My Bowie Knives (Lots of Pics!)
Posted: 2011-03-10 05:14pm
Howdy pardner, it's Talk Like A Cowboy Day!* Yeehaw!
Yeah, I know I've been working at many different projects for a long time, the bolt pistol, my rifle (the improved AR-15), and my other knife, an improved Fairbairn-Sykes, but I haven't had the time or the money or the tools to do any of the work on them. I'm still pulling that together bit by bit.
In the meantime though, I've been passing some of the time by drawing up other prints, designs, renders, and concept art for different knives and practicing on NX, hopefully some skills that'll benefit me as a technologist or a technician out in a work environment. Lately I've been very interested in making Bowie knives or large cutters. I like the appeal of big knives and I own a couple myself.
I'm uploading and posting some for your enjoyment and also for some feedback.
The first one of my designs is the Alamo Bowie. The Alamo is among some of the smaller designs I've made, with an 11.5" blade and being 16" overall, from the end of the pommel rivet to the tip of the blade and weighing in at a very hefty 1.76 pounds. More information after the renderings below...
I'm a big fan of some of Cold Steel's Production knives. I have a Cold Steel San Mai Trail Master Bowie with a 9.5" blade, and I love it because of its simple no-frills elegance, it's very easy to wash and maintain. On the other hand I've seen some of their other bowies, namely the Laredo and Natchez Bowies and I haven't been as impressed as I was with the Trail Master, the reason being is that the Laredo and Natchez both have cable tangs, wheras the Trail Master has a full tang.
Cold Steel says that the cable tang is there for reducing the perceived shock that results from striking unyielding objects with the blade, because a cable tang is slightly more expensive to produce than a full tang but as a whole I don't really like cable tangs, the reason being is that if the nut ever loosens, or the wood or the plastic of the handle begins to creep, the lack of tension will cause the knife to weaken significantly.
To solve this problem, I set out to redesign the Natchez Bowie to my own specifications, which included a solid 3/4" x 5/16" tang that went straight through the handle furniture and would be peened in place. This also had the effect of eliminating the need for me to force or shrink-fit pins into the handle scales like I did with the earlier iterations of my Improved Fairbairn-Skyes fighting knife. The blade profile is very similar, but the rest of the knife is not. Like the Trailmaster, the Alamo has a convex grind. I'm constantly re-working that to find a better combination of edge support, sharpenability, and ease of manufacturing, but these renderings should be adequate for now.
All of these dimensions are parametric, no solid models were used in the creation of this knife.
For the blade material, I specified AISI 5160 carbon steel that I want to be refined via vacuum arc remelting for additional strength, the crossguard, two of the four spacers, and the pommel is to be made of 6061 Aluminum in T6 temper, which will be cast in expendable plaster molds, then hand-filed to fit and hand polished afterward. The other two of the spacers and the grip itself are to be made of a linen-impregnated West System LM-105 thermosetting resin composite that I'll be making myself that should be similar to Norplex Micarta, which is fairly strong, dimensionally stable, and it looks good. After quenching in oil, the blade is specified to be double-tempered at 350 degrees centigrade. Expected hardness of the spine is to be around 40-45 Hardness Rockwell C, and the edge around 59-62 Hardness Rockwell C for a good combination of strength and edge support. The differential tempering and the broad blade should give it plenty of flex, as well as plenty of strength when it comes to cutting force.
During a FEA Simulation, the blade was shown to stand up to a force of nine Kilonewtons concentrated on its 'sweet spot' before the yield strength of the material (I used the figure of AISI 5160 OQT 700 for yield strength, which should be close to what I've specified) was reached, with the handle fixed in place. I decided to slap a nice big fat safety factor of two on it and call it four and a half kilonewtons, so it looks like the blade itself should be pretty good in terms of durability!
Here is what the tentative engineering drawing looks like:
The grips of the blade I designed myself, using complex surfacing in NX. I spaced the grooves for the fingers very generously for the use of saber grip, but I didn't make them too deep, so it would be easier for the user to switch to a saber grip or a reverse grip if need be. The handle also features a pommel with a small horn on the end, for style and also to use the off-hand to pull the knife out of something in case in case of the blade sticking.
I've got a few designs and I'll keep updating. In the meantime though, saddle up, and let me hear your Yeehaw!
*Fine Print: Actual day may not really exist or be entirely made up. Please note that the original poster of this message considers every day to be Talk Like A Cowboy Day.
ETA: And argh, oops, I meant to post this in AMP. My mistake.
ETA2: Updated some pictures with a later revision.
Edited again to make everything thumbnails.
Yeah, I know I've been working at many different projects for a long time, the bolt pistol, my rifle (the improved AR-15), and my other knife, an improved Fairbairn-Sykes, but I haven't had the time or the money or the tools to do any of the work on them. I'm still pulling that together bit by bit.
In the meantime though, I've been passing some of the time by drawing up other prints, designs, renders, and concept art for different knives and practicing on NX, hopefully some skills that'll benefit me as a technologist or a technician out in a work environment. Lately I've been very interested in making Bowie knives or large cutters. I like the appeal of big knives and I own a couple myself.
I'm uploading and posting some for your enjoyment and also for some feedback.
The first one of my designs is the Alamo Bowie. The Alamo is among some of the smaller designs I've made, with an 11.5" blade and being 16" overall, from the end of the pommel rivet to the tip of the blade and weighing in at a very hefty 1.76 pounds. More information after the renderings below...
I'm a big fan of some of Cold Steel's Production knives. I have a Cold Steel San Mai Trail Master Bowie with a 9.5" blade, and I love it because of its simple no-frills elegance, it's very easy to wash and maintain. On the other hand I've seen some of their other bowies, namely the Laredo and Natchez Bowies and I haven't been as impressed as I was with the Trail Master, the reason being is that the Laredo and Natchez both have cable tangs, wheras the Trail Master has a full tang.
Cold Steel says that the cable tang is there for reducing the perceived shock that results from striking unyielding objects with the blade, because a cable tang is slightly more expensive to produce than a full tang but as a whole I don't really like cable tangs, the reason being is that if the nut ever loosens, or the wood or the plastic of the handle begins to creep, the lack of tension will cause the knife to weaken significantly.
To solve this problem, I set out to redesign the Natchez Bowie to my own specifications, which included a solid 3/4" x 5/16" tang that went straight through the handle furniture and would be peened in place. This also had the effect of eliminating the need for me to force or shrink-fit pins into the handle scales like I did with the earlier iterations of my Improved Fairbairn-Skyes fighting knife. The blade profile is very similar, but the rest of the knife is not. Like the Trailmaster, the Alamo has a convex grind. I'm constantly re-working that to find a better combination of edge support, sharpenability, and ease of manufacturing, but these renderings should be adequate for now.
All of these dimensions are parametric, no solid models were used in the creation of this knife.
For the blade material, I specified AISI 5160 carbon steel that I want to be refined via vacuum arc remelting for additional strength, the crossguard, two of the four spacers, and the pommel is to be made of 6061 Aluminum in T6 temper, which will be cast in expendable plaster molds, then hand-filed to fit and hand polished afterward. The other two of the spacers and the grip itself are to be made of a linen-impregnated West System LM-105 thermosetting resin composite that I'll be making myself that should be similar to Norplex Micarta, which is fairly strong, dimensionally stable, and it looks good. After quenching in oil, the blade is specified to be double-tempered at 350 degrees centigrade. Expected hardness of the spine is to be around 40-45 Hardness Rockwell C, and the edge around 59-62 Hardness Rockwell C for a good combination of strength and edge support. The differential tempering and the broad blade should give it plenty of flex, as well as plenty of strength when it comes to cutting force.
During a FEA Simulation, the blade was shown to stand up to a force of nine Kilonewtons concentrated on its 'sweet spot' before the yield strength of the material (I used the figure of AISI 5160 OQT 700 for yield strength, which should be close to what I've specified) was reached, with the handle fixed in place. I decided to slap a nice big fat safety factor of two on it and call it four and a half kilonewtons, so it looks like the blade itself should be pretty good in terms of durability!
Here is what the tentative engineering drawing looks like:
The grips of the blade I designed myself, using complex surfacing in NX. I spaced the grooves for the fingers very generously for the use of saber grip, but I didn't make them too deep, so it would be easier for the user to switch to a saber grip or a reverse grip if need be. The handle also features a pommel with a small horn on the end, for style and also to use the off-hand to pull the knife out of something in case in case of the blade sticking.
I've got a few designs and I'll keep updating. In the meantime though, saddle up, and let me hear your Yeehaw!
*Fine Print: Actual day may not really exist or be entirely made up. Please note that the original poster of this message considers every day to be Talk Like A Cowboy Day.
ETA: And argh, oops, I meant to post this in AMP. My mistake.
ETA2: Updated some pictures with a later revision.
Edited again to make everything thumbnails.