Post by: PetahW on October 04, 2016, 07:51:33 PM
Last month, my Green-eyed Monster & I attended Mooseup CT's annual town-wide yard sales (200 venues), with a flea market store or two also taking part in the sale-a-thon.
One item I jumped on (@ $2), was this 6" unfinished Bowie that the seller had scavenged when cleaning out a former knife factory building (the other knives the seller had were unfinished steak knives).
(http://i.imgur.com/5Oo9Xp9l.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/dLyPxeml.jpg)
This blade has a very faint Colonial "anvil" stamp just forward of where the guard will go (bracketed by "Prov" & "USA"), and I've been inside the Providence (RI) Colonial factory many decades ago, in the late 1960's, when I was a business machine serviceman.
This blade isn't lightly etched with the "TUF-STAG..(deer head)....ULTRA HONED" - it's deeply stamped.
I've seen the fake stag (ugh ! ) before on Colonial & Imperial knives - one of the reasons I decided to go with black Micarta ILO real stag for grip scales, because of the possibility that future viewers of the finished knife would pooh-pooh the real stag, thinking it was imitation.
Soooo, as soon as I got back home, I ordered a brass cross-guard & a set of black micarta scales, and intended to polish the blade, then fit/finish the knife guard & scales as soon as possible.
Last week, I got the crossguard, black Micatra scales, & a pack of rivets that I ordered from the CRAZY CROW TRADING POST for the bowie knife blade.
I then started the rehab by filing/fitting the crossguard to the tang via enlarging the pre-made slot in the guard so it slides onto the tang.
I also started polishing out the blade, and will permanently affix the guard when the polishing is done.
(after a slight polishing)
(http://i.imgur.com/6g5zDyIl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/mP2fDAhl.jpg)
I cut out the scales, then decided that I wanted to try a 2-piece look, with the front portion of the grip separated from the longer/rear portion by a brass spacer.
After inletting the scales for the tang, I attached them in their rough/as-cut condition first, then hacksawed off the extra/protruding portions of the brass spacer.
(http://i.imgur.com/y6t6ky3l.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/LmIaOCal.jpg)
Then, I worked the scales down to roughly the shape/feel I wanted, and riveted the scales to the tang with plain brass rivets.
(http://i.imgur.com/sLwr8o1l.jpg)
The next steps I tackled are a clean up of the blade, and the final sanding/polishing/etc of the grip & the brass guard, spacer & rivet heads - then try to start on a leather/rawhide parfleche sheath for it, like these two, below:
(http://crazycrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/knife-sheath-006-300x371.jpg)
For the sheath, I first made a paper pattern & cut it out so I would have to cut the leather only once.
(http://i.imgur.com/wzhVs51l.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/JTDBh4dl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/bVh4OmLl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/6mcrodCl.jpg)
Then, I used the paper pattern to cut out the leather & trial-fit the bowie into it.
(http://i.imgur.com/pGpz1MOl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/qIpjH4rl.jpg)
Next will come finalizing the sheath's outer & belt slot shapes, then lacing/sewing the sheath edges together, before adding some brass tacking & warpaint :horse
.
I finally caught a break from re-working my home's kitchen cabinets to accept a larger, bottom-freezer refrig I bought, and started to work on my yard sale blade's sheath.
I had bought a Japanese-style 7" Santoku kitchen knife, that happened to have been supplied with a plastic blade guard.
Since the knife didn't need the guard (I have a knife block), I thought that I could use it as a sheath liner, to prevent the blade from eventually working through the leather sheath.
(http://i.imgur.com/AGWcBiom.jpg)
The blade guard was a tad long for my bowie's 6-1/2" blade, so I reworked both the guard's throat and the overall length.
(http://i.imgur.com/Ai6lYavm.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/VXRSf7Zm.jpg)
Here's how it will lay, hidden inside the sheath:
(I have already sewed a beadwork Thunderbird device onto what will be the outer face of the sheath)
(http://i.imgur.com/iMyG5nGm.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/v2bOY2nm.jpg)
My next step(s) should be sewing a single belt loop to the rear/outside of the sheath, then sewing the sheath together before installing a line of brass rivets just outside the bowie's cutting edge, down the sheath from the throat to the bottom.
After that, I plan on testing my artistic ability by painting a Native American design onto the facer of the sheath - I can only hope that I'll be up to it.
.
Post by: amm1851 on October 04, 2016, 08:15:38 PM
Post by: PetahW on October 05, 2016, 08:35:39 AM
Thank you......
Since the guard's pre-punched (cast ?) center hole was too small to slide the guard onto the tang, I filed the hole for a snug sliding fit on the tang, then epoxied the guard to the tang - after which I drilled & pinned it to the tang with a piece of thin brass rod, which disappeared when I polished out the brass with my buffing wheel.
I likewise epoxied the scales to the tang, but used brass rivets ILO a headless rod to permanently secure them.
The thin brass spacer was once a boughten shoe buckle from a hobby shop, which I flattened, then drilled & filed the center of, so it would also slide onto the tang.
(I cut off the excess brass after the epoxy cured - it was further file-cut down & shaped when I worked down the rough grip)
.
Post by: Hanshi on October 05, 2016, 05:59:31 PM
Post by: PetahW on October 21, 2016, 08:12:10 PM
A friend stopped by yesterday, while I was working on the sheath, and gave me nice-size hunk of tanned buckskin - soooooo,I decided to make a 2nd sheath from some of it, alongside the sheath I've been working on.
I cut out the buckskin just like I did previously, then laced the edge(s) closed (below, with the 1st sheath and a factory sheath I decorated last year for a Cherokee Bowie I have)
(http://i.imgur.com/rUgNbEdl.jpg)
I drew up both sheath's outlines on a piece of paper, then made several copies of each, so I could (color) pencil in a few different designs, to make mockup's, to see how it might turn out.
This is what I came up with for the 1st sheath:
(http://i.imgur.com/ah0svIEl.jpg)
This is what I came up with for the buckskin sheath:
(http://i.imgur.com/IZr742Nl.jpg)
Whaddya think ? Suggestions ? ?
.
Post by: Uncle Russ on October 22, 2016, 01:06:53 AM
Looks good to these old eyes.
Uncle Russ...
Post by: PetahW on October 24, 2016, 12:16:10 PM
I got busy & finished one of the sheaths today - the buckskin sheath.
I first drew an outline of the decorative pattern I wanted onto the leather.
(http://i.imgur.com/Se1wy09l.jpg)
I then applied some of the colors, and let it dry overnite.
(http://i.imgur.com/KWjX2Vul.jpg)
After that, I decided that an orange/amber color looked better to me than the blue I had planned on.
(http://i.imgur.com/TAm9VP9l.jpg)
The last thing I did was to clean up the black lines that separated the colors.
(http://i.imgur.com/S27Cnfel.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/3txMV2Tl.jpg)
Now, back to finishing the other/original sheath..........
.
Post by: Uncle Russ on October 24, 2016, 01:13:49 PM
Uncle Russ...
Post by: PetahW on October 24, 2016, 09:55:00 PM
Thanks for the kind words ! :Doh! , I applied paint to only one color/section at a time, then letting it dry/cure before either second-coating a color or applying a different color.
As can be seen in the pics, where the colors flowed beyond their the edges of their section(s), I was able to clean up when I went over the black section borders.(aka: out of sight, out of mind
).
Post by: PetahW on October 28, 2016, 07:48:43 PM
(10/28 Update - sheaths done, except for edge lacing one0
Well........ Just about done - I finished lacing the 1st (AND last) sheath today, with suede leather lacing.
(http://i.imgur.com/Z6nRrhel.jpg)
Here's all 4 of my bowie knives, with their respective sheaths (for reference, the table they're on has 6" tiles):
(L to R: re-handled Cherokee Bowie w/re-worked sheath, re-handled Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie w/CS sheath, re-handled Colonial Bowie w/new sheath, and an unknown pig-sticker w/new sheath)
(http://i.imgur.com/tzRilNzl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ST1S1zwl.jpg)
.
Post by: Ohio Joe on November 07, 2016, 04:47:34 PM
PetahW, I think your work looks great!
Post by: PetahW on November 13, 2016, 11:58:57 AM
Thanks, Joe !
.
Post by: Bison Horn on November 13, 2016, 09:53:51 PM