I plan to make a Joe Musso Bowie replica using 1080 steel. That one will be a "real" knife.

Ken H>
 
Ken, I may have / think I may have a set of drawings somewhere in my shop for the Musso Bowie.

I received them from a fellow on another forum. They are the kind of thing a lot of folks would frame and hang in your shop. However I think they are supposed to be an actual set of drawings detailing the Musso Bowie. Wow I had forgotten about them till you mentioned the knife!!!!

When I finish the project I am on at the moment I will clean up and do a search. They would be in only one of three places!!!!!:s12137:
 
I appreciate the offer Cliff, but I've got them also. I've got one JPG image that's black 'n white and not really clear. Then I've got one that somebody (I don't remember who) redrew from the original B&W dwg with nice clean lines and even a bit of color. Unfortunately they didn't put their name/contact info on the new dwg. I just printed it off full size - WOW!!! that's a big knife! Looking at the drawing and seeing it's a tad over 19" long doesn't give the same feeling as when it's printed to paper and you can actually see just how big that thing is.

Is it the Bowie the man had at the Alamo? Who knows, it could have been from most any of the folks there.

If you can't find your dwgs, just holler and I'll email them to you.

Ken H>
 
That knife doing what it's done shows that it's more than a wall hanger but I can see why you would want to keep it nice for a display. You took your hardness reading at the correct place but with it being mystery metal there is no way to know if it's a shallow hardening steel that might not harden in a section that thick. Thats one of the problems with using a shallow hardening steel, you often can only use subjective testing to see how well you did on the hardening and tempering.

Doug
 
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