That's a nice looking knife, and I SURE like that Colt conversion pistola too.
I made a big ol' bowie out of a rasp once upon a time. Actually all I ended up making was a mess. I could not get that thing to get hard enough to take and keep an edge. I was making it for a buck skinner buddy of mine and he was really heated up about getting his new "old" knife. After I was too far into into the project to salvage it, I decide to set my buddy up. I knew that blade was never gonna amount to a hill of poo, so I made another big blade from L-6 and it was right for the flight. I half way finished up the rasp knife enough so that casual examination would make it seem OK.
Called my old pard, Jim, and told him to come get his knife and bring lots of whiskey. He showed a few days with a jug of Platte Valley corn whiskey and a big grin on his face. I pulled the cork on the jug and threw it a far as I could. I took a big pull and gave him the jug and he did likewise. We squatted in the shade of a mesquite tree and shot the breeze and enjoyed the whiskey for a spell until he just couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to see his new knife.
I wobbled over to the shop and pulled it out and said lets give it a test! I grabbed a grade 5, 5/8" bolt and laid it on the anvil. I grabbed his knife out his hand before he had too much of a chance to admire it and proceeded to take a 2 lb hammer and attempted to cut that bolt. It was a sight. It looked awesome.
The bolt was unscathed. The knife had 5/8" divot out of the middle of the blade. The look on his face was priceless when I said, "Hell, no big deal, think of all the silly answers you can give when folks ask why your knife looks like that." I then chucked it in the vice and said "LET'S GIVE 'ER THE BEND TEST!!" A look of total chaos was on his face. I proceeded to bend it 90° and back and then told him it was going to interesting building a sheath for a knife with a big Z shaped kink in the middle of it. He was speechless. I took another pull of the jug and proceeded to throw the empty jug off out into the boonies and reached under the pile where I had his real knife hidden and gave him that one. I took the bent up rasp and air mailed it too.
We spent the rest of the evening cookin over steaks and stuff over a mesquite fire and enjoying our dinner whilst being serenaded by the coyote choir practice at sundown. Jim has gone over to the other side, as they say, and I sure miss him.
To this day, I don't know what I did wrong with that thing, but I've never attempted another one.
Thank you for sharing that story. That was a hoot!