1911a1forlife Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Hello everyone, this is a leather washer handled bowie I completed back in February. The blade is made from leaf spring steel; the overall length is 15.5" long with a 9.5" blade. I still need to make a sheath for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad J Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 nice job, keep it up! How does your bolster work? i was thinking on trying a leather stacked handle knife and all i found was stuff for a pommel or a butt cap that had the tang beat down like a rivet. just trying to get ideas. Thanks Chad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1911a1forlife Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 chadj, I know what you mean about pommels being peened over, I made a leather handle for a navy k-bar that someone thoughtfully replaced with an ugly piece of antler, and that originally was made like that. The bolster works good, I narrowed the tang about 1/4 on each side and squared the corners so the bolster has a good stopping point. I'm not fortunate to have a lathe or mill, so I drilled a series of holes and hand filed the notch for the bolster to slide up the tang. The pommel bothered me for awhile since I don't have a lathe to turn one, so I figured why not use a kitchen cabinet knob? so I went to Lowes and purchaced one of the proper diameter, and I decided to weld a threaded shank onto the tang to attach the pommel. The pommel came threaded, but with too small a hole, so I found a hardened bolt that I was going to weld to the tang so I drilled the hole larger in the door knob and tapped it to the bolt thread. then I just hand threaded the pommel on and used an extra leather washer at the end to add pressure to help hold the pommel on and some loctite. The washers I made using a simple holesaw, I then put the washers on a long bolt and shaped them on the belt sander. If I had a lathe, I could make them nicer. Then I individually cut the tang shape out of each washer and stacked them in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panzertank27 Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 sweet knives, thanx for info on the handle assembly, nice to have more options . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1911a1forlife Posted May 23, 2009 Author Share Posted May 23, 2009 panzertank27, not a prob, thanks for looking :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 That's a serious knife, looks good, and I like your description of the handle build, very helpful. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad J Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 hey 1911a1forlife thanks for the tutorial, I came across a broken firing pin that I'll use for the butt cap (firing pin is from a 155mm howitzer) will see how it looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1911a1forlife Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 chadj, I can't wait to see that! thats a great idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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