Hazard Bowie- In Progress

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,017
This bowie is named after Comodore Oliver Hazard Perry a major player on the great lakes during the war of 1812. I live right across the river from Perrysburg, there is a monument right down the river. Perry said "we have met the enemy and they are ours" which most people have heard at some point.

I have been working on this between sheaths for bowies. I don't have much of a tolerance for boredom, and leather work is booooring...:).

This is the prototype for my cutting competetion knife for the Mid America hammer in.

I'll start with the forged piece.
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Here it is rough ground
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A little more grinding
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Finish ground
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Clayed blade. It's been said before, the clay does not make the hardening line. It's all in the heating and cooling.
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HT'd blade. The blade is at 180 grit with a rough ferric etch just to give an idea of the hamon. When this is sanded higher and etched in vinegar the hamon will jump. In person you can see utsuri, ashi, and noi. My ferric etch tank isn't big enough for this blade, I had to flip it thus the line in the center.
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I've got to get back to work on sheaths so I can send some customers their knives.

I'll post pics as it comes along.

Matt
 
Damn -- can't wait to see this one finished!!!! :eek:

Why is that your 180-grit finish looks better than my finished blades? :confused: ;)
 
Some specs might be nice;

Forged from 3/8" 1065, almost 2" at its widest, 10.25 length.
 
Here are some better pics

I'll post a few, I'm trying to stay away from those damn sheaths :) ;).

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Greg, I suppose it could be for the Duke's of Hazard. I was waiting for some joker to bring that up :).
 
I managed to pull myself away from the sheaths and do a little more work on this.

I ground the swedges, sharpened, tested, and started the final finish. This knife chops like a bastard :).

Next step is to file in the shoulders, I'll get a few pics of the set up I use.

Here's a shot of the other side with swedges ground in.

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Matt, I have said before and I'll say it again, your work is really moving on at a pace - I like the look of both of these - but that mini bowie blade really rocks!

Stephen
 
I just found this place, looks like I been missing out :)
Matt, this is a beautiful blade. Good work man.

Don Hanson lll
 
Fantastic work Matt,someone is going to get lucky. :D
(note to self,reinforce mail box)
 
Update;

The next step in the process is filing in the shoulders.

Here's a shot of all the tools I will be using.
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The first file is a 5/32" chain saw file, I will be using this to radius the shoulders. Next is a 1/2" round file, the excess shoulder stock is removed with this. A mill file is next to that, just a plain old Nicholson.

The two slotted pieces to the right of the files are used in conjunction with the soldering jig to the left of the ruler. I use this tool to press the guard into place, which I'll go over in more detail in the next post.

The other tools are a micrometer, ruler, and a magic marker.

The file guide is at the top of the photo. For those of you who have never seen or used a file guide, the top plate is dead flat and fully hardened. The plate is harder than the files; the file just skates along the surface leaving a flat shoulder.

In this photo I have clamped the blade in the file guide and put it in the vice. This is when I use the half inch round file to remove the excess stock.
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Here is a shot of the shoulders filed in with the chain saw file. The next step is to flatten the high spots that the chain saw file left. The radiused shoulders will remain in tact.
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The next step is finishing and etching.

I take the blade to 1000 grit and go over the blade with Simichrome loaded on a leather pad. I didn't think to take photos of this process, on the next blade I make I'll amend this post and add some pics.

Next I put a pot of vinegar on the stove, if you have a hood use it; this smells terrible. I let the vinegar come to a boil.

While I'm waiting I wash the blade several times with dish soap and hot water. For me having the blade hot before it goes into the etch seems to work better. I let the water heat the blade as much as possible. I shake the excess water off the blade and quickly wipe it with a paper towel.

I put the blade on a large cookie sheet and pour the boiling vinegar over it. If you thought the boiling vinegar smelled bad, this is MUCH worse. There is an immediate reaction between the steel and vinegar. When the steel has stopped bubbling, usualy around a minute, I remove the blade and clamp it down.

Blades coming out of the etch look awful. I thought I ruined the blade the first time I did it; black, grey, and sometimes a little rust. Don't worry, the oxides come right off.

I remove the oxide first with 2000 grit paper, the blade is covered in wd40. After the oxides have been removed I go over the entire blade with Simichrome. The Simichrome seems to brighten the steel and remove any left over oxide.

I've found that vinegar does a much better job than ferric in revealing the hardening line. Much of the hardening line seems to be lost in a ferric etch, the vinegar does a great job bringing it out.

On the next knife I make I'll take photos of this process, that should be a little more helpful.

Here's the finished blade. I probably should have cleaned the oil off it. In person some utsuri is visible, but I am a crappy photographer :).
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Fantastic work, Matt....each is better than the last....this is my favorite, until the next one! ;) :D
 
That hamon makes me wanna cry. :eek: Take some large pics when this thing is done because I'm going to set it as my desktop. :)
 
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