All About Pocket Knives

I have been a bit slow lately getting knife completed, there's an awful lot happening to keep me busy this summer plus the fact that the arthritis in my hands is getting so bad most days I don't even dare work on my own knives. Most of the work on this knife was done months ago and I just did a little polishing and sharpening this weekend to finish it up.

I know I took some pictures of this knife as it existed before I gave it the spa treatment and a nice elk stag handle. The original black composite handle was pretty much destroyed. Some where I have the pictures and will post them when I find them, but a new PC and a new cell phone / camera has really rocked my technological world and I'm lagging behind!

The Bowie knife is a Case Davy Crockett Bowie. The handle was split with some large chunks broke out of it so I had to glue it back together to see how it looked and felt in my hand. I must confess that I thought the original handle felt a little skinny and ungainly for this large knife. It felt like a very vanilla handle, kind of an afterthought..
I polished the knife but it took me nearly a year to decided which piece of antler I wanted to use, but I think in the end it came out quite nicely, The curve in this piece of elk stag makes a perfect palm swell and it's really comfortable. I was surprised how much control was added by the shallow finger grooves.

I made no sheath sheath or display stand with this knife, my hands will not let me sew a sheath right now. I do have a heavy nylon case with soft lining to store the knife in.

It will be for sale in my store.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and your comments are appreciated.
Dale

I'm betting it's a better knife now than it was originally. The pictures of it are amazing, truly a work of art Dale. If it were mine I wouldn't even think about selling it. You did a masterful job Sir.

Very nice, Dale!. I don't think you could "3D print" a piece of elk that had a better shape and look, to go on that knife!!!

Beautiful Job Dale!
Those finger grooves are something I would have never thought of. Nice work!
I hope you can get some relief from the arthritis in your hands. You are too good of a craftsman to stop now!
Another fine rehab Job Dale!

That's crazy nice, Dale!

That’s beautiful! That piece of elk stag looks like it was grown just for the knife.
Jeff

Dale that's awesome! I have the original with the black handles and I have to say that what you did is a huge improvement!

D) All of the above

Ab-so-lute-ly beautiful!!!!

That is a beauty, Dale!
When I first noticed it, I thought of my friend Wendell Hodges who went to be with the Lord in December of 2018. He gave me a Case Bowie for Christmas a few years ago.
Treefarmer

^^^ Everything stated above, and more.

You certainly rocked the case bowie world with that un' Dale, don't think you could get any better then that. Huge well done

Very Nice Dale , Looks Well Balanced And Comfy K.C.

To enhance my knowledge, what is the purpose of the strap along the spine? Cosmetic or other?

Steve Warden wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:22 pm To enhance my knowledge, what is the purpose of the strap along the spine? Cosmetic or other?

Nice job Dale. That is great. I think now the brass guard is cosmetic, but originally it had a purpose. This is from Wikipedia.

Most later versions of the Bowie knife had a blade of at least 8 inches (20 cm) in length, some reaching 12 inches (30 cm) or more, with a relatively broad blade that was one and a half to two inches (3.8 to 5.1 cm) wide and made of steel usually between 3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in (4.8 to 6.4 mm) thick. The back of the blade sometimes had a strip of soft metal (normally brass or copper) inlaid which some believe was intended to catch an opponent's blade while others hold it was intended to provide support and absorb shock to help prevent breaking of poor quality steel or poorly heat treated blades. (A brass back is an indication of modern construction.[28]) Bowie knives often had an upper guard that bent forward at an angle (an S-guard) intended to catch an opponent's blade or provide protection to the owner's hand during parries and corps-a-corps.

Thanks for all the great comments guys. I'm glad you enjoyed the knife.

The Brass Bar on the spine of the blade is supposed to be a blade catcher. It stops another knife from sliding down your blade into the guard or your hand. The first time I encountered that was on Al Mar's Alaskan Bowie. I asked Al what it was for and that's when he explained to me the purpose. I had not encountered that before either.

Bob was a little faster than me with his answer.

I can see that it would be good to absorb shock to the blade. I had not thought about it preventing poor Quality Steel blades from breaking. I guess we're a bit spoiled these days when we can reasonably assume even an inexpensive blade is reasonably good quality.

Some might add; "depending on where it was made."

Bob, Dale - thanks for the education.

Very, very sweet Dale!!!

That really is beautiful, Dale. It is good to know that your patience paid off, when you waited so long for a piece if antler that was "just right". Because it certainly is!

I knew I had a few before picture somewhere of this case Bowie. They're not great but the give you an idea of the, shaped the knife was in. I peeled all the electricians tape off of the handle before I took any pictures. The whole pile side of the handle was really badly messed up and, a piece missing and someone had tried to glue it together.
The views I did find are not encouraging but do not look too bad. The top of the handle was broken off right along the tang as you can see in the picture.

I have a fair amount of deer & elk stag and before making knives with hidden tangs. The problem is generally finding the exact right piece of stag to go with the knife you restoring. I have about four or five elk antler beams in my shop to choose from and just could not make up my mind which piece of mail that would make the best handle. When I finally decided, I cut the handle it out of an elk beam, drilled out the center of the beam and drilled the three pin holes in place. When I assembled it I used 5 minute epoxy and three brass pins. As you can see from the pictures the brass pins they are peened and the stag is glued inside, so it has both glue and mechanical fixtures holding the handle on. That one won't be an easy one to get a part if someone ever decides to redo it again.


I was not sure that the piece of stag was the right one for the handle, but the more I worked with it the better it got.
For me stag is kind of a lesson in patience, at first it may not look-alike you wanted to but if you work with it long enough it generally looks better than you thought possible.
Thanks for looking,
Dale

Once again Dale...You did a great job and created a thing of beauty!
Tape and glue.... YUCK!! what a mess!!