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Author Topic: The "Gunflint Bowie"  (Read 2708 times)

Offline kbaknife

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The "Gunflint Bowie"
« on: August 11, 2011, 09:08:00 PM »
(I posted this up on another forum a while ago and thought I'd share it with you guys. we have more fun here anyway!)

Can this guy really do TWO knife progressions in one day?  :eek:  
Short answer - yes, he can.
Seriously, I did that other stag "stuff" and this one today. I'm whooped.
I've had this knife forged up for a couple weeks and needed to get it moving so I'd have it for the Troy, Ohio Hammer-in and show in two weeks at the
  http://www.americanbladesmith.com/index.php?section=events&subsection=show_events_details&events_id=22  
7th Mid-America Bladesmithing Symposium.
So, I really did need to be busy today.

I made this blade with a couple things in mind. I have wanted to make a raised clip mid-sized Bowie for some time now. I want one for myself for a back-country canoe trip I have planned in the Boundary Waters next year right after the Blade Show. I'm getting a new portage pack that I want to strap a camp knife to, so I named this knife the "Gunflint Bowie" after the Gunflint Trail that winds through the Arrowhead of North East Minnesota and runs along the outer perimeter of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
I'm going to have the pack customized with an outer pocket to hold my Bowie. (This one will be for sale when finished.)
Here is the basic platform for my pack:
 

I started with my 1" square 5160 that was made in 1984 here in Illinois for a specific manufacturing process:

 

I'm not much of a tong guy until the end, so I weld up my material to handles made from rebar:

 

A picture of the press with post-spacers in place:

 

I have my power hammer set-up with a spacer holder to which I attach spacers that run from .130" up to over an inch:

 

I wanted this knife to finish up pretty thick at the guard, and my first posts on my press needed just a little extra, so I added two nickels!

 
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2011, 09:10:00 PM »
After a little beating and pounding we get this:

 

 

 
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2011, 09:10:00 PM »
I forged this during that miserable heat we all had and just didn't finish it that day. I think I lost almost two pounds in sweat that day.
The next morning I forged in the raised clip and didn't think to take any pictures.
I think here I was doing some post-forging thermal cycles. There was some delirium involved during those days due to lack of potassium, so I'm not sure what I was doing. :confused:
 

After some of the basic grinding has taken place, I've used my surface plate and height gauge to determine flat-ass dead center. I will use this line to help file in the false edge.
 

I sort of knock the major edges off on the grinder, but do the real IMPORTANT stuff by hand. There is really no other way to get a clip dead center and straight.
 

 

 

 
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2011, 09:12:00 PM »
Then we need to clean up the clip which I do with hard steel backing to keep that clip SHARP!!

 

 

Now the clip is done and we need to sand the flats.
 

After the blade flats are readied for hardening, I have stamped my name and JS and need to do the final tweak on the ricasso, This I do on the disk.

 

After all is said and done, she's .262".
 

 

 
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2011, 09:12:00 PM »
Set the guard shoulders:

 

And the ol' "Gunflint Bowie" is about ready for the oven!

 
Logged
When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline chinook907

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2011, 09:30:00 PM »
Really, really nice.  Cant' wait to see it finished.
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"Have I not commanded you ? Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Offline Kevin Evans

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2011, 10:16:00 PM »
Good job Karl !
I have new attachement for clips if your interested.
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Offline DANA HOLMAN

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2011, 10:26:00 PM »
Karl, The third picture from the last, shows your sanding marks from spine to edge,( just off the belt sander)then you filed the shoulders. The last picture is hard to tell but it looks like you have sanded the flats from ricasso to tip, I assume that you did sand the flats before you heat treat, Right?
By the way thats going to be a nice Bowie
Dana
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"When Satan is knocking at your door,
Simply say,

 "Jesus, could you get that for me?"

Offline akaboomer

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2011, 11:56:00 PM »
Looking great, Karl.

Chris
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Offline srtben

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2011, 12:12:00 AM »
Thats beautiful Karl! I am a big fan of raised clips. Do you "cold" stamp your name on the blade, if so do you use a press?
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Ben Tendick

God, Family, Friends.

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2011, 08:53:00 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by DANA HOLMAN:
I assume that you did sand the flats before you heat treat, Right?
 
Absolutely. You don't want ANY scratches running laterally when you go to create martensite. I take everything to a hand sanded 220.
That said, some folks might get away with hardening blades while having scratches running up and down, and I know a lot of guys do it.
But that brings up other questions in my mind, sort of like guys who say they never get any warpage!
In either case, if guys don't get cracks with scratches running up or down, or also don't ever get any warpage, my first suspicion is that they're not making sufficient MARTENSITE!!
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2011, 08:54:00 AM »


 
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline Jim Jackson

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2011, 09:10:00 AM »
Great thread!  What lakes are you going to explore with that bowie?
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Blaze out your own trail.

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #13 on: August 12, 2011, 09:58:00 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by A. Kinslow:
Great thread!  What lakes are you going to explore with that bowie?
It won't be THIS Bowie - this I will sell as soon as it's done.
I'll make another one for myself and take it and probably be pulling out of Tuscarora camp and do some type of loop through Saganaga, Alpine, Seagull, something like that. About 5 days. Then do another one in September.
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When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline Lamey

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #14 on: August 12, 2011, 10:15:00 AM »
REAL cool Karl,   so far its the best Bowie ive seen from your shop, and youve made some dandy's.
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Offline DANA HOLMAN

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #15 on: August 12, 2011, 10:56:00 AM »
Thanks Karl, I thought you did. I know we have talked about this a number of times in the past, but I just wanted to make sure.
Dana
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"When Satan is knocking at your door,
Simply say,

 "Jesus, could you get that for me?"

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #16 on: August 12, 2011, 11:00:00 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by srtben:
Thats beautiful Karl! I am a big fan of raised clips. Do you "cold" stamp your name on the blade, if so do you use a press?
Yes, I press the stamps in with a gadget I made:
(I had some other pictures somewhere but I can't find them!)

 

 
Logged
When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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  • Posts: 2670
Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #17 on: August 12, 2011, 04:30:00 PM »
While my oven is warming its way up to 1515, I'll do a little thinking ahead.
I always like to have in my mind what exactly it is that I'm making, even long before I get there. Sort of helps keep me in focus.
I always draw my knives for the visual, and also to have a pattern for my handle material cut-out. I save these and use them for ideas and future patterns.
 

Then I'll lay them out and get an idea of what I want.

 

 

 

I buy 416 round stock and use for my fittings. This way I can get whatever size I want.

 

Look! She's up to heat. Now that the oven has made it up to 1515, the entire mass needs to come up as well. In the bottom of the oven I have a layer of 1" thick wrought iron that needs to heat up as well, so as to make a nice and even, continuous heat over 100% of the oven.
I give it one full hour - minimum - of soak time.
So, I'm gonna go have lunch.

 
Logged
When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline kbaknife

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #18 on: August 12, 2011, 04:32:00 PM »
I'm back.
This 5160 that I got some time ago is amazingly deep hardening. I want a little bit of "give" in the spine and guard shoulder area, and I achieve this with a substantial application of clay.
This steel hardens so deeply, that it will harden underneath the bottom edge of the clay, and the tang will air harden without ever being quenched. It'll smoke a drill bit, no problem.

 

I will warm up my forge to dry the clay and I will do two reducing heat thermal cycles.

 

Then, after the second cycle and it drops to about 1000 degrees, into the oven she goes.

 


After four minutes in the oven, I open the door and shoot the blade with my laser thermometer. Guess where she is?

 


I was lucky enough to get 15 gallons of Texaco A before it became extinct.
(Luckily, it is now being produced, as far as I know, with the original formula/recipe and is called Quench A, by a company in Indiana.
I get good luck with it at about 140-150.

 

After sufficient soak time, a full blade quench!!
Then, a couple tempers.

 
Logged
When the last deer disappears into the morning mist,
When the last elk vanishes from the hills,
When the last buffalo falls on the plains,
I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph

Offline Steve Nuckels

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Re: The "Gunflint Bowie"
« Reply #19 on: August 12, 2011, 07:28:00 PM »
Very Cool!!!!!

Thanks Karl!

Steve
-------
Potomac Forge
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