WIP Bowie knife

Dennis Morland

KNIFE MAKER
It has been so cold in the garage through the winter months here in Nebraska. I am way too cheap to buy propane to heat the place. So I have been on a little vacation from knives until it warmed up a bit. I got a bit of leather work completed in the warmth of my basement, but, no knives. I have an itch. The last few days it finally warmed up and I got started on a new knife. Hurray!!

I have a bowie knife (at least my thoughts of a bowie knife) to complete by June for a wedding gift. Time to get started and see where this goes.

First, I need a plan. I like to look at knife pictures and borrow inspiration. I have admired this knife for some time. It was made by none other than Forged in Fire co-star, J. Neilsen. I really liked the blade shape and I will attempt to get a fairly close rendition of the same.

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My rendition will be made from 1075 instead of damascus. I got it cut out/laid out a bit. I am a big fan of blue dykem. I am color blind and it helps me to see the blade a bit better.

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I have not decided on the guard. I like the sculpted guards with the sweeping S. I also like the oblong guard on the J. Nielsen knife. We shall see where that takes me. But, should look something like this when finished.

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I start with a 45 degree or so initial bevel on each side. I try to keep each bevel as close to the same as the other side.

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I have a bit of clean up to do on these. But, close to ready for heat treat. I am going with a hamon. So they will get cleaned up really well for that process.

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Here is where I messed up. I cannot find my pictures of hamon preparation. So, I missed that phase. My bad!! I did get the blank heat treated and it appears as though the hamon took fairly well.

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This is as far as I have gotten on the build. I will next move on the finish grinding. give me a few days, I will try to remember to take more pictures.
 
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