All About Pocket Knives

Several years ago in trade with a collector I ended up with a #47 Western Bowie knife blank. I don't know that the blank was ever completed with a handle. When I received it and had no handle and no evidence of ever having had one.

Early this year I was telling my Western customers about the blank and he said he would like the opportunity to purchase it and have me put stag handles on it. He thought the end of July would be a good time for him. I said, that I thought the timing was perfect and I thought I could find some good stag. Unfortunately, I didn’t know I was going to be in the hospital twice during the time I was working on it; once at the end of June for surgery and then July 26 to have the mesh from the first surgery removed. I came in a little later than I had anticipated but I was able to finish it this evening on August 1.

I didn’t take step-by-step pictures, but I did take pictures of some of the more important stages of the procedure. I thought our members might like to see the work in progress on this Bowie and I know my customer will like to see the pictures; he is an AAPK member also.

This is the starting point, the #47 blank and a piece of brass bar with the slot cut in it. The brass bar I got from Jantz and though the slot was not the right size to accommodate the tang, it was close enough that I was able to finish filing it to size without a lot of difficulty. I believe the bar cost $15 plus shipping which was a whole lot more cost-effective in my mind than starting with a three dollar bar of brass and drilling my own holes! Here is the shape scratched and the brass after painting it with layout fluid. IMHO the layout fluid was also worth the price! It doesn't rub off like Sharpie does. Hours of sanding and filing later, I have the shape of the guard roughed out. I could not be content with a plain brass guard and I wasn't very excited about bending the guard like some of the original Western guards, so I file work the edge of the crossbar between the circles or discs either end of the guard. It's getting close, but still a long ways to go! This is a trial fit of the guard, nice and snug. Gluing stag to the handle. Stag is glued into place in mosaic pin holes are drilled. Notice that the edge and the guard are heavily taped to prevent damage to the guard while attaching the handle. This shows pith from the center of the stag slab that is at the bottom of the handle. The top of the handle has showing it is all the harder stag exterior. This is pith that shows on the end of the handle. It is almost impossible anymore to find thick solid slabs of the exterior hard stag without having to deal with some of the interior pith as well. My cost on the set of handles as it was was about $75 with shipping, so you can imagine what a perfect set of slab handles would cost for this knife! The cool thing is this can be hardened, if you're patient. It only takes a couple dozen applications of thin CA glue like Zap-A-Gap than and then a few applications of the Zap-A-Gap medium. When you are all finished it feels like it's been stabilized. Next I needed to make a sheath for the knife. I patterned it after a number of other Western Bowie sheaths, all the while trying to keep it simple enough to be in my skill level. I had a big heavy cowhide to make the sheath with. I visited my local shoe repairman/Tandy leather store and had a lot of chats with the new owner. He wants me to bring some knives in so he can sell them, or drool on them one I'm not sure which, probably both. He sold me the hardware I needed to put the sheath together, and also some of the tools. Here I am clamping the welt to the back of the sheath. This is the first sheath I have made that used a welt. Here are the two halves of the sheath after the glue dried.
Well, I think that's about all I can get on this post. I need to get some sleep because I have to see this doctor in the morning and have my surgical wound tended to. I have some very mediocre indoor pictures of the completed knife and sheath. Hopefully my wife can get some better pictures with her nice camera that I can with my cell phone.
The knife and sheath are completed. Hopefully we'll have some good pictures of both tomorrow. Otherwise you'll have to see my lousy indoor pictures.

Dale, once again you have given us really good step by step pictures of your process of building knives. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Good luck with your doctors. Thanks again for all your postings. Steve B.

Wonderful work Dale!
Those handles are killer! You did a great job of leaving the right amount of ridges vs valleys to really bring out the artistry of the stag!
I can't wait to see the next installment of pictures. Inside or outside doesn't matter. This is a very nice knife build!
I had a friend that has since passed.... he worked with leather all his life. He could really do a great job on making anything out of leather. I tried it once..... not my cup-o-tea. SO... I know the work and skill it takes to make a nice sheath..... can't wait to see your leather work!
(Now... where did I put my popcorn?)

Mike

Good lord Dale, that thing is NICE! I love your fixed blade work...

Absolutely beautiful!!!!

Well, you told him end of July. You got it to him Aug 1st. Take a buck off the asking price and tell him it's a day late and a dollar short!





Now where'd I put my crayons? It's time to just shut up and color.

Sweet! I really like what you did with the guard! Looking forward to the final pictures, as well!

Dale always impressive and sometime like this one absolutely fabulous. Love the blade shape, LOVE the guard and love the stag and I bet that sheath will match the quality of the rest of the knife. Bet you customer will be ecstatic.

Yowzers, that is one BIG impressive handful of knife! And I agree the guard is spectacular!

Great Project Dale , Handled With Pride And dignity . …..K.C

I'll share a few more pictures and then pictures of the knife in the sheath both completed.

This was another type of hide we considered, but I'm glad we didn't choose this water buffalo hide. It has too glossy a finish on it for this application, IMHO.
Here are some pictures of the sheath that shows you a the features:

Here is the sheath from the top view showing the strap open. You can see that the back of the snap is padded with leather so that the brass snap does not scratch the stag on the knife. Most of the Western Bowie knife sheaths I have seen had this upper strap attached to the brass D ring. This allows the sheath to swing should you get into a vehicle and have the holster tied to your leg with leather straps, which I forgot to include for the pictures. This is with the upper belt strap removed. A large portion of the Western Bowie knife sheaths I have seen have that upper strap cut off of them. I made this one so it would snap so the wearer have the option of whether to use it or not. If I were riding horseback, I would probably put my belt through the lower loop on the sheath and again tie the bottom of the sheath to my leg. There's not as much need for the sheath to rotate when on horseback because when writing in the open range you spend a lot of time with your legs extended the stirrups anyway, at least I always did.
Here are some pictures of the handle, most of these are taken after the knife was finished:

This is the mark side handle enlarged. The pile side handle enlarged. This is the top of the handle This is the underside of the handle. Although there was no visible from the top of the handle, it was visible from the underside and I spent several hours applying Zap-A-Gap thin to soak into the pithy portion of the stag to stabilize it. It was probably two dozen coats of the thin CA and then six or eight coats of Zap medium CA to fill any porous portions. The end of the handle receive the same treatment on the more porous portions of the stag.
Here are the finished pictures of the #47 Bowie with stag handles.
These first two pictures are in the sheath in the last two are the knife itself.
I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures is much as I enjoyed building the knife. It was lots of fun!
My apologies for the lousy indoor pictures, believe it or not it was sprinkling here today when I was trying to take the pictures.

Very nice work.

"N" date code = 1990.

It was probably a blank left over when Coleman sold the company to the group of Boulder businessmen in 1990, who then screwed the pooch with the company and ended up selling the company assets to Camillus in 1991.

When the assets were sold off, there were a lot of blanks of all sorts sold off. Many blanks were then sold off piecemeal, while others were finished out by folks and resold as "original Western knives".

I'm glad your put your mark on it.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the complements.
It's always nice when someone else sees the beauty that I try to bring out of a knife.

ZZ, thanks for the background information on the Boulder businessman group. I vaguely recall hearing something about it, but I didn't realize that it was such a botched effort, and that Camillus basically just bought the assets of the company that were left after the businessman made hash of what was once a premier cutlery! I always appreciate your depth of knowledge regarding Western and your willingness to share it. Thanks again.

That's a beauty, for sure!

Fantabulous Work ! ….K.C.

That is just flat out amazing! It's the best looking Western bowie I've ever seen! Great work Dale.

Byrd wrote:That is just flat out amazing! It's the best looking Western bowie I've ever seen! Great work Dale.

Thanks Byrd and everyone else. I certainly appreciate the affirmation.
I would agree, it is the best-looking Western Bowie I've seen, but of course it's the only customized Western Bowie I've ever seen either.

Excellent... excellent job Dale!

Great job on the sheath. Your work looks like a pro leather worker!

One question I am sure you have considered. It looks like the leather is still untreated. In a case like this is it wise to treat the leather with Mink Oil or something like that?
I am wondering if a leather treatment will effect the knife.

Once again.... the whole project is a work of art!

First off, Dale, you did and amazing job on this knife. It looks fabulous. Excellent treatment and all around package.

Meridian_Mike wrote:Excellent... excellent job Dale!

Great job on the sheath. Your work looks like a pro leather worker!

One question I am sure you have considered. It looks like the leather is still untreated. In a case like this is it wise to treat the leather with Mink Oil or something like that?
I am wondering if a leather treatment will effect the knife.

Once again.... the whole project is a work of art!

Mike, I will not presume to speak for Dale, but in my limited experience, leather treatment such as Mink Oil softens the leather. A sheath such as this one could stand to be softer as it has a mechanical fastener. Sheaths that are wet formed, as hold a knife as such, without mechanical fasteners, need to be more stiff and rigid. Feibings sells a product that hardens leathers, while sealing it as well.
https://www.fiebing.com/catalogue/top-f ... roduct=204

Pardon my highjack.

I'm glad you posted this Tony. I needed to know that. I have had pistols and knives rust in an area where they contacted a leather holster or sheath.
I could see where the leather ALONE might be prone to HOLD MOISTURE.
MAYBE even treated leather might be prone to hold moisture.

I assume the leather treatment is only to prolong the life and appearance of leather.....right?

SO, I guess NOW is the time I need to learn (better late than never)

if a knife should only be kept in a sheath while carrying (?)


Maybe a knife should not be stored in a sheath (?)

ANYWAY... I guess if there is a protocol, AND a leather treatment procedure, I would like to learn it.

Mike

Meridian_Mike wrote:I'm glad you posted this Tony. I needed to know that. I have had pistols and knives rust in an area where they contacted a leather holster or sheath.
I could see where the leather ALONE might be prone to HOLD MOISTURE.
MAYBE even treated leather might be prone to hold moisture.

I assume the leather treatment is only to prolong the life and appearance of leather.....right?

SO, I guess NOW is the time I need to learn (better late than never)

if a knife should only be kept in a sheath while carrying (?)


Maybe a knife should not be stored in a sheath (?)

ANYWAY... I guess if there is a protocol, AND a leather treatment procedure, I would like to learn it.

Mike

I ran a test on 1095 steel stored in leather: treated on inside with mink oil vs untreated. Both tests rusted the steel.
I do not store knives in leather. It will rust the steel and tarnish the fittings.
The treatment is, indeed, an exterior treatment for water resistance and finish treatment.
I have some leather holster for pistols that have finish inside and out, I do not store firearms in leather either.

None of these tests make me an expert. I was simply testing for my own personal knowledge.

Tony_Wood wrote: I ran a test on 1095 steel stored in leather: treated on inside with mink oil vs untreated. Both tests rusted the steel.
I do not store knives in leather. It will rust the steel and tarnish the fittings.
The treatment is, indeed, an exterior treatment for water resistance and finish treatment.
I have some leather holster for pistols that have finish inside and out, I do not store firearms in leather either.

None of these tests make me an expert. I was simply testing for my own personal knowledge.

Well Tony....
I am definitely not an expert... so, these are some words of wisdom and I appreciate them.
Thanks for your input.



I hope someone else might see this and avoid ruining a beautiful knife by storing it in a sheath.

Good night Mildred.... that is beautiful!! What craftsmanship!! I applaud you

Meridian_Mike wrote:Excellent... excellent job Dale!

Great job on the sheath. Your work looks like a pro leather worker!

One question I am sure you have considered. It looks like the leather is still untreated. In a case like this is it wise to treat the leather with Mink Oil or something like that?
I am wondering if a leather treatment will effect the knife.

Once again.... the whole project is a work of art!

Thank you Mike and Tony, I appreciate your input!

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday Mike, I have to go to the doctor on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the next month or so to have the surgical site monitored and the packing in it changed. Sometimes I'm pretty well done for the rest of the day, it can be pretty painful.

As a matter of fact, I did treat the leather. My customer wanted the natural look of the leather and wanted me to leave it untreated. I advised against that and said I would look for something that would keep it as close to its natural colors possible. He thought that was a good idea so I went to my local Tandy Leather affiliate, basically a shoe and the leather repair shop with a fairly decent inventory of leatherworking products.
I explained that I wanted something that would change the color of the leather much but would help to seal it and protect it. One of the owners of the shop recommended Fiebing's Leather Balm, which is what I used on it.

Thanks to Tony for the link to Fiebing's, here is the product they used: https://www.fiebing.com/catalogue/top-f ... roduct=196


On the subject of storing knives in leather –
I am reluctant to separate the knife from the correct sheath (for fear of not getting the right sheath with the knife) but I don't want them to become corroded either. I haven't found a completely satisfactory solution for fixed blades but for the folders I use a small Ziploc bag, 3 x 6" is plenty large enough for a Schrade LB7. I put the knife in the Ziploc and squeeze out as much air as possible then seal the bag and put the knife back in the sheath. That way I don't have the sheath separated from the knife to which it belongs.
If you have purchased any of the late issue Camillus knives they did something similar except they did not use Ziploc bags. They used a heavier, probably 4 mil plastic pouch with a fold-over top. The folders with sheaths that I purchased in the Gran'pa series had the knives wrapped in blue plastic and put inside the sheaths.


Thanks Scott, and please give my best Mildred!

I mentioned in an earlier post that my wife was going to try and get some better pictures of the knife then I could get in my shop.
Here's a couple she took and I think she may have of real future photographing my knives!

Your wife did good. VERY nice pics of a VERY nice knife!
It's a beauty Dale.