San Mia Bowie

[KenH]

I'm fairly new to the site, and only posted in the 1876 forum.  The 1876 forum has been a GREAT help with my project rifle.  I found this forum and knives always interest me.  Here is a San Mai Bowie I made last year. 

For the guard I used material from an old iron tired wagon wheel that's most likely well over 100 yr old and etches and breaks to show good wrought iron pattern. First I etch, even with the grain showing up nicely I decide I'd rather have a polished 'n heat blued finish to the guard, so that's what I did. I forged, hammered, slotted 'n shaped to get what I wanted. The bright spots on the guard are lighting issues. The blade is a billet of 416SS cladding over 1095 core.


I started to use some Rosewood I brought back from Guatemala back in early '90s, but decided I liked the solid black Ebony I had on hand. The spacers are brass, then a 1/4" of 416SS/1095/416SS San Mai, then another brass spacer.  After gluing up, sanding and putting final polish, I'm calling it finished. Since it's in a display case I've not got around to making a sheath.

[Major 2]

Dang Dude ! that is a looker