I started this little Bowie a couple months ago by forging the blade entirely by hand on a 200 year old anvil. Sometimes I just want to do that, you know?
Here is a picture of the blade (7 1/2 inches) just before I started the thermocycle. Its at forging temperature now.
Now I have it ground and ready to heat treat. As you can see the shape of the blade was planned from the beginning.
The next picture shows the guard ready to attach to the blade. I forged the guard from a piece of a bar of 416 stainless. I show the bar in the upper right of the picture.
Here the guard is on and the handle is fitted. At the time of that picture, the buttcap was not on so I just snapped the part that was done.
The buttcap is done. Pardon the cotton lint.
Here is the over view.
It's a light, well balanced, little Bowie. Thanks