Nice knife. I really like the red handle spacers and the way they compliment the elk antler.

One design aspect that you might consider for your next knife is the flow of the handle into the blade. It seems like this bowie could do with a slightly more closed angle between blade and handle. I think you want profile of the back of the knife to be a smooth arc from blade to handle, as opposed to having two arcs: handle and blade, that intersect at the guard.

One other consideration might be the width of the blade. The ricasso seems to have good proportions, but the cutting edge does not drop much past that, which makes the blade look narrow, however I am not an expert on bowies by any means.

I hope my explanations are clear enough.

Keep up the good work!

–Jordan

|quoted:

Nice knife. I really like the red handle spacers and the way they compliment the elk antler.

One design aspect that you might consider for your next knife is the flow of the handle into the blade. It seems like this bowie could do with a slightly more closed angle between blade and handle. I think you want profile of the back of the knife to be a smooth arc from blade to handle, as opposed to having two arcs: handle and blade, that intersect at the guard.

One other consideration might be the width of the blade. The ricasso seems to have good proportions, but the cutting edge does not drop much past that, which makes the blade look narrow, however I am not an expert on bowies by any means.

I hope my explanations are clear enough.

Keep up the good work!

–Jordan

Thanks for the critique. I agree about the flow. I see what you are saying. It needs to be a single smooth flow. I had to leave the ricasso fairly large to be able to use that piece of elk antler. I probably should have started with a larger piece of steel. Thanks again for your input.

Carl nice blade for your first bowie. I have not used antler yet but I bet it was a good learning experience using elk.

Can't wait to see your next one.

Scott

Hello Cal. Yes those critiques are pretty much right on. The trick is choosing the right handle material size and right size steel, although we can control steel more with forging. That is why I have a drawer full of stag tapers. I will get with Ray and see if we can have a demo/discussion on design issues at the fall shop tour.

Brion

Looking at it more, I would have turned the handle around. Then make the spacer the same height as the ricasso. Then you can fair in the antler to a very slight bit larger than the spacer and bullnose it, leaving most of the antler contours.

From what you told me Cal they got a serious blade and a good knife. Good for you.

Brion