Bowie - Work in Progress (Pro pic pg 3)

[Lin Rhea]

I'm going to try another work in progress with photos. This is very risky since it can flop at any moment. I am past some critical stages and feel I can go for it. First the stock is 1 1/4 round that is W2 steel.
   
   
Time to start shaping the blade but I want to flatten it and taper it a little.
   
Push up the bottom of the ricasso. This makes the choils much easier to pull down and back.
   
Gotta go to the shop for a while.

[Lamey]

round bar is the absolute best form to star with, especially when its that good ole' W2.

[Lin Rhea]

I stepped the tang in to make a place for my tongs to grip.
 
Now to flatten and shape the blade.
 
Time for the grinding to start.

[DANA HOLMAN]

Looking good Lin, Do you use your power hammer for most of your forging and drawing out or your hand hammer.
Dana

[FerretWYO]

I love these. So much to learn so much to learn!!!

[Lin Rhea]

Thanks guys. Dana, I sure do use a power hammer. But as you might imagine, there is no way to not use a hand hammer a lot. Has to be done.

Here is the blade after I did some rough shaping of the profile and I used a side grinder to knock the scale off the sides.
 

This will give you an idea of where I'm going.
You can compare the drawing to the blade.
 

[Lin Rhea]

Here is a close up of the ricasso area.
 
Now the blade. It's 11 1/2 inches.
 

[Bill Kissner]

Holy Moly Lin, you sure do beautiful work!

[tomsm44]

I said it on FB and I'll say it again here.  That minimal ricasso combined with the plunge/choil angle looks awesome.  Can't wait to see it finished.

Matt

[D.Ellis]

Very cool with that short ricasso.
Darcy  

[gudspelr]

That last photo makes me see soooo much blade with that minimal ricasso (that's a good thing). It's a very interesting departure from the "traditional" look, but I like it. I look forward to the progress of this knife and as always, thank you very much for sharing your processes.

Jeremy

[Lin Rhea]

OK, now the fun stuff. The fittings. It's much easier to draw than make what you draw. This is close but not exactly the guard I drew. Part of the difference is that the drawing is one dimensional and we see in 3D. I cut 1 inch off the end of a 1 1/4 round bar of 416 stainless and forged it into the guard. As you can imagine, there is a lot of reduction and thinning. This stuff is prone to split so I had to work it at a high red to orange and reduce it a little at a time with lots of heats. It split once right on the end where one of the balls was going, so I cut the split off and was more careful hoping that I had enough material to make the piece. As it turns out the guard is 1/4 inch longer than planned. That is the main difference I was talking about.
   

The next thing I did was to start the flattening the front. That was pretty easy since I used flat dies at the last of the forging. The front is flat mostly to fit the ricasso shoulders but I want the back to be round-ish and tapered away from the flat area at the handle juncture.
 
 

[akaboomer]

Beautiful so far. I love watching you process.  Your forged fittings are always a treat. Thanks for taking the time to document it and sharing itwith us.

Chris

[Lin Rhea]

Thanks Chris.

The next picture is of the guard after it is heated and curved. I have it in the jig holding it so I can sand the curves. I intend to leave the balls forge finished and end up with a forge finish finial nut on the butt cap. This is where I am caught up and have to do more work to get some pictures.
 

[Lamey]

so cool there just are no words.

[D.Ellis]

That guard is awesome! That's some accurate forging right there!    
Darcy

[Doug Campbell]

Oh man I'm loving this one Lin. Fantastic forging on that guard.

[gables]

Thanks for being so generous with what you share. This is very inspirational! Your posts and knives have heavily influenced me.

[Stompie]

WoW Wow wow absolutely beautiful!!!!!!

[Lin Rhea]

Thanks.
I got up early this morning. Too early and fit the stag to the knife.