Gary Mulkey

The blade on this Bowie is a little me and a little Daniel Searles. The damascus pattern is from Jean-louis Regel MS (with his permission). The engraving is from Steve Dunn MS. Blade: 1080 & 15N20 Handle: African Blackwood Handle inlays: Fine Silver Handle Fittings: 416 Stainless

I love what I do for a living but sometimes not as much in the summer.

Here's how I start on the wooden handles. I first cut the pieces to 1"x 1 1/2"x 4 1/2. I then traced the tang of each on the side of the wooden block and aligned one edge with the side of the drill press vise. This will align the slot correctly within the handle. Then with the appropriate drill bit make a hole on each side of the intended slot: The web between the two holes can be removed with the same drill bit by working the piece sideways. Just remember to do all of the cutting with the beveled end of the drill bit and not the side. The fit doesn't have to be perfect as I will fill this with AcraGlas when attaching the handle. The blocks can then be profiled both ways with a band saw and finally shaped to size with a 2 x 72 grinder. Just remember to saw the top & bottom first (as on the far piece) before doing the two sides. That will give you a square edge to lay flat on the bandsaw table.

I got the five blades rough ground and my maker's mark stamped into the ricasso. Here's what I use as anti-scale while H/T'ing: I H/T my damascus @ 1475: As quenched in Park's 50: Be sure to check each blade with a file for hardness. If the file bites at all, it's not hard enough. The blades are in the tempering oven now. I temper my hunters @ 400 degrees for two 2 hour sessions.

Probably 416 but I may use some Damascus.

I've gotten a WIP started but you can send me the beer or wine anyway.

Occasionally I will offer one of my knives at a discounted price for a limited time in order to test various marketing strategies. Here's one that will be available for the remainder of August at a discount. [This Bowie was styled after those by F.C. Goergen of New Orleans.] Blade: Original mosaic damascus pattern. (The stars were done with powdered steel) Handle: faux ivory Fittings: 416 Temporary price for August, 2018: $875

I'm not positive as I made all of this Damascus some time ago but I'm thinking that each will have a 336 layer random pattern. (I may get fooled when I do the first etch though.)

I got all of the forging scale removed, the ricasso surface ground and the distal taper straightened today. I also got the tangs ground. In the picture you can see the file jig that I use to get the lip established on all four sides of the ricasso. It has carbide plates so I can use it on the 2x72 grinder without damage and then finish up with single cut safe files.

First revision--make the blade a little more of a recurve:

With no disrespect to anyone who has responded here but please don't rely on advice from non-professionals. I have had heart disease for many years and it ALWAYS is a good idea to see a specialist. Make an appointment with a cardiologist to be on the safe side.

Per recent requests, here's a WIP on how I make what I call my field grade working knives. I normally will work on several of these at the same time. This group will be 4-6" drop point & clip point hunters with wooden handles. I am making these from some small left over damascus billets. Often as I build a large Bowie I will have a piece of the damascus billet left which won't make another large knife but is large enough for a small hunter and that's what these will be made from. Once I have the billet to the approximate width & thickness needed, the first forging step is to point the billet. For this I will use a four lb. sledge even though I don't have quite as much control over it as I do with my normal 2 lb. cross peen just to save time as exact dimensions aren't critical at this point. As I work alone it is difficult to get photos of the actual forging but this piece which is in the forge shows how I have pointed the end. It's important to remember to strike each corner of the end of the billet on a 45 degree angle back towards yourself in order to create a point and not a bird's mouth. While pointing a blade, I usually will hold the end of the billet even with the far edge of my anvil so the hammer never strikes the anvil face. Remember that as you forge the blade to shape that you need to leave it extra thick and not to forge to exact dimensions. This is because the outside of the blade steel will lose carbon while being forged and you need to have enough material left to grind this outside layer off in order to get down to the high carbon content that you started with. Here are three of the blades after being normalized. This is a critical process to making quality blades and should be done three times on each of them. ( I won't explain the process unless anyone has questions.) Removing the forging scale with an angle grinder. (Scale is extremely hard and will ruin your belts quickly if not removed.) It's now 96 degrees outside so I'm stopping for the day. I'll try to keep you updated as I progress with these hunters.

I've not done one as they are much more simple and straight forward but I'll keep your request in mind.

Right now I'm sold out. I like to have at least 4-5.

I just started forging some hunters to replenish my exhausted supply. These don't require a lot of artistic efforts so while I'm working on them, I'm using my down time to start designing my next Bowie. This will give you a bit of an idea of my process: Step One: Put on a pot of coffee Step Two: Do a rough sketch of the direction where your going Step Three: Leave it alone and ruminate on it for 24-48 hours and then do any changes, additions or revisions.