Starting a New Mosaic Bowie

[Gary Mulkey 986]

While I  was at The ICCE  Show, I promised Doug Ritter a knife for "Knife Rights".  Charles  Turnage was  generous  enough  to  donate some beautiful mastodon ivory for the  hilt.  I decided to make a mosaic  Bowie with a frame  tang and curved partial pommel wrap.  I haven't  decided  if  I  will inlay the ivory  or not.

Here's my start on the steel:

Hope you enjoy this WIP.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask.  I'll  try to keep  you  updated on my progress.

[Brian Dougherty 670]

Sweet, another Gary WIP!

[C Craft 160]

Wow, I like that pattern! 

[Jim Pierce 50]

On 9/28/2017 at 6:26 PM, Brian Dougherty said:

Sweet, another Gary WIP!

I'm with Brian, will watch this closely, thanks for doing another wip Gary. Very sweet pattern.  

[Gary Mulkey 986]

Progressing with the mosaic:

 

 

 

Now that I have all of the welding done on the Damascus billet, I'll try to get it forged into a blade tomorrow.  If you have questions on what I'm doing, feel free to ask.

 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Gary Mulkey

[Vern Wimmer 470]

OK, I'll bite.

I am as dense as an old anvil when it comes to this pattern welding stuff. I've done a little cable and simple layer but I do not understand how you get blocks like that to weld up, end to end, even if tack welded. I keep thinking you'd have to stack them vertically and moosh them from end to end.

[Gary Mulkey 986]

21 minutes ago, Vern Wimmer said:

OK, I'll bite.

I am as dense as an old anvil when it comes to this pattern welding stuff. I've done a little cable and simple layer but I do not understand how you get blocks like that to weld up, end to end, even if tack welded. I keep thinking you'd have to stack them vertically and moosh them from end to end.

The  tiles are cut on a  45 degree angle and overlapped.

[Gary Mulkey 986]

When I promised  Doug to make a knife for  "Knife Rights" this  year, I  told  him that I would  make something big & showy.  Well I think  that I got the first half  of that done.   The second half is still to be  accomplished.

Here's the knife  rough forged:

 

And a rough ground & quick etch just to see what the pattern turned out like:

The light & dark spots are due to the uneven rough grind.  (I was  in a  hurry to see the pattern.)

[Zeb Camper 630]

Your the king of bowies Gary! Love your pattern welding. I guess it will get a false edge on the back right? 

[Karim 62]

Impressive work also the new nick, Sir king bowie

[C Craft 160]

3 hours ago, Gary Mulkey said:

When I promised  Doug to make a knife for  "Knife Rights" this  year, I  told  him that I would  make something big & showy.  Well I think  that I got the first half  of that done.   The second half is still to be  accomplished.

Here's the knife  rough forged:

And a rough ground & quick etch just to see what the pattern turned out like:

The light & dark spots are due to the uneven rough grind.  (I was  in a  hurry to see the pattern.)

Gary, I really love that pattern! Usually I am not really interested in Damascus. Just a personal preference thing more than anything! However I find myself really liking this one. I am tuned in to see the end result!! Two thumbs up!!

[Jim Pierce 50]

I'm really enjoying this, can't wait to see it finished. Looks like a great knife for a good cause. 

[Gary Mulkey 986]

Unfortunately today while preparing the blade for H/T I discovered a small but unacceptable flaw in the Damascus.   So now my extra large 13"  blade is now a more average 10".  Since the flaw was toward the rear of the blade, it now has no ricasso making it more of a 19th century blade rather than the modern Bowie that I started with.  This will require a new hilt design but fortunately I hadn't cut into the ivory yet so that shouldn't be a problem.   I think that I  can probably come up  with a historical style hilt to match the blade.

 

[Don Abbott 65]

 

[Gary Mulkey 986]

I designed a historical style hilt for the modified blade  last night.  While the blade was in the tempering oven, I got a  start on the new style hilt.  This may give you an idea of where I'm going with it:

 

Once that I have the ivory shaped & the pin holes drilled, I will cut the top  & bottom of the frame tang apart to make room for a threaded extension to the integral tang to  enable a pommel  nut to be used.

[Jim Pierce 50]

Wow!! Can't wait for the fit up, thanks Gary for the post.

[Greg Thomas Obach 3]

very cool post !

[Gary Mulkey 986]

I've now got all  of the hilt components roughed out.  I'll start the fit & finish tomorrow.

As you can see, I'm giving this one a bit of a Henry Schively style handle with a little of me added to it.

[Alan Longmire 1,796]

I actually like that better than the original design!

[Zeb Camper 630]

I wasn't sure how I would feel about it without the ricasso either, but yeah, looks awesome! 

[Gary Mulkey 986]

2 hours ago, Zeb Camper said:

I wasn't sure how I would feel about it without the ricasso either, but yeah, looks awesome! 

Thanks.  Many of  the original  Bowie knives were made this  way.  It just takes the right style of guard & hilt for  it  to look  right.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Gary Mulkey

[Zeb Camper 630]

20 hours ago, Gary Mulkey said:

Thanks.  Many of  the original  Bowie knives were made this  way.  It just takes the right style of guard & hilt for  it  to look  right.

The only difference is their's didn't look this good. I researched some photos of bowies from the confederacy, and the blades were strange at best. I saw double D guards, dagger type blades, sweeping weird shaped handles... Maybe they made their own bowies out of salvage steel and didn't have a designated blacksmith/armourer? Maybe the ferriers took this task. That's all I can figure. Anyway, I like the no-ricasso look. 

[Zeb Camper 630]

Like this guy's backwards bowie. 

[Wes Detrick 480]

I'm with Alan, I like new design better!

[Gary Mulkey 986]

Here's the first dry fit-up:

 

I'll try to get this  one finished tomorrow with some pics of  the final outcome.  Sorry for  the poor photos but I  just didn't have adequate lighting.  Hopefully  I'll  be  able to  do  better tomorrow.