I recently participated in a bladesmith challenge project of sorts. It was called the "Hardware Store Bowie" and the premise is to make a functional knife, in the Bowie style completely from materials you can buy locally at the hardware store, home improvement store, farm or tractor supply, etc. No online ordering, no "specialty" wood or steel supply houses, you get the idea. The knife only had a few prerequisites:
1. Minimum 8 inch blade
2. Double branch guard
3. Clipped point or false edge
Some folks went pretty simple, others tried more ambitious projects. I put this together. The blade is 8.125 inches from guard to point and made from 4 bars of pattern welded steel. The two core bars are each made from 60 pieces of portable bandsaw blades, the outer bars from 5 layers of a Stanley flat bar (5160) and some mild steel shims. The guard is made from a cutoff from the blade bar, and the spacer package is coined and blued mild steel with a piece of bone in the center. The handle is red oak scales over a blued frame made from a piece of 5/8" rebar. Some of the photos were taken before I glued the handle up and peened the new pins in place.
A couple of full shots first.
A close up of the blade to see the pattern in the core.
A close up of the Spacer package (pre-glue up)
And two pics that show the file work on the frame.
This was a really fun project to work on. There were tons of hiccups along the way and several new design elements that I could work on trying out without the pressure of having to create a knife "for sale" as it were. In short, this project had allowance for failure throughout the process. There are several things I would do differently, if I had to start this again, but those are going to happen in the "next" knife. When I can add all that stress!
Thanks for viewing.
Joshua States
www.dosgatosforge.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg
https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71
Also on Instagram and Facebook as J.States Bladesmith
“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.â€
Nice knife Joshua.
How many guys competed? Was there a time limit? Did you get the bone and oak from the hdwr store too?
Thanks Lin. I think the guard is too long on the top side, but I was too lazy to grind it off and refinish it!
There are 30 smiths entered, but who knows how many will complete a knife (so far only 4 or 5 have finished). The due date for the completed knife is June 30, 2016. At that time everyone who completed has their name put in a "hat" and one of the moderators pulls names out and assigns who sends their knife to who. It's a "knife in the hat" sort of affair. Give a knife and get a knife. It's going to be interesting. Some of these smiths are in Canada or overseas in Europe.
The bone I got at the local feed store in the dog chews section. Nicely bleached white and dry as a bone! I had to dig through a few bins to find one with a narrow enough section to work. The red oak I got at the Home Depot as well as the bandsaw blades. I didn't buy the 15 bandsaw blades to do the knife though. I was saving all those old blades and my wife said "what are you saving those for?" Well, I was actually saving them to experiment with using them in PW fittings, I just never got around to trying it. The guidelines said you could repurpose materials you had on hand, as long as they could be purchased at the "approved" list of store types. No using those cut off pieces of O-1 and Damascus that are lying around the shop!
The pin stock I got at the ACE hardware store. It's called "Music wire". It comes in a variety of diameters and is 1095 steel with a spring temper. I used the stuff that is a few thousanths over 5/64", annealed it, and dressed it down to work in the pin holes.
Joshua States
www.dosgatosforge.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg
https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71
Also on Instagram and Facebook as J.States Bladesmith
“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.â€
Yep, this is an awesome knife.
Mine will be done by the due date.
I may have a third go and make another one out of some other material.
JJ I still loved your original attempt. That was awesome and we both should try that again sometime. I know it will work.
For those of you who might be wondering, JJ raised the bar on this project (pretty high) with a bloom making enterprise using cut nails. The steel looked great by the time he finished forging the blade. Unfortunately, it did not survive the quench. Then he did the big cowboy up and did a jelly roll with a file and laminated another bar around it. (raising the bar yet again)
Speaking of which, what do you mean a third attempt? I thought that second attempt was getting fittings made for it......
Joshua States
www.dosgatosforge.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg
https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71
Also on Instagram and Facebook as J.States Bladesmith
“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.â€
The jelly roll blade is small, I kind of want to make a big bowie so I have time, I may make a third attempt.
Maybe do the nails again or just for fun carborize them in a tube and then forge weld them all together.
The guard is fairly easy.
I'm thinking I'm going to take copper flashing and smelt it into an ingot and just punch and drift it to fit.
Chase everything closed and do some filing on it.
