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"-

[J. Neilson]

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.

[Kevin Jones]

Looking forward to seeing this one unfold!

[Bruce Bump]

Real interesting method J. We don't often see this much powder going into a blade. Love the chevrons too. Hurry.

[J. Neilson]

Here is the blade rough ground-




Re-annealed-


And ready for HT-

[Steven Janik]

Hey J,
In the past I have published a few work in progress photo books for knife makers, Coffee Table Style. I did one last year for the CKCA Cancer Fighter knife on this forum.
If you keep the pics posted through completion including the Pro Photos at the end, I will pull them from this thread and donate a book to be awarded to the eventual owner of this knife.

Let me know,
I'd be happy to do it for you guys.

Steve Janik

[J. Neilson]

Softening the tang and shoulders-


Here she is after HT & 36 hrs. in vinegar-


Here is the blade finish ground and hand-rubbed with the rustic flats and spine (if you look close, you can see the arrows in the steel pre-etch)-










Next will be adding my name on the blade, forging the S-guard (John gave me a cool idea on this) and etching the blade.

[J. Neilson]

Thanks guys and thank you Steve (sorry I didn't reply sooner, don;t seem to be getting notifications to replies for some reason). That sounds like a great idea!
J.

[Bruce Bump]

Its coming along really nicely J.
Be sure to take Steven up on the book offer. He has done a couple others for me and the quality is the best I've seen. It would help sell tickets too.

[Steven Janik]

J,
I will start pulling and storing photos as the build progresses.
When the knife is done and it goes out for pro photos please make sure I get a copy. It can be a simple PDF by e-mail.

And John should send me sheath build pics if he doesn't post them here.

regards,
Steve

PS. Thanks Bruce for the kind words, the books would only be blank pages without the art you guys create.