My First Bowie

Robert66

Well-Known Member
Hear it is at last.

It is not perfect like you experienced knife smiths produce but I am proud of it

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Back soon, wife calling me, must run out of fear
 
Robert, I am a huge fan of the western frontier days (USA of course) and that looks like it could have walked right out of history. Tell me a little bit about how you made it please. If you would accept a little advice, it is hard not to feel inadequate when you see some of the knives produced here (believe me I know) I struggled with it for years and it kept me off of forums but this place is different. The guys here really want to help us get better. Keep making, try to make every knife better than the one before.
 
Here goes CR.
I am aa mad cowboy film buff, in all the Bowie films I have seen he had a different looking knife although they were all large.
The first one I remember, vaguely I hasten to add is after a lightning storm he found a lump of ore and hd a blacksmith forge him a 'Bowie knife'.
I have had all sorts of tools over the years and a while ago I came across the 1.x 30 sander which started me off sharpening, making knives, I built a small forge from 4 new fire bricks and 4 from a old redundant scrap electric storage heater and fired it with a high pressure propane nozzle gun off a mate, all the bricks are loose fitting, NOT cemented..
The 1 x 30 was not man enough for me so I dug deep for a 4 x 36 and made a jig to get sharper lines, not perfect but I will not lash out on expensive equipment while I am learning and doing it as a hobby., incidentally consumables come expensive as you get into it more.
I already had a pedestal drill, band saw not too good, table saw, universal table saw, hundreds of drill bits, 2 tool grinders, a electic tooasting oven for tempering althogh advice is to use kitchen oven now.
I have a one car garae as a workshop lit by 4 strip light lights.
I use Gorilla glue and brass rod for pins.

I go to car boot sales and scrounge from mates to keep costs down.

I have been involved with a charity for some time and raised money for them, I hope eventually to sell, auction, raffle a few knives.

I reckon I would have given up on knife making if this forum had not helped me improve my tempering.

Can the experts on here estimate a selling price for this knife.

best wishes pal.
 
Well done, Robert! I echo what Chris has said. The cowboys weren’t toting museum pieces across the plains. Your knife is well i n line with what I believe would have commonly been seen.
 
I have been asked to make a 6 inch Bowie and sheath with an antler handle for someone I have never met, strange but true, I trust the enquiry which is very unusual for me.

Having a chat and learning from hear is like a ritual for me now at 75, I love it. lol
 
I trust the enquiry which is very unusual for me.

You may be 75, but never drop your wariness of strangers. congrats on your order Robert, post pics when it's done !
 
I have made the Bowie order BUT, the antlers have not arrived so a hardwood handle has been attached which I believe will be acceptable..

I need a bit of serious help here guys.

The Bowie is 'finished' but I want to alter the blade tip end, it does not look right.
I am scared of ruining the temper, advice please to do such.

I will post photo soon.

BTW, I use Gorilla Glue mainly, epoxy is very expensive here and not easy to buy in big containers.

Thank you
 
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Well done, Robert! I echo what Chris has said. The cowboys weren’t toting museum pieces across the plains. Your knife is well i n line with what I believe would have commonly been seen.

Robert, looking good. I would venture to guess the wild west was more of "I brung this one from home"!

In other words more butcher knives and kitchen style knives. Recovered knives from the period range anywhere from the Bowie that Sheffield was flooding the country with to butcher knives and Kitchen style blades, and homemade. None of them were ever rich so they made good with what they could afford or borrow!!
 
Robert, looking good. I would venture to guess the wild west was more of "I brung this one from home"!

In other words more butcher knives and kitchen style knives. Recovered knives from the period range anywhere from the Bowie that Sheffield was flooding the country with to butcher knives and Kitchen style blades, and homemade. None of them were ever rich so they made good with what they could afford or borrow!!
 
I agree CC and thanks for contributing.
I have a arc style blade end which does not look right and I need to change it to a popular style Bowie end to suit the customer requirements, it is my first customer EVER.

I am worried about disturbing the temper, I have not posted a photo of this one yet.

What time is it where you are located?
 
Florida has two time zones ha ha. it's 7:10 pm where I'm at and 6:10 pm where Cliff is.
It changes up north in the panhandle.
 
Steve, got it to you! I am in the CST or Central Standard Timezone. We are also on Daylight savings time as well so we are getting ready to fall back an hour, on November the 4th.

Let me tell you a funny story. Back in 1966 when they decided to create daylight savings time, as the standard time for the US. . Someone was trying to explain to one of the American Indians on the reservation about Daylight Savings Time.

Given the fact that the Indians looked at time from daylight to dark, the man was not having good luck in his explanation of DST. So he decided to liken the idea of cutting a foot of one end the blanket and sewing it onto the other end.

The Indian stood there for a minute thinking on what he had just heard. He looked at the man and said, "only a white man would be fool enough to think if you cut a foot of one end of the blanket and sew it on the other end of the blanket, that the blanket is going to be any longer than it was"!!

I reckon he had a good point there!! :p

So 6:00 PM are time is 12:00AM the next day over there if the converter is right!!
 
Ha ha, yea my place up in the panhandle is just a couple miles from the time zone change,the Apalachicola river.
I have one of those atomic clocks, and every time I set it, after a while it would fall back an hour. I guess it couldn't really figure out where it was. I still use it I just have to remember it's an hour behind Ha ha.
 
Hey Robert, I was doing some research on something and ran across this.
http://rendezvous.mesavarsity.org/PDF/How to Make a Bowie Knife Sheath.pdf

The knife on that how to piece, top of page on the right reminds me of the one you made!


I always seem to be thanking people for helping me on here, THANKS again.

For a novice like myself with a not so good memory at times information like this is invaluable.

When I first started I rushed, now I do not and make less errors, still a few though. lol lol lol

I am improving
 
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Just finished this, altered original a bit

With a sheath how much would be a fair price to sell it for?

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I gave 50 pence for this at a car boot sale, I use it for straightening
 
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