"The Alaskan" - WIP

[Karl B. Andersen]

Well, I'm going to get a WIP going here at the request of the Big Dogs.
I have a guy getting 2 hunters, a Bowie and an integral of matching handle materials, and this is the Bowie, which I have dubbed "The Alaskan", as the four knives will be going to interior Alaska.
It's based on a Bowie I made about four years ago.

The "Alaskan" will be made from large round stock W2 with stainless fittings.
I will forego all the forging pictures, as we've all seen way too many.
I will focus on the actual building of the knife.
I will show a pic of the W2 stock and what was left after I forged the blade:

I will show the forge area and a few pictures of the finish shop where the build will take place.

The 50# LG in the back left, press, forges, etc.

Gadget bench, oven, bluing tanks, etc.

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Here are some shots of the finish room showing most of the basic tools of knife making, grinders, mills, etc.

These two pictures are the knife after initial profile and basic grinding:

Here's a little something I like to do to check my fillet after grinding to see what needs to be cleaned up.
Raise the knife, edge down, up between to fluorescent lights over your head. The lights shining on the sides makes them almost disappear and the only thing you can see is what's hanging down below.
It's VERY! revealing:

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Now, I'm going to clean up the tang and ricasso area to make sure I have the exact same thickness from fillet to tang tip:

I will also show that just before I did the initial grinding, I cleaned up the ricasso and tang and scribed a center line with my height gauge and surface plate. I realize that here the knife is already ground, but I forgot to take the intial picture.
This is how it's done:

Now over to the sanding station to use sanding bars and paper, etc., to clean up the grind lines and get everything a clean lengthwise 220:

After clean up:

Now I mark out where I want my false edge to be on the clip:

And do a basic rough grind on the grinder:

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Now, there's only one way to do a decent false edge and have it crisp and sharp, and in the center.
That is to draw file the false edge.
I know of no other way.

Then, clean up the draw file marks with a steel sanding bar:

This puts the center in, well, the center!!
And it's sharp and crisp.

 

[Shawn Hatcher]

Nice WIP, Karl. I'm enjoying this one!

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

So, here's our blade, which, by the way is just short of 10 1/4":

Now I sort of figure out where I want my maker's mark:

And stamp it with a 50 ton jack:

After clean up on the surface grinder:

Here I have clamped on a file guide so I can do some basic stock removal of the excess tang material for the guard shoulders:

After grinding excess off:

Then to the mill to mill in the final guard shoulders:

The milled shoulders:

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Ready for hardening: (Another day!)

 

[Sean Jones]

very nice...I like the way you did the false edge...that's quite helpful. Looking very nice

 

[Brad Lilly]

Great job! The lines on this blade are awsome.
Thanks

 

[rhinoknives]

Quite clean & Handsome looking!
Looking forward to more.
Thanks.

Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

I try to take a shower every day, and I come from good Scandinavian stock.
Thanks for the compliment. :3:

Quite clean & Handsome looking!

www.rhinoknives.com

 

[KnivesEmporium]

Looks very clean and I'm loving the blade geometry. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[scott.livesey]

nice blade and helpful pics. thanks
scott

 

[Stew]

Looking good Karl!

 

[Dwane Oliver]

Looking good Karl.
New shop is looking great as well. What is the plastic looking door on the right of one pic?

Dwane

 

[Brad Lilly]

I try to take a shower every day, and I come from good Scandinavian stock.
Thanks for the compliment.

I would love to see Lawrence's reaction to this comment. I think I will word my responses from here on with much care

THE knife looks great.

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

It's one of those vinyl strip walk through doors. The strips are .060" thick, six inches wide and overlap 1" on each side.
Just walk through instead of opening a door.
Keeps the heat in very nicely.

Looking good Karl.
New shop is looking great as well. What is the plastic looking door on the right of one pic?

Dwane

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

I'm going to have to set this on the back burner for a day or two.
I have built the new forge you see below to accommodate forging, thermal cycling, hardening, etc. of longer blades than I am able to easily do in the 12" forge in the back ground.
This new one is made from similar 12" pipe, but I cut it and welded in 8 inch webs to make the working portion of the heat area longer without creating unnecessary volume.
Anyway, I have some 2" ceramic wool coming and I was hoping it would already be here.
It didn't make it today.
The forge is completely ready to go, so all I need to do when the blanket gets here is stop what I'm doing and line it.
Then I'll be able to continue with this knife.
I hope it gets here in the mail tomorrow.

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Got the forge lined and coated today and ran a few times to get the water evaporated from the refractory.
Seems like she's good to go, so I'll be hardening and tempering the "Alaskan" in the morning. :60:

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Saturday morning:

Got the new lengthened forge lined and coated yesterday.
Did a trail run this morning.
After figuring out a few things, I hardened the "Alaskan" with a clay induced hamon and she's in the first temper now.
After drying out all the moisture yesterday and this morning, I gave the new forge a trial run.
Here it has been sitting at welding temp for 20 minutes. :what!: