2012 March of Dimes Bowie -WIP- photo heavy!

[J. Neilson]

"From John Cohea":
March of Dimes Charity Build 2012
I'm a little late in annoucing this, but better late than never. The last couple of years we have had fairly fancy knives made by some REALLY talented folks, so this year we're going to tone it down a notch or two, but the talent will still there!

This year will be a frontier style collabaration.The knife will be a big ole stag crown bowie, and our solo maker this year will be ABS Mastersmith J Neilson, with yours truly providing the leatherwork and display stand.The stag was donated by Richard J, and Coop will once again bring it all together in the end for us with photos.

J will be taking pics along the way, as will I, and we will do the WIP as we go along to keep the interest going.

This will be the fifth year for these projects and the contributions made to the March of Dimes is slightly over 15000.00 dollars, this is of course including the matching donation from the company I work for.
Layla and I would like to once again thank all of the good people who donate their time, materials, and skills, not to mention their moneythat have made these projects such a hugh success!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This piece is going to be a little different and a project I've been wanting to play with. Here's some photos so you can see it progress...

Starting my "canoe" can-

Capping the ends-

Laying out my "Marching" Arrows-

Finishing the fill & prepping the lid-

Clamped down and ready to weld-

All welded shut (except for the vent, of course)-

Into the fire-

Canister venting-

Reduce, reduce, reduce-

Billet is welded and reduced, the can is just popping off-

Pealed off the can and here is the raw billet-

Starting to forge the tip/tang-

Nice close up, huh?-

Roughing out the steel-

Looking for my "arrows"-

Profiled blade-

Finished profile and the crown for the handle-

A bit more etch, just for fun-

The Stag will get worked down more but, here's a rough idea-

I've ground the blade and now she's going through her cycles and HT. More pix soon.
J.

 

[Rudy Joly]

Interesting.
What powder and arrow steel are you using ?

Thanks,
Rudy

 

[J. Neilson]

It's 1095 powder & 1040 for the arrows. I think I've been spending too much time in airports lately. My brain started thinking of March of Dimes-marching-direction-those arrows on the floor at airports/hospitals/etc. Yeah, I know I'm strange.

 

[rhinoknives]

It's 1095 powder & 1040 for the arrows. I think I've been spending too much time in airports lately. My brain started thinking of March of Dimes-marching-direction-those arrows on the floor at airports/hospitals/etc. Yeah, I know I'm strange.

TOO FUNNY!

I like the arrow can weld. Very interesting work! I was just thinking that you had some kind of modern art Zulu spear motiff going on... Then I read your statement!
Too much time in Airports & Hospitals. :lol:

Keep the pics coming!

Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com

 

[Rudy Joly]

J,
Your can obviously isn't stainless, did you use HT foil to line it ? I'm trying to figure out how you kept the can from welding to the billet. No keeping secrets, the devil is in the details.

Thanks,
Rudy

 

[J. Neilson]

A good buddy of mine, Rob Deker, told me how if you coated the interior of the can with plain old office "White-out" the zinc in the fluid will keep the can from welding to the billet. One of the best trick I've ever heard.

J,
Your can obviously isn't stainless, did you use HT foil to line it ? I'm trying to figure out how you kept the can from welding to the billet. No keeping secrets, the devil is in the details.

Thanks,
Rudy

 

[bluegrass in ga]

Thanks for taking the time to do a wip J. Question, do you have any nickel mixed in to the powder or is it straight 1095. Also, I've only seen a couple cans built and neither one had a vent hole, please educate me on the purpose of the hole. Please excuse my rookie ignorance, oh yea, the white out trick is price less. Thanks again J. Danny Ray

 

[J. Neilson]

No problem Danny, The vent hole in the can is just to let anything burn out of the can to make it a non-oxygen enviorment. Some makers will put a few drops of oil or a small bit of paper in the front of the can and have a small vent hole (and I'm talking pin-hole sized here) to help clear out anything un-wanted from the can. I usually don't find a need to add anything into the can to burn off but, it's never hurt my welds when I did it.

Thanks for taking the time to do a wip J. Question, do you have any nickel mixed in to the powder or is it straight 1095. Also, I've only seen a couple cans built and neither one had a vent hole, please educate me on the purpose of the hole. Please excuse my rookie ignorance, oh yea, the white out trick is price less. Thanks again J. Danny Ray

 

[J. Neilson]

Here is the blade rough ground-

Re-annealed-

And ready for HT-

 

[J. Neilson]

Softening the tang and shoulders-

Here she is after HT & 36 hrs. in vinegar-

Here is the blade finish ground and hand-rubbed with the rustic flats and spine (if you look close, you can see the arrows in the steel pre-etch)-

Next will be adding my name on the blade, forging the S-guard (John gave me a cool idea on this) and etching the blade.

 

[HHH Knives]

Great WIP. and one nice looking blade! Thanks for sharing.

God Bless

 

[J. Neilson]

Hey, that's me!-

Here's a few pix after some light etching. Not going to do any heavy etching until the guard is ready but, I really wanted to see this. I'm putting up different angles to try and get you a good look. You can see the arrows well and the hamon is coming in nice as well-

Forging out the wrought iron S-guard-

Guard is slotted and rough ground-

Another quick look-

The guard is finished-

Adding the accents on the tips-

Good fit-

Guard is fitted up and now just need to etch the guard and finish etching the blade-

A little more imagination-

Doing the Maryland show this weekend so no more until next week. I'll etch everything up, set the guard and start the damascus throat then. I'll post more soon.
J.

 

[percy]

Man that is beautiful. thsi is a great WIP. I have been making knives over 20 years and have not ever wanted to make damascus of forge a blade until I saw this WIP. Those arrows look great. I was wondering if you could take some stars made from some other steel and do them in a damascus blade like that..
Or could you take a damascus blade and cut the stars out and make some stars from say stainless and heat it all up and press them in my 50 ton press. My question is would they stay in after grinding the hollow grind. Thank you for the WIP and the desire to do something different now.
Percy

 

[J. Neilson]

Thanks and yes! I don't know about welding stainless (not one of my specialties) but, you can certainly add stars or other shapes with carbon steels and weld them up the same as I've done. My girlfriend loves dolphins so I'm planning on doing dolphin shapes in a blade for her soon. As to cutting out shapes and filling them in with carbon steel powder, that would certainly work as well. Just keep you damascus a bit thick because you will need to grind off some sacrificial material.
J.

 

[Bill T]

Hey J , it was nice to meet you at the Chesapeake show yesterday !

Guys , having handled this blade , all I can say is ... Awesome !!​

 

[J. Neilson]

Hey Bill, it was good seeing you too. Glad you liked the piece so far.

 

[J. Neilson]

Etching the wrought iron guard-

Done!-

Finished blade etch (it tough to get a good photo of the blade/arrows/hamon without my photo bax so bear with me here)-

Setting the guard-

A nice tight/clean fit-

Next is the damascus throat and the Sambar stag... stay tuned-

 

[J. Neilson]

Milling out the damascus throat-

Drilling out the Sambar stag for the tang-

A fair amount of tang for the handle-

Securing the throat to the handle... with a black spacer-

Roughing out the throat-

Cutting in the "Stag Grooves"-

Finished throat with things lined up from the side-

and the top-

Getting a coating of clear nail polish in prep for etching the throat-

 

[J. Neilson]

Etched throat with the stag smoothed out-

Next is just drilling for the pin, setting her and then sealing everything up. Should have her done just in time to show the kids at X-mas!

 

[J. Neilson]

Ok, these are the last of the photos from me. The next step is up to John's creativity and for Coop to do the final "Wow Factor".

Pien'ed 3/16" carbon steel pin, both sides...

Sealing the Stag in a boiled linseed oil mix...

Etching the pin heads...

I can't wait to see what you've got planned John!!!

Thanks again everyone,
J.