Dog....bone that is.

I have been wanting to do one like this for a few years now after seeing a similar Bowie in Bagwell's book.

This one has an 11" blade of cable damascus with a few 1/8" O1 drill rods mixed in. I did the cable a bit different this time. When I cut the cable it unwound itself, so to took all the individual sub-bundles and bound them together with wire....then added some drill rods. The press squares a messy bundle like this up in a hurry. It was drawn out and folded once. Couple little pinprick inclusions but not bad at all. The blade is 5/16" at the spine. the hamon, visible in a few of the pics was kind of a surprise. I fully quenched the blade and then after tempering, I torch drew the spine out to the tip with the edge in water.

The dogbone handle is osage orange with brass and steel fittings. The nameplate and pommel cover are recycled bandsaw blade. The guard is gun blued mild steel and the octogonal ferrule is collared onto the osage, made using a trick that Bagwell himself taught me.

I blade finished up incredibly sharp! I mean "skeer the heer" right off you arm sharp!

I am not sure about sheath yet....I thought about a wood sheath made from osage to match....but it will also get a Southern Comfort from Sastre.

Here are the pics:

http://www.covingtonknives.com/images/dog1.jpg

http://www.covingtonknives.com/images/dog2.jpg

http://www.covingtonknives.com/images/dog3.jpg

http://www.covingtonknives.com/images/dog4.jpg

Congratulations on a great looking Bowie! I have a question regarding the octagon ferrule. Did the ferrule start out as a nut? Thanks for sharing, I always enjoy your posts.

Johnny

I have a question regarding the octagon ferrule. Did the ferrule start out as a nut?

Johnny

it started as pipe

Greg, that is one very very cool knife!

:)

-Darren

Greg:
Great looking Bowie!! Cable is one of my favorite steels to work with. Ive had trouble with cable in the past working it under the press. Not getting everything welded togather as well as I would like. Ron Claiborn had mentioned that he thought it was due to the diffrence in the way the press works VS the hammer,. Harmonics of the hammer seem to "scrunch" every thing togather better. Could you elaborate a little more on how you are doing your welding?? WHat size bundle you are starting with ect? Sure would appreciate it!!

Thanks and God Bless

Mike

The cable bundle is the equivalent of (3) 1.25 thick cables and apprx 8-10" long.

I dont bother to degrease the cable and it is old, rusty, and full of grease. I use anhydrous borax when the billet starts to turn red and then a bit more. I give an extra long soak and then get it welded up in several directions on the weld dies. Once it is squared up pretty good I go to the draw dies. Once the billet is stretched out I go to a 3.5lb hammer and beat it on all sides and angles.....I repeat this on 3 to 4 heats. I square up the billet a bit.....cut it in half and use and angle grinder to clean up the mating surfaces......then weld the two bars together again and draw......with a hammering step in there too.

I found that the anhydrous borax really made a difference for me at least..

That has to be one of the best cable damascus knives I've seen. Awesome. :)

I agree with you on the anhydrous! It has helped me a lot. I understand that it is the same as 20 Mule Team with the chemical water cooked out, but either my welding skill has gotten better or the anhydrous makes a diffrence! I think it's the flux! Somthing I started doing in the last week is adding a pinch or two of brake turnings to my flux. I had read somewhere it might help, It may not help, but I dont figure it hurts! :)
I mix it in my "Flux Cup" It's a metal coffe camp cup, holds probably 3 cups, Ill add 2 big teaspoons full to my flux and mix it with my finger, kind of looks like rock salt when Im done. Like I said, It may not help one bit, but hey If it might help, why not?

I was hoping you had come up with a quickie cable trick on the press, but it sounds like you still have to hammer it!! Oh well If it was easy everyone would do it!! LOL

God Bless and Happy Hammering!

Mike

Here is a pic of the sheath. It is cut from the same osage board that the handle was. The frog stud is cable damascus that I attached to a piece of drill rod and it uses a piece of banding material as a backing plate.

The throat of the sheath is lined with deer suede and it makes a friction fit to the blade.

http://www.covingtonknives.com/images/dog5.jpg

Great stuff Greg! That's one nice Bowie!

Beautiful knife, Greg! Neat that you squeezed some O1 in there too. I love that stuff. :)