What am I going to do with this ?

[Jim Bowie]

I just got this bar of San Mai in the mail today. I'm pretty excited!

 

[hso]

Seax

 

[Mk-211]

Make a fighter...


Or a camper



Or a chopper

 

[troy fairweather]

I like the camp or hunting knife idea.

 

[Jim Bowie]

Ahh... Zen and the art of sitting here thinking about knife designs! I'm tempted to go kind of Murray Carter with this....

 

[JShirley]

You can make a largish recurve and a matching task knife.

 

[JohnKSa]

Big tanto!

 

[Jim Bowie]

I'd love to make a Tanto. I like the way they look and they are easy for me to make , but they seem so cliche to me now. And mostly useless...

 

[hso]

What would take advantage of the layered nature of the steel in appearance?

 

[Jim Bowie]

Yes ,hso , that's exactly what I am thinking about! A dagger would show the layers on both sides but daggers are hard for me and I might fail...

 

[Mk-211]

Tis better to try and fail than to never try at all...

 

[Jim Bowie]

One thing is for sure. I'm going to approach this with confidence and man up when I take it to the grinder. I'll treat it like any other piece of steel. I won't be intimidated...
It's not like I have never had a great piece of steel in my hands before...

 

[WestKentucky]

Hmmm... really well made paring knife?

 

[rust collector]

How about a nice spear point hunter, along the lines of Graham's?

 

[earlthegoat2]

That steel makes good woodworking chisels.

 

[ms6852]

I vote Tanto too.

 

[Boattale]

I like spear point blades, like Bob Dozier makes a lot of. Whatever trips your trigger though. It will make a good one whatever you decide.

 

[Nuclear]

A Bowie with some really nice wood.

 

[Jim Bowie]

I've been studying the Dozier designs a lot lately.....

 

[Boattale]

I've been studying the Dozier designs a lot lately.....

To me, his spear point fixies with just a touch of belly look as good as it gets for a medium sized multi purpose fixed blade knife. If you do something like that with a full tang and make a good leather sheath and would be willing to move it along, just message me.

 

[JohnKSa]

And mostly useless...

My EDC has a tanto style blade, and I find that point style to be very useful. I do admit that a large fixed blade tanto isn't exactly the perfect EDC, but then just about anything you'd make that uses all that steel is going to fall into more or less the same category.

Anyway, the biggest thing tantos have going for them is that they just look really cool.

 

[Mk-211]

I agree, tanto's of all types are very cool.

 

[hso]

HIJACK ALERT


Most of you know that a traditional tantō (短刀) is a Japanese blade less than 1 shaku (11.93 inches) in length with a strong kissaki (point). The kissaki is beefy, but not a “chisel-like” point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a “tanto point” found historically. Bob Lum, may he rest in piece, created the angular westernized "tanto" that Cold Steel had made so famous. Bob's work was wonderful, but he was a little conflicted because this design influenced people's thinking about what Japanese blades were "supposed" to look like and his association with it overshadowed his knifemaking with many. He also didn't make any money off of it, but CS made barrels full.

These are traditional tanto from the feudal periods of Japan.

 

[rust collector]

Very interesting. I too have read and seen that old blades do not have the angular edge, and wondered where it came from. Thanks for the history.

 

[JShirley]

I'd love to make a Tanto. I like the way they look and they are easy for me to make , but they seem so cliche to me now. And mostly useless...

You mean the so-called "American tanto" is easy. Real tantos sre not cliched, or as easy, and definitely not useless.

Here's a 16th century example: note the gentle curve of the blade near the tip, not some chisel abomination that's easy to make...

And another.