Texas History Bowie WIP

[Jason Fry]

I’m starting a long term knife project that’ll take me several months. I’ll be using unusual things, and using some different techniques than I’ve ever used.

Starting out with some nails and a couple other relics from San Jacinto.

The story on the nails. The battle of San Jacinto only involved roughly 1/3 of the Mexican forces in Texas. After the battle, the rest of the Mexican army regrouped at Madam Powell's boarding house to decide what to do. While there, they got word that Santa Anna was still alive and that he said to go home. As they retreated southward, they got stuck between the floodwaters of a couple of rivers in an area that became known as the "Sea of Mud." The nails I have are from the excavation of Powell's, and the harness decorations and grape shot are from the Sea of Mud excavations.

https://texas-history-page.blogspot.com/2010/04/re-dedication-of-1936-madam-powell.html
https://tshaonline.org/publications/books/665

After soaking the nails in vinegar for a few days, then brushing off the rust, I built a canoe to put them in. The flat sides are 1/4” 1084, and the short sides are mild. Inside the can, I put some of the nails and some 1095 powder.

 

[Jason Fry]

Yesterday was forge welding day. I worked from roughly 9:30 to 3:30 on this project, with my 15 year old son forging a gladius for a Latin project. His sword was from an International Scout leaf spring. I've never done canister before. I have a power hammer, but not a press. The second can is the letters FRY in 15n20 with 1095 powder. Glad my last name isn't Szymanski or something.

The canister welds went just right. Here are the billets. Small one is after the can removal. Big one, I haven't ground the mild off the sides yet.

From that point it’s just a lot of weld, draw, restack, weld. The thick layers here are the San Jacinto nails billet. I revised after the pic, and ended up stacked at 19 layers.

I stopped just after I welded up my core billet, 1231 layers. I had a 175 random billet that I drew out to 18 inches and stacked 7 tall, plus a few other layers in the stack. Have my San Jacinto billet at 19, and another 17 layer prepped. Have the math planned to get to 1836 with roughly 240 layer skins.

Here’s the FRY from the other can. It looks better in real life than on this end cut. I don't really have plans for it yet, as it's only about 1/2" by 7/8."

It'll be a few weeks before I'm back at this one, likely. I hope to end up with a good bowie sized piece with enough left over for a hunter, but IDK yet. I've never worked this much steel at one time into one project. Just have to do the work and see what I get.

 

[i4Marc]

I applaud your ambition.

 

[Jason Fry]

Another half day worth of welding and I’m closing in. 1232, 19, and 17. Soon to be recombined into 1836. Two more restacks and I’ll be there. At least another half days work, maybe full.

 

[scott kozub]

Very Cool.

Will be watching closely. Hopefully your able to keep the thread going.

 

[Jason Fry]

Last night in the spirit of "when am I ever going to use this" I did a little algebra to figure out how many of the 17's, 19's, and extra layers I needed to get my cladding billet to 150 layers exactly. I ended up having to go to 2" tiles stacked high, but I have my billet prepped for the next forging session. After that weld and draw, I'll have a 150. One cut, a layer of nickel in between, and re-draw and I'll have 301 layer to clad the 1232. Nickel in between the clad and the 1232 will get me to.... 1836.

Fisk asked me last night why 1836, since Texas statehood was 1845. I told him statehood is for suckers, independence is the way to go

 

[Tom Lewis]

Thanks, looking forward to further progress.
Before the battle, Sam Houston told his little army, "Victory is certain, trust in God, and remember the Alamo"
Texas has a great history.

 

[Jason Fry]

So because EVERYTHING is cancelled, I got an unexpected four day weekend. I won’t spend the whole time in the shop, but will get some good work in. At least one of the days will include welding up the Damascus for this knife. Weather report says today is probably the best one for that.

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on a cool knife. The blade on this one is buggy seat spring, found in a field near the old community of Shiloh, TX. Guard is wagon wheel, and handle is ash wood wagon tongue.

 

[Jason Fry]

The big one on the rt is San Jacinto. Doing two others today as well, since it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and Monday.

 

[Jason Fry]

2 hours later. Long drawn out process.
Here’s the 150 that’ll get one cut an re weld, and the 20 I started this morning. Lunch break.

 

[Jason Fry]

Stopped for the day. Preformed a 204 layer hunter ready to put on the mill for laddering. Did a 140 layer random bar to 18” by 1.5 by 3/8.

aaaand.... the 1836 is cleaned and cut, ready to tack and weld next forge welding day.

Wife wants to go to dinner, so I stopped.

 

[Jason Fry]

My helpers make everything take slightly longer. They wanted a helmet like daddy’s

 

[Jason Fry]

Alright, another half day of work and we’re getting closer. I drew out the 204 blade I laddered, and also did a canister of “trash can” Damascus from little scraps of other billets. Then I welded the 1836, drew it out to shape.

You can see where I used layout fluid and marked the lines where I wanted to mill grooves for pattern development.

Here’s the grooves.

 

[Jason Fry]

Next I forged the bevels in, leveling out those grooves. Here it is all forged to shape. In the oven now to normalize.

Here are the other two also.

I saved a little bit of the 1836 bar, enough to do a hunter later. I also decided to draw the 1836 out a bit thinner on the spine after I took the pic. Changed the profile a little.

 

[Jason Fry]

Reveal
Quick check of pattern at 120 off the grinder. The San Jacinto nails are in the fine darker stripes in the upper half.

As you can see, not dead nuts even side to side. I did a bit more grinding on the one side to get the nickel line a bit further from the edge. There's still one delam in there between the final nickel layer and the core as well that I'll have to deal with. I've got it to the point where I'm ready to harden.

 

[Ken H>]

Jason - you're sure doing GREAT work. Looking good.

 

[Jason Fry]

Fun development, although it’s still a bird in the bush and not a bird in the hand. I think I may end up with some wood from tree where Sam Houston and the Texan army camped on the first night of the runaway scrape, March 13, 1836. I talked to the landowner and he said he would send me a log.

 

[Jason Fry]

Hardened the blade this weekend. Got the oak in, and I'm letting it acclimate to our dry climate before cutting it up. Hope to get a few good pieces to send out for stabilization.

Timeline on this project is to have it done for the Arkansas knife show Labor Day weekend.

 

[weo]

Nice pattern!

There's still one delam in there between the final nickel layer and the core as well that I'll have to deal with

How did this get dealt with, grinding?

 

[Jason Fry]

Nice pattern!

How did this get dealt with, grinding?

I went ahead and hardened, and will grind it out when I finish grind. I was getting close to final thickness and wanted to leave a little more meat on there pre-HT.