First Bowie Knife and First Hidden Tang! Question...

CDHumiston

CDHumiston

Well-Known Member
I'm working on this Bowie knife. It's nearly 1/4" thick 440C Stainless. It's my first try at a knife this big and also my first Bowie.

My main question is...what thickness should the blade be near the edge? I've read some people leave it around .040. Looking for help from experienced folks.

Here are a few pics of where I'm at right now.

20220703_134752-1.jpg20220703_134804-1.jpg20220703_134814-1.jpg
 
Well, dang. You said you want help from experience folks... Guess that rules me out! :D

Seriously, though - which edge are you referring to? You said 40 thou, so I hope you aren't talking about the spine :D That'd make for one crazy lookin fillet knife.

It's getting late and apparently my reading comprehension in suffering.
 
52 Ford said:
Well, dang. You said you want help from experience folks... Guess that rules me out! :D

Seriously, though - which edge are you referring to? You said 40 thou, so I hope you aren't talking about the spine :D That'd make for one crazy lookin fillet knife.

It's getting late and apparently my reading comprehension in suffering.
Click to expand...

I am indeed asking about the cutting edge. Mine is around .064 right now. This varies a bit from the end of the ricasso to the tip, but this is only my preliminary grind.
 
So, a couple things that stand out to me: it looks like your FFG has already gone past the spine, creating shoulders at the plunges. This is not desirable, but could be remedied by thinning out the whole knife. I think it is a little odd to have two shoulders in the tang, but I'm not sure there is necessarily anything wrong with that. I would take the edge to 30 thou behind the edge, after sharpening. Hopefully these thoughts are helpful, I'm not trying to put you down.
 
Alden Cole said:
So, a couple things that stand out to me: it looks like your FFG has already gone past the spine, creating shoulders at the plunges. This is not desirable, but could be remedied by thinning out the whole knife. I think it is a little odd to have two shoulders in the tang, but I'm not sure there is necessarily anything wrong with that. I would take the edge to 30 thou behind the edge, after sharpening. Hopefully these thoughts are helpful, I'm not trying to put you down.
Click to expand...

All advice is appreciated. This is my first go around on a knife of this size and type. That first small shoulder is where the brass guard slips on and stays. The larger shoulder is the Ricasso and I assumed I was to grind right to it.

This picture may help. It's the one I used for my design.

d57ca91cd5f8a7ba122f3aabcf0b50b3bdb762d4.jpeg
 
Chris: I like the looks of your Bowie, and those drawings show it nicely. Did you do the drawings? If so, impressive work.

On the edge - I would think .040" would be good for the edge. For sharpening I'd think a slack belt to give an "appleseed" type profile so the edge would have support. After all, this isn't a thin slicer you're working on, but a strong chopper type blade.

The small shoulder you mention where the guard goes is correct, and it looks good to me anyway. I think what Alden was referring to was the "shoulder" where the FFG met the spine - it looks like there might be a tad of a shoulder where the FFG is lower than the Ricasso right at the spine. No biggie there, just do a flat grind to thin the Ricasso a tad then the FFG will just "meet" the spine with no shoulder there. With a 1/4" thickness you can lose a few thou with no problem.... unless the guard slot is already made to fit the Ricasso thickness?

That's going to be a nice looking Bowie when finished. Good Luck.
 
KenH said:
Chris: I like the looks of your Bowie, and those drawings show it nicely. Did you do the drawings? If so, impressive work.

On the edge - I would think .040" would be good for the edge. For sharpening I'd think a slack belt to give an "appleseed" type profile so the edge would have support. After all, this isn't a thin slicer you're working on, but a strong chopper type blade.

The small shoulder you mention where the guard goes is correct, and it looks good to me anyway. I think what Alden was referring to was the "shoulder" where the FFG met the spine - it looks like there might be a tad of a shoulder where the FFG is lower than the Ricasso right at the spine. No biggie there, just do a flat grind to thin the Ricasso a tad then the FFG will just "meet" the spine with no shoulder there. With a 1/4" thickness you can lose a few thou with no problem.... unless the guard slot is already made to fit the Ricasso thickness?

That's going to be a nice looking Bowie when finished. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Ken,

I did not do the drawings, I found them on the web. I think I understand what you are saying on the Ricasso and my grind. I've cleaned it up the way I think it should be. I hope I got it right. This is going to be a keeper for me, so it won't be out in the wild if it's not done exactly right.
 
I did some clean up grinding today, fit the brass I'll be using for a guard and heat treated the blade.

The blade tests out to 61HRC after tempering. I'm happy with that. I think I'll take a break from the grinding and work on the handle a bit this week. Maybe decide on the guard shape and how I want it to curve...

20220704_111234.jpg20220704_195618.jpg
 
CDHumiston said:
I did some clean up grinding today, fit the brass I'll be using for a guard and heat treated the blade.

The blade tests out to 61HRC after tempering. I'm happy with that. I think I'll take a break from the grinding and work on the handle a bit this week. Maybe decide on the guard shape and how I want it to curve...

View attachment 81175View attachment 81176
Click to expand...

That blade looks really nice.

Personally, I'd get a rough sketch of the handle before I tried to figure out the bends in the guard. But that's just me.

Depending on what you're going for, you might be able to play off of some lines in the handle. Sort of extenuating them with the bends in the guard. Or vise versa.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
 
52 Ford said:
That blade looks really nice.

Personally, I'd get a rough sketch of the handle before I tried to figure out the bends in the guard. But that's just me.

Depending on what you're going for, you might be able to play off of some lines in the handle. Sort of extenuating them with the bends in the guard. Or vise versa.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Good advice! I have a couple ideas for the guard, but I think the handle is going to be as hard to pull off as the blade! I'm waiting for a long drill bit to come tomorrow and then I'll start on the handle. My first inclination is the "S" guard.
 
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