Antique Bowie Repro with a twist

[Doug Campbell]

This story has a couple of different angles to it. First I've been wanting to do a build of a simple knife in the back of Flayderman's book, "The Bowie Knife" for some time. Seeing Lin do that awesome Sheffield the other day finally got me off top dead center.  I decided instead of doing it in plain carbon steel I'd add my own twist in the form of some special Damascus steel.  I hope to get it done for the upcoming AR Knife Show next week.

Secondly I have a customer who being a real rock hound is kind of enthralled by the legend that the knives made by James Black, the famous (via Jim Bowie) Bladesmith of Washington AR used Meteorite in his knives.  My customer wants me to forge a Damascus bowie incorporating Meteorite into the blade.  A couple months ago I received a 5# chunk of what looks like a rock from him.  The thing is solid metal and magnetic as can be.  Anyway long story short I decided maybe I could do a little experimenting for this project and do this knife for the show at the same time.

I'm not nearly as good at these build-a-longs as these other guys but hope you get a little something out of it anyway.

I tried to cut the Meteorite with my little band-saw first and burned up a blade in a few seconds, this thing is very hard.  I could have cut slices with an abrasive grinder but didn't want to have that much waste material.  I finally just put the whole rock in my forge and took it up to 2200 degrees.  I proceeded to slowly try to forge it into some usable shape.  I was able to "work" off a small piece that weighed around a pound.  It was a very slow process since any time I tried to make progress the meteorite had a tendency to crumble.  After six hours of careful work with my press and hammer I finally had something that resembled a bar of steel just shy of a foot long, 1 1/2" wide X 1/8" thick.  
   
     
   
   

[Doug Campbell]

I cleaned up the "billet", cut to length then laminated it between some pieces of 1084 and headed back to the forge.  I forged this billet out cut and cleaned it up restacked with 15N20 between the layers then headed back to the forge.
 
 
 

[Doug Campbell]

It has been a two day process to get the blade to this point but here is first the forged blade then the ground blade taken to 320 grit. I gave it a quick etch just cause I wanted to see what it was going to look like.  Tomorrow I just need to work on the clip, stamp with my logo then it's off to the forge for heat-treating and the oven for tempering.  
 
 
I am pleased with the look so far, can't really tell at this point if the bars of Meteorite are going to show up much.  I'll post more progress in a couple days.

[Lin Rhea]

Excellent stuff Doug!!!!
I love it!

[Hopewell Tom]

Holy Smokes, you guys should be on that TV show How It's Made!
You're making a knife from a rock. The skills I see here always amaze me.
I guess all metal comes from a rock, but you don't see the process much...
Very nice work.

[kbaknife]

You bringing that to Arkansaw?

[Lin Rhea]

Shucks Karl! You're already talkin like us.

He better bring it to Arkansaw.      

[Ric O'Shay]

Doug - That is truly great stuff! I am amazed at the talent on display here.

[bretto]

WOW

[Arrowest]

Awesome stuff Doug.  You may not know if the meteorite will show up much but you got alien images popping out now.  Look at the photo of the etched blade, cock your head to the left and there he is....lol.

[D.Ellis]

HA! I see the alien!
Nice job Doug......that don't look easy to work with.
Darcy

[Jedimaster]

I'm blown away! This is destined to become one of my favorite threads ever! Meteorite to knife ... that is just wild. Can't wait to see how this comes out. Talk about a one of a kind and with a back-story to boot!

[akaboomer]

Hurry up already. I am ready to see the next step. Looking great Doug. Don't rush on my account. I just love where this is going.

Chris

[Doug Campbell]

Figured you guys would see those faces peeking out of that blade.     Glad your liking what your seeing. And yes Karl she'll sure be at AR if I can do my part.

Didn't quite get where I wanted today. Had a couple neighbors stop by the shop so lost a good part of the morning. Got the HT done and she's in the oven now. Worked on the handle and guard this afternoon. I should have something resembling a put together knife by tomorrow afternoon.

[2treks]

A Meteroite! I am really digging this one.
Very cool Doug,
How big was the meteorite in size? I sure do like watching you guys do your thing.
Can't wait to see the progress.

CTT

[tippit]

Next thing you'll be forgin' up metal scrap from fallen satellites!  That knife is out of this world  

[snakewood3]

Gadzooks Doug !!!! And you said I have a "fertile mind" ???

[amar911]

I'm waiting to comment much until I see more, but this is fascinating so far.

Allan

[gudspelr]

Doug-

This is a great looking knife.  I read through a long but interesting thread on another forum a little while back where a chunk of meteorite was used, too.  They put pieces of charcoal in with the meteorite in an effort to bring the carbon% up and I think they used a press to continue forging down the meteorite.  The common theme appears to be a LOT of work, no matter what direction you go...  Great job and looking forward to seeing how this turns out.  Thanks for sharing it with us.


Jeremy

[Doug Campbell]

Thanks guys, this'n is proving to be a lot of work but I'm loving it.  I didn't get a handle on it today, hopefully tomorrow.  Got her etched and spent quite a while crafting that wrought iron guard but I think it was worth it.