because my wife says so

Bear season just opened here in bc and my wife says “you cant leave the house without a huge knife” what if your attacked. at this point my mind started working over drive. I remembered that I had began to make a bowie style knife a few years back and it had gathered some hefty dust. at the same time I saw the nothing new but glue challenge and the stars aligned. The steal I used for the blade was a chunk of stainless my grandpa had salvaged out of the trash when he had a garbage collection business. the handle is scraps from my moms door shelf “see projects” and the Christmas ornament I made for my wife “also projects” and are white oak and red wood though the red wood got turned out on the lathe and wasn’t actually included in the final project they were scraps from off the shop floor . the deer antler was from an animal my grandpas brother shot back in the day and had kicked around for 40 + years he gave it to me instead of throwing out. I drilled the oak and red wood with a whole saw and made the hole in the middle 5/8” and jammed a piece of 5/8” dowel I got from a broken oak garden table my mom had and drilled a hole to match in the antler and epoxied them together threw the whole thing on the lathe and turned to shape.doing my best to stick to the free and scavenged idea I used some 10w/30 motor oil from an leaking bottle I put in a coffee can and waxed it with the scraps from some old tea light candles my wife had used long ago but did not trow away. I cut back the extra dowel and drilled the center out again with a 3/8” drill. I cut a small piece of aluminum sheet I found in some garbage awhile ago “can anyone say pack rat” and used it as a spacer between the blade and handle then epoxied the whole thing together.
I would like to say that using an angle grinder on 1/4 ” stainless is a messy and slow proses. and I don’t think my neighbors appreciated it either. I filled the handle with epoxy and let it sit then I had the issue of what to put in the end of the handle than I found some old nickels my wife had found in some loose change ages ago and had stuffed in a desk drawer its a brass one from 1942. the blade was heat treated and quenched in the motor oil and as to a finish I could have hand sanded for hours with many levels of paper and polished to a mirror but I plan to use the knife so I used my orbital with 60 grit and gave it a good pounding on the wire weal. the log in the picture was my test piece for chopping and it works like a dream and keeps a descent edge its 14 inches over all with an 8 inch blade and it weighs about three pounds. the only thing new was SOME of the epoxy as the bottle I had open was half empty.

thats the best I could come up with but I cant wait to see the competition.
I also apologize I did not think to take a before pic showing the scraps so the pic is an after shot of the scraps glue and antler cut off “sorry I did not use guerrilla glue as It would have cost me money” and they haven’t sent me my prize glue yet. ; )

good luck

Ryan

-- of all the things Ive lost in life i miss my mind the most