Bowie - Spit and Polish

Actually wd-40 and 1000 grit paper. This was just to remove any surface rust or dirt, which was negligible, and bring out the contrast. I coated it lightly with gun grease, because I couldn't find any hard wax. I don't know if these photos are much good - just trying to show off the grain really. Tomorrow I polish whichever blank I'm going to use and grind the scales to roughly match the handle, but now I'm thinking I might not grind the excess off the thick part of the slabs on the front to make a thumb guard. If I just partially temporarily pin it together, I should be able to tell if it will work looks-wise or whether the open gaps will look bogus. Improvising...

Inside View of Scales

This shows the other side. Hopefully you can see where I have to remove brass to match the blank. There are a couple places where the finger notches don't quite reach, that might or might not cause appearance problems later. I try to move the scales around where the existing holes will line up. I want two pairs pins through the thick and thin parts, with a wood insert. My aim is for it to be strong without epoxy, as they would have for thousands of years before epoxy was invented, although I am going to glue it, too.

I don't know which blank I'm going to use yet, although if I had another pair of slabs I'd use them on both. They don't quite fit either, but I think they'll work. It's most likely that I will destroy them with the grinder, but I'm going to try and at least start carefully. For a change.

Day One, Fitting Slabs

I had this pair of scales from a grab bag of parts. I want to use these because I don't want to try soldering bolsters on. I'm pretty sure I'd mess it up; that the solder would wick into the little channels in the damascus. Maybe after I get a piece of scrap and practice. I know I am sloppy soldering wire and pipe, and I do know that silver solder is quite hard to remove, and that the area where the blade meets the handle is difficult to work around.

I'm polishing the bowie blade with wd40 and 1000 grit paper. I'm only trying to sharpen the contrast, not polish it as such. There are no scratches or gouges, and just a hint of grinder bite in the inside corners. Charlton claims the blades are hand-forged, but I would be impressed even if they weren"t. I was surprised that they came sharpened, but if you look real close you can still see veins of damasc in the edge, making hundreds of little hard saw-teeth. This indicates that the forging greatly increases the number and fineness of of veins at the edge. I don't care if they were made in Wungulistan they got them some hammer-swingers there, even if it's machine hammer.

Welcome to the Bandaid Box - Help Yourselves

I'm not a blade smith, this is just a hobby that my wife does not like. (Why don't they ever figure out that this just makes it more attractive?) I've done some knife making, largely because I have a lot of woodworking and automotive tools; sanders grinders and stuff. Mostly I made various machetes and choppers out of lawnmower blades. I like to grind metal; it's sort of destructive and constructive at the same time. Not going to grind any steel on this project though, because I'm using almost-done except for the handle, hand-forged damascus blanks. I'm cartoon crazy for damascus. I even like to (and sometimes do) just look at the little swiggles and bumps that sometimes look like alien circuit boards and sometimes like martian/egyptian script trying to warn me to always cut away from my hands.

I'm starting to make four relatively high-end knives using Damascus USA blanks. Awhile back I got a grab-bag of blades and assorted knife parts from SMKW, from which I made about 5 presentable finished knives and about twenty ugly ones which are my favorites, that I call the "Cell Block Collection" cause they look so genuinely hand-made. Plus I can misuse them and do everything you're not supposed to - pry, hammer, chop, throw etc. (sorry Dad!). Since I want to include a lot of photos of the builds, These above are the four I got from Charlton. I'll post the cell block collection when I can get them all together.