My first hidden tang Bowie!

[Jeff the Millwright]

I finally found the time to make my first hidden tang Bowie knife made from W2 from Aldo’s.
I really have to put a word of appreciation out to Nick Wheeler for putting his great series on Youtube about how to make a Bowie knife. They are great quality and very informative and helped me tremendously in every step of the process. It really is generous of him to put them online for free because they are much better than videos I have paid for.



I am really pleased the way it turned out and my hardening was successful with an after quench hardness of 65. I had to do so much thermal cycling to get this steel to harden properly that the blade took on an appearance like it had been acid etched but actually I think it suits the knife and I like the result so I left it. The guard is made of brass that I gave a patina with salt water and the handle is ironwood. Overall length is 15.25 inches.



I made sure with this knife that I spent extra time on my finishing detail work because I have rushed some knives in the past. I took the handle up to 1200 grit and applied just one coat of Tung oil.









And it certainly pays to have a milling machine to get all mating surfaces to mate perfectly. I don’t know if I will ever sell a knife and this one isn’t for sale but I just wonder what people might think it might be worth or any other comments welcome.

 

[me2]

Really like that handle finish. Is it slippery in use? I've tried on some of my handles and just can't get it to look right.

What kind of cycling was required? I followed the link from your old thread, so if it's better to reply there, I'll follow it back.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Thank you I really appreciate the compliment about my handle finish because I definitely have spent a lot of time on it and am actually still working on it after these photographs were taken yesterday.


No I don’t find it slippery even though it is a glossy finish. That finish in the photograph is only one coat of Tung Oil. Everything I have read about Tung Oil says you are supposed to apply a thin coat and then wipe it off after five or 10 minutes and do multiple coats to build it up that way but it never really worked for me so I just treat it like a Varithane and apply a thin coat and let it dry and then give it a light sanding and apply another coat. I may experiment more with the suggested system down the road but I do like the glossy finish. I have read some people after taking their handles to 1500 grit or so just use wax after that so I might try that down the road also.


I really think the reason this handle turned out so nicely with just one coat is that I took it up to 1500 grit sandpaper in progressive steps. Before I applied the Tung Oil it pretty much felt like glass. Since these photographs were taken I sanded it down with a 1500 grit paper and applied a second coat. I used a very fine paintbrush to get up right to the part where the wood meets the brass because in my first application I only used a Q-tip and didn’t get a proper line. I used a Q-tip to do the rest of the handle for the second time.


I just realized you were asking about thermal cycling and not about how I got my handle to look the way it does so you can ignore that last bit, LOL.


If you read my last thread you know I did a ton of tests to get this W-2 from Aldo to harden properly and this is the procedure I used. I thermal cycled at 1650°F, 1550°F, 1450°F, 1350°F, and 1250°F. I also water quench after each temperature in my cycles after it has turned black. In the past I have eliminated the 1450°F and 1350°F cycles from the procedure and still had hardening but I do all five just to be sure but I found not quenching after the steel turns to black can result in improper hardening. Also contrary to theory not doing the two low cycles at 1350°F and 1250°F makes the steel impossible to harden. I know that makes no sense but that’s what my test revealed.


So if you follow my system I am pretty sure the W-2 from Aldo will get a quench hardness of 65 to 66 Rockwell. Here is my blade for this knife fresh out of the quench reading slightly over 65 Rockwell. I tested the handle so I could grind off the surface de-carb to get a good reading.

 

[me2]

Thanks for the tips. I never went that high in sandpaper. I stopped at 600 and used Tru-Oil on Mahogany. Very appealing finish, but I could only get it right on one area, the front of the handle. The sides and butt of the handle still looked off. Looks like I'll have to try higher grit and then switch to Tung off that doesn't work.

Do you forge or stock removal? I forgot.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Actually I have never gone that high with my sandpaper before this knife but I recently read a very good thread by some very reputable knife makers where they described their handle finishing techniques and they all went up to or past the 1500 range it seemed so I gave it a try and for me it made a nice difference.


I found it hard to find sandpaper over 800 grit in hardware stores then I found that the place to get them is autobody supply stores because they use them in bodywork. Another reason I didn’t go over 800, LOL. Maybe you will get better results with your mahogany if you go a little higher.


I thought I would also mention that I started using Tru-Oil for a while a couple years ago but stopped when I noticed that one of the paring knives I made the Tru-Oil started flaking off and is now mostly just bare wood. Though I haven’t been using Tung Oil for that long to make a definitive comparison so far I have no flaking at all with it.


So far I have just done stock removal even though I am tempted to do some forging because I actually have a little natural gas furnace I made before I bought my electric oven to do my heat treating I could now use as a forging furnace. But what stops me is I live in the city and although I have pretty good neighbors I don’t want to subject them to all that hammering plus after 30 years in the construction trades I really don’t want to subject my joints to all that impacting. I may do a little just to tinker away at it sometime though.

 

[BearPawBlacksmithing]

Beautiful! I love the finish on the blade.
As for how much its worth I would say about $250-$275 but I am not really experienced in the marketing of blades.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Thanks for the comment Bear Paw; glad you like it.


Unfortunately your price estimate would give me about five dollars an hour not counting materials so I guess I will keep my day job, LOL.


I am currently working on a second Bowie with the same design but fancier with several woods laminated in the handle and some file work and a Hamon but with work it may be a while before I get it done.



So far I have made this block that will be half the handle length.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Anybody who read my threads on trying to get the heat treat down right for this W2 knows I had to do a lot of thermal cycling to get proper hardness. I was afraid that all the cycling maybe had made the blade brittle so I did some chop tests today to check it out.





I chopped into a 2 x 4 and some old dried dead branches and didn’t have any rolling or chipping which was a big relief so I guess my heat treat method not only gets a proper hardness but good durability if anyone would like to use that system. After a little stropping it was back to shaving hairs after the chop test. I even had a pretty fine edge on it for a chopper taking it to 20° per side so I’m pretty happy with the performance. After the ordeal of figuring out the proper treat I really do like W-2 now and seems like a fantastic knife steel. The whole point of my using W2 was to put a Hamon on my knife so I will be doing that with my next Bowie knife.

 

[cbach8tw]

Based on your chopping it looks like that hardness after your procss would not be too hard, I thought that high would be the case.

 

[BP_]

I like it a lot. It looks like a good solid fighter I would carry regularly. Nice job

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Based on your chopping it looks like that hardness after your procss would not be too hard, I thought that high would be the case.

I guess I didn’t make it clear but that Rockwell 65 hardness reading was done right after quenching and then after I tempered at 450°F which I believe is good for a chopper. I didn’t bother taking a hardness reading after I tempered it which I wish I would have but I think it’s probably in the 60 to 61 range. So it isn’t really that hard.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

I like it a lot. It looks like a good solid fighter I would carry regularly. Nice job

Thanks I’m glad you like it. I don’t know why you would need a big fighter like this but that’s your business, LOL. After doing my chop tests yes you are right it is a good solid knife and I think you could just about chop somebody’s arm off without a lot of trouble. I do wear it around the yard when I do my yard work and work in my garage since a fellow in my town made me a nice sheath for it.

 

[BP_]

Thanks I’m glad you like it. I don’t know why you would need a big fighter like this but that’s your business, LOL. After doing my chop tests yes you are right it is a good solid knife and I think you could just about chop somebody’s arm off without a lot of trouble. I do wear it around the yard when I do my yard work and work in my garage since a fellow in my town made me a nice sheath for it.

View attachment 769340

Oh, just because if I can, why not? I also really like the style, I wouldn't necessarily wear it to work but I would certainly carry it other times paired with a smaller blade. We all just like to feel BA sometimes, right?

Nice sheath! Goes well with the knife

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Yes Bloody Pawprint I must concede you are right I do feel pretty invincible when I cut the lawn wearing it, LOL.

 

[cbach8tw]

Cools, thanks for the info. Very nice.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Cools, thanks for the info. Very nice.

My pleasure and thanks...