2012 March of Dimes Bowie -WIP- photo heavy!

[J. Neilson]

"From John Cohea":
March of Dimes Charity Build 2012
I'm a little late in annoucing this, but better late than never. The last couple of years we have had fairly fancy knives made by some REALLY talented folks, so this year we're going to tone it down a notch or two, but the talent will still there!

This year will be a frontier style collabaration.The knife will be a big ole stag crown bowie, and our solo maker this year will be ABS Mastersmith J Neilson, with yours truly providing the leatherwork and display stand.The stag was donated by Richard J, and Coop will once again bring it all together in the end for us with photos.

J will be taking pics along the way, as will I, and we will do the WIP as we go along to keep the interest going.

This will be the fifth year for these projects and the contributions made to the March of Dimes is slightly over 15000.00 dollars, this is of course including the matching donation from the company I work for.
Layla and I would like to once again thank all of the good people who donate their time, materials, and skills, not to mention their moneythat have made these projects such a hugh success!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This piece is going to be a little different and a project I've been wanting to play with. Here's some photos so you can see it progress...

Starting my "canoe" can-


Capping the ends-


Laying out my "Marching" Arrows-


Finishing the fill & prepping the lid-


Clamped down and ready to weld-


All welded shut (except for the vent, of course)-


Into the fire-


Canister venting-




Reduce, reduce, reduce-




Billet is welded and reduced, the can is just popping off-




Pealed off the can and here is the raw billet-


Starting to forge the tip/tang-




Nice close up, huh?-


Roughing out the steel-


Looking for my "arrows"-


Profiled blade-


Finished profile and the crown for the handle-


A bit more etch, just for fun-


The Stag will get worked down more but, here's a rough idea-


I've ground the blade and now she's going through her cycles and HT. More pix soon.
J.

[John56]

That's going to be superb, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[Chris Grant]

Delightful!!

[Mr Happymoose]

What a great piece of work and a great thread as well!! Thanks for sharing J.

[ggfh666]

Interesting.
This canoe-thing, is it sand in there? And the steel finally surrounding the arrows is the 'box'?

[J. Neilson]

Actually, it's done very similar to a standard canister weld, your just opening the can length-wise as opposed to an end. THe canister is coated on the inside with standard office "White-out", then a thin layer if fine 1095 powder on the bottom, lay out whatever is going into the can, then fill the rest ofthe way with powder (filling all voids/gape completely), cap it and weld it. The only thin in the can, aside from the "white-out" is steel.
J.

Interesting.
This canoe-thing, is it sand in there? And the steel finally surrounding the arrows is the 'box'?

[roestalker270]

Superb, never seen or heard of this technique before.

Basically, as i see it, the "Sand" is grains of 1095 steel that weld together around the arrows and form into a solid piece of steel! Who'd have thought

[J. Neilson]

Yep, that grey powder is the 1095 steel. It about a fine as baby powder. With enough heat and pressure, it's amazing what can be done. Maybe next month I'll work on making diamonds. LOL

Superb, never seen or heard of this technique before.

Basically, as i see it, the "Sand" is grains of 1095 steel that weld together around the arrows and form into a solid piece of steel! Who'd have thought

[ggfh666]

Is all this 'graphic design' damascus done this way?
It certainly explains a lot.

[J. Neilson]

Well, you can do it this way or do a standard can and accordian cut it, there are other methods as well. All depends of what works for each situation.

Is all this 'graphic design' damascus done this way?
It certainly explains a lot.

[Shuggs]

I'm in awe of you clever talented guys lovely blade

[BigUglyMan]

That is one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time. Do you heat the can and contents to welding temperature and then the pressure inside the can does the rest?

[J. Neilson]

I heat the can and contents to welding temp (in this case about 2800 degrees F) and then reduce the can with my hydraulic press. You can see that beast on my web site's shop tour, if your interested.

That is one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time. Do you heat the can and contents to welding temperature and then the pressure inside the can does the rest?

[Stew]

Always love seeing your work J.

Can I ask what that is on the tang at the roughing out picture? On my phone so hard to see!

[J. Neilson]

Oh, that's a cow magnet. That's what I use to help me hold the blade when I'm doing rough grinding prior to HT. I just flattten a bit on one side, works great.

Always love seeing your work J.

Can I ask what that is on the tang at the roughing out picture? On my phone so hard to see!