Brownie
03-15-2006, 09:12 PM
DJ mentioned he preferred a 12" bladed bowie and a little more belly to them than the true fighters I've shown in the Covington and Bagwell threads.
So, here is the story of the Brown Bowie.
Back in 1986, or was it 5, I'd have to dig out the article to be sure, I decided to design my own bowie knife and have it made to my specs.
I wanted D-2 carbon tool steel for the blade so I contacted Jessup Steel in Pennsylvania and had them send me a cold rolled piece that was 18" long, 3" wide and 3/8" thick. I ordered a custom piece of D-2 that had 12.5% Chromium [ a little high for D-2 normally ]. The Chromium at 13% in a tool steel is considered stainless and I wanted it close but not stainless.
I then etched my design with an awl, transferred from the paper sketch, to the steel and took it to a buddy of mine who owned a machine shop. He cut the design out of the blank for me.
I then contacted several custom makers trying to get them to finish the knife and they all told me take a hike. That the steel would eat too many of their belts in grinding it, and take them forever and a day.
I finally found this maker who liked working with D-2 through asking these others, whose name was JD Malloy, also by coincidence, from Pennsylvania. I called JD and expalined what I had. He told me to ship it to him, he could do it and it would cost me $1000.00 to finish it.
I sent the blank to him, told him I wanted a flat, tapered grind; Black Micarta handle with hidden tang, nickel silver inlays in the Micarta, and 316 stainless for the guard and pommel.
Couple months later I was driving down to pick it up. It was too risky to have it lost in the mail at that point. JD told me he had taken it to the NY Custom knife show when he had finished it and it had been professionally photographed and would appear in one of the knife rags sometime in the future and he would let me know which month so I could pick up a copy. Again, I forget which one now, but I have the magazine strored away somewhere.
He told me the grinding ate almost 20 belts. Before he put the handle on the knife to finish it, he took out back and with the weight of the blade alone from 6 inches above a 2" limb, the knife chopped it clean off.
Here's the Brown Bowie, it weighs over 3 pounds and is a real wrist breaker to move around [ remember, the knife is 3/8" thick ]. The blade is 12.5" long with a cutting edge of just 12", the handle is 5.5" long. Always thought Arnold or Dundee should have been using a real knife instead of those toothpicks in the movies myself:D
Enjoy
BTW-That other knife above the Brown Bowie with the pronounced clip point and edge down in the photo?
It was made by a mountain man in Montana back in the 30's from a Ford model A leaf spring. A razor blade of a knife :eek:
So, here is the story of the Brown Bowie.
Back in 1986, or was it 5, I'd have to dig out the article to be sure, I decided to design my own bowie knife and have it made to my specs.
I wanted D-2 carbon tool steel for the blade so I contacted Jessup Steel in Pennsylvania and had them send me a cold rolled piece that was 18" long, 3" wide and 3/8" thick. I ordered a custom piece of D-2 that had 12.5% Chromium [ a little high for D-2 normally ]. The Chromium at 13% in a tool steel is considered stainless and I wanted it close but not stainless.
I then etched my design with an awl, transferred from the paper sketch, to the steel and took it to a buddy of mine who owned a machine shop. He cut the design out of the blank for me.
I then contacted several custom makers trying to get them to finish the knife and they all told me take a hike. That the steel would eat too many of their belts in grinding it, and take them forever and a day.
I finally found this maker who liked working with D-2 through asking these others, whose name was JD Malloy, also by coincidence, from Pennsylvania. I called JD and expalined what I had. He told me to ship it to him, he could do it and it would cost me $1000.00 to finish it.
I sent the blank to him, told him I wanted a flat, tapered grind; Black Micarta handle with hidden tang, nickel silver inlays in the Micarta, and 316 stainless for the guard and pommel.
Couple months later I was driving down to pick it up. It was too risky to have it lost in the mail at that point. JD told me he had taken it to the NY Custom knife show when he had finished it and it had been professionally photographed and would appear in one of the knife rags sometime in the future and he would let me know which month so I could pick up a copy. Again, I forget which one now, but I have the magazine strored away somewhere.
He told me the grinding ate almost 20 belts. Before he put the handle on the knife to finish it, he took out back and with the weight of the blade alone from 6 inches above a 2" limb, the knife chopped it clean off.
Here's the Brown Bowie, it weighs over 3 pounds and is a real wrist breaker to move around [ remember, the knife is 3/8" thick ]. The blade is 12.5" long with a cutting edge of just 12", the handle is 5.5" long. Always thought Arnold or Dundee should have been using a real knife instead of those toothpicks in the movies myself:D
Enjoy
BTW-That other knife above the Brown Bowie with the pronounced clip point and edge down in the photo?
It was made by a mountain man in Montana back in the 30's from a Ford model A leaf spring. A razor blade of a knife :eek: