- Joined
- Jan 15, 2012
- Messages
- 4,608
Hi folks, wanted to share a really cool project I've been working on. Be patient with me as I'm sure this will be a long thread and it will take me a while to load the photos. But anyway.....
I enjoy history. I think there is a lot that can be learned from it. See where we came from, what worked, what didnt, I believe that good logic for the future can be forged from the experiences of the past. So, being the fan of history, the county I live in, which is Jackson County Indiana, turns the big 200 years old in this year of 2016, as well as the state of Indiana. To make a very long story short, you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to not only to become a part of the celebration, but to be part of future history.
The Jackson county historical society contacted me and wanted something special to take around to the many celebrations that will be held this year. Unfortunately, with all of the pending projects taking up my time I wasn't able to produce this piece as promptly as they liked. But a big Jackson county themed bowie knife was constructed and I'm here to share it with you all as well as some pics of its construction along the way. But whats really cool about this, is someone is gonna win this bad boy! Thats right, it will be offered as a raffled piece and tickets will be going on sale through me and the JCHS as soon as the end of this month.
But without further ado, here she is, in all of her 19 inch OAL glory!
Here is where it all started, a idea and a drawing. I drew what was in my head, cut it out, transfered to steel and rough cut out the stock on my shear.
Murph in true beast mode taking over the crappy task of hand cutting the profile.
The finger guard on this one is a little more complicated than most. Its cut and formed from a solid piece of brass bar. Here I mill all the surfaces to true it up so the real work can begin.
A huge chunk of time went into the finger/hand gaurd
Some things where going on simultaneously, I didn't have a lot of time to knock this out, so Murph quickly got his creative wings on and i threw him headfirst into a complex project....... He did jist fine. Here I'm grinding the blade while he no dought has the bad end of the deal rough cutting stock.
Cutting the tang piece and choosing material that is native to the area. White tail deer and maple wood.
Starting to get a idea about how its all gonna go together.
Time to start the grueling task of cold forming the curves.
......and doing the decorative peening.
I wanted for there to be something to look at no matter where your eyes where on the knife..... So, file work all around. This also took up a huge amount of time.
Laying out patterns
Now that all the fab work is pretty much done, time to heat treat.
I'll post this pic twice because I think it's pretty cool, and lets face it. I'm pretty handsome.
I etch the blade to give it that antique gun metal look.
Now for the actual assembly. This is a stressful time. Everything has to go together flawlessly for the fit and finish to come out right. I know it may not look like it, but there is over 25 individual hand crafted pieces that make up this handle that have to be assembled in less than 5 minutes. Thats the time it takes for the epoxy resisn to set. If its not done in that time, your pretty much cutting it apart and starting over. I dyed the resin black in this case to form a back filled in the file work. (You'll see more on that coming up)
Give it overnight to dry, grind away all the ugly and...........
PRESTO!!!!! she's in one piece!
I got everything shaped the way I wanted it and let Murph take over the task of polishing out all of the scratches. If memory serves me correctly, he pretty much worked the majority of a whole evening hand sanding it. In the meantime, I started on the sheath.
There was a lot more to the sheath than just the few pics, but basically, I was provided a couple of bicentennial commemorative coins to use in the project, so, I inlayed them into the work, hand tooled a 2 that matched the 2 on the $20. bill (youll see later) and had to hand sew the leather. All of the layers made it to thick for my sewing machine, so back to old school manual labor!
Time to get back to the knife... I start staining the wood now. This process is a little more involved as well than one pic. Truth is, I will/did stain this and sand it many times. Kinda like doing body work on a car. The stain will show all of your high and low spots. So you sand and stain until they are all gone. That way, you end up with dare I say, perfection. I didn't count, but if I was a guessing man, I'd say I stained, sanded, polished, repeat about eight times.
It's starting to look like something now, but at this point I got discouraged. I was convinced I picked out a premium piece of curly maple. But you really dont know what your gonna get until you finish it out. Not only did this not take the color like I wanted, but the curl in the wood wasnt a obvious as I like. Only one thing to do. Sand it all back down and start over with different dye mixtures. I stopped here for a few weeks. Decided to step away and come back fresh later with a better attitude. Sometimes in my line of work, frustration is a sure sign that it's time to step away so the project doesnt end up in the bottom of the pond in a fit of rage...... Lol, and in case your wondering, yes, there are a few T.M.Hunt knives rotting away in the bottom of the pond in my back yard!
I enjoy history. I think there is a lot that can be learned from it. See where we came from, what worked, what didnt, I believe that good logic for the future can be forged from the experiences of the past. So, being the fan of history, the county I live in, which is Jackson County Indiana, turns the big 200 years old in this year of 2016, as well as the state of Indiana. To make a very long story short, you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to not only to become a part of the celebration, but to be part of future history.
The Jackson county historical society contacted me and wanted something special to take around to the many celebrations that will be held this year. Unfortunately, with all of the pending projects taking up my time I wasn't able to produce this piece as promptly as they liked. But a big Jackson county themed bowie knife was constructed and I'm here to share it with you all as well as some pics of its construction along the way. But whats really cool about this, is someone is gonna win this bad boy! Thats right, it will be offered as a raffled piece and tickets will be going on sale through me and the JCHS as soon as the end of this month.
But without further ado, here she is, in all of her 19 inch OAL glory!
Here is where it all started, a idea and a drawing. I drew what was in my head, cut it out, transfered to steel and rough cut out the stock on my shear.
Murph in true beast mode taking over the crappy task of hand cutting the profile.
The finger guard on this one is a little more complicated than most. Its cut and formed from a solid piece of brass bar. Here I mill all the surfaces to true it up so the real work can begin.
A huge chunk of time went into the finger/hand gaurd
Some things where going on simultaneously, I didn't have a lot of time to knock this out, so Murph quickly got his creative wings on and i threw him headfirst into a complex project....... He did jist fine. Here I'm grinding the blade while he no dought has the bad end of the deal rough cutting stock.
Cutting the tang piece and choosing material that is native to the area. White tail deer and maple wood.
Starting to get a idea about how its all gonna go together.
Time to start the grueling task of cold forming the curves.
......and doing the decorative peening.
I wanted for there to be something to look at no matter where your eyes where on the knife..... So, file work all around. This also took up a huge amount of time.
Laying out patterns
Now that all the fab work is pretty much done, time to heat treat.
I'll post this pic twice because I think it's pretty cool, and lets face it. I'm pretty handsome.
I etch the blade to give it that antique gun metal look.
Now for the actual assembly. This is a stressful time. Everything has to go together flawlessly for the fit and finish to come out right. I know it may not look like it, but there is over 25 individual hand crafted pieces that make up this handle that have to be assembled in less than 5 minutes. Thats the time it takes for the epoxy resisn to set. If its not done in that time, your pretty much cutting it apart and starting over. I dyed the resin black in this case to form a back filled in the file work. (You'll see more on that coming up)
Give it overnight to dry, grind away all the ugly and...........
PRESTO!!!!! she's in one piece!
I got everything shaped the way I wanted it and let Murph take over the task of polishing out all of the scratches. If memory serves me correctly, he pretty much worked the majority of a whole evening hand sanding it. In the meantime, I started on the sheath.
There was a lot more to the sheath than just the few pics, but basically, I was provided a couple of bicentennial commemorative coins to use in the project, so, I inlayed them into the work, hand tooled a 2 that matched the 2 on the $20. bill (youll see later) and had to hand sew the leather. All of the layers made it to thick for my sewing machine, so back to old school manual labor!
Time to get back to the knife... I start staining the wood now. This process is a little more involved as well than one pic. Truth is, I will/did stain this and sand it many times. Kinda like doing body work on a car. The stain will show all of your high and low spots. So you sand and stain until they are all gone. That way, you end up with dare I say, perfection. I didn't count, but if I was a guessing man, I'd say I stained, sanded, polished, repeat about eight times.
It's starting to look like something now, but at this point I got discouraged. I was convinced I picked out a premium piece of curly maple. But you really dont know what your gonna get until you finish it out. Not only did this not take the color like I wanted, but the curl in the wood wasnt a obvious as I like. Only one thing to do. Sand it all back down and start over with different dye mixtures. I stopped here for a few weeks. Decided to step away and come back fresh later with a better attitude. Sometimes in my line of work, frustration is a sure sign that it's time to step away so the project doesnt end up in the bottom of the pond in a fit of rage...... Lol, and in case your wondering, yes, there are a few T.M.Hunt knives rotting away in the bottom of the pond in my back yard!
Last edited: