Bowie Knife 2-day build

October 2, 2026

Now I am back in Texas I wanted a bowie knife. This was a 2-day build, with the largest hand-ground fuller I’d made, the first distal tapered blade, and the first use of the CNC and mill to rough out the handguard.

Forging the blade

The blade started as .25in 80CRV2 flat bar stock.

I hot-cut the clip point with the forge & anvil to rough in the blade. Then profiled the blade on the belt sander and ground in the distal taper.

Finishing

Once the overall blade was roughed in a heat treat cycle was done in the kiln. It involved 3 heating cycles and a quench in oil.

The handguard vertical profile was roughed in on the CNC from 3/4in brass plate. The mill was used to cut in the slot. The quillons were bent by heating the brass with a torch and hammering them while in a vice.

The handle is cocobolo roughed on the sander, sealed with CA glue, and then fit to the crossguard and blade before setting with epoxy.