Modern Bowie Knife

With inspiration from Basta's channel. With nothing other than Toolbox tools, the Family BBQ and the Wife's hairdryer, I set about cutting up a piece of scrap metal, a support from a machine packing crate, in the hope that I would end up with a Modern Bowie Knife. I say modern because I added a bottle opener!

Blacksmiths Drill Bits, 20 year old B&D drill, old Sanding Belt (turned upside down and held in a vice), Files, old Angle Grinder,a Punch, a Hammer, Polishing Mops (Screw Fix), old Wood Chisels, Pillar Drill, £10 worth of Navy Brass from a Motorbike rally swap meet, and basically anything I could lay my hands on! Oh yeah, Brickets for the BBQ and old Gearbox Oil.

Marker pen depicting the shape and then use an Angle Cutter to get a rough form. Tidy it up as best as possible, get rid of any blemishes in the metal, File cut the Saw Back on the upper edge, a pair of gloves might be useful, unless you are used to blisters....

I heated up the Family BBQ, up to about melting point, laid the blank in the coals until Rose red, took it out and let it air cool and then returned it to the coals, I repeated this five times, using the wife's hair dryer to blast the temperature up, yes, i bought her a new one!

On the sixth time of heating I then quenched the blank in a 5 gallon container of old gear oil. I now have no eyebrows but fun all the same!

I then polished the hardened steel to a very high lustre with buffing wheels.

I have since made a Furnace, there is an Instructable on this site!

I was waiting for a Deer Antler for the handle but didn't want to wait 7 months for the season to start, so I ended up using Hickory, well a piece of Hickory Pick Axe handle that had been damaged by a chain saw. Prior to applying varnish I got very Arty by collecting all the Brass grains that were on the work top and hammering them into the handle.

Drilling straight through the centre was worrying... to say the least...

Having no idea what a Pommel should look like I just made it up and don't think it turned out too bad, I also added a hole for a Lanyard.

I saved myself a lot of time by shaping the piece using an upside down Belt Sander and it only flew past my head once!

I can't believe that I am typing this but to get the inner shape for the hilt, I chiseled the excess brass out using wood chisels. PLEASE be careful if you try this!

I must say that they polished up very well!

Unscrew the Pommel end to take the whole knife apart