BIG bowie!

Joe,

that´s an awesome mixture of steel and stag, I like it, definetely! Could you please post the total length, the height an width of the blade ?

Best Regards from snowy Bavaria.
 
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A very nice work! And the hamon is only polished, not accentuated by etching as some people do, I like that!
How thick is the blade? Is it somewhat "elastic" or stiff throughout? To what hardness do you temper such long blades?
Cheers,
Hannes
 
Actually it was very lightly etched a FeCl dilute 4:1, but then finished up with 1200 grit polishing paper and Simichrome.
the blade is around 1 3/4 inches wide (42mm?) and 5/16 (maybe 7.7mm) thick at the ricasso. Total length is probably right under 19 inches. I sent it to the new owner today and had trouble fitting it into a 21 inch soft case when it was in the sheath.
I fully harden my W2 blades up to the plunge cut and leave the tang soft, but because it is such a shallow hardening steel, the interior up by the spine probably doesn't harden. You need to harden the back some because when you anneal this W2, it gets VERY soft. I annealed 6 inch long 4mm thick blade and was able to put 5 bends in it by hand in the vice, including one bend that was 80 degress from straight!
The clay was not very thick, but it doesn't have to be to get a hamon. I usually temper large W2 blades at 475F which leaves the edge at around 60 rc. Smaller knives are tempered at 450F and they are around 61rc.
This knife was rough forged from a 140mm piece of 42mm round bar on a 50kg Say Mak hammer. (not my hammer unfortunately) and finished up on my hydraulic press and on the anvil.
Here is a picture of it's smaller brother.
http://gallery.me.com/jmforge/100008/DSC_0138/web.jpg?ver=12610082530002
 
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