The Bowies that capture my imagination the most are the old relics of the frontier, so that's what I drew my inspiration from. At first glance, this knife could be mistaken for a 19th-century original. The 11-inch blade is forged from a file. The handle is a weathered old piece of a hickory axe handle. The pins are made from nails. The guard and butt cap are made of welding steel from Tractor Supply, and the rivets in the sheath are copper saddle rivets, also from Tractor Supply.
The sheath has an antler button on the front. It can be stuck through a belt, frontier style, or used with a frog.
A fly photobombed me in this picture. A second later, it crawled onto the edge and was cleanly sliced in half. The convex edge on this thing really is that sharp.
I got off to a late start on this piece. For a while I thought I might have to withdraw, but I managed to finish it in a flurry of activity a week before the drawing is scheduled to be done.
The forged iron guard on this knife is something that I have never tried before. It came out a little rough, but is not out of place with the rustic, antique look of the piece.
The etched finish on the blade is also a new technique. I had originally planned to rust brown it, but after soaking it in a mixture of ferric chloride, bleach, vinegar, and salt, it had such a nice dark gray patina that I decided to keep it. I think that dipping it in the mixture and letting it sit in a humid place might have gotten me the rust brown finish that I originally intended, but I will experiment with that on a future piece.
As usual, there are some incredible works of art going into the figurative hat. I can't wait to see what kind of creation I might be receiving.
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