Your honesty in making mistakes means more to me than the build. I’ve seen tons of your knives and I know ppl that would love to have all of those mistakes in their hand. I’m not a big fan of Damascus but that random pattern is real Knice. Overall build still came out real Knice. You adapt well to making new tools for the job.

Really really appreciate the honesty, being honest about your mistakes adds a lot of educational value to your video, always a joy to watch your videos, thanks!

Great build, James! I love the tools you built for this and I'm going to steal that kiss block setup. Great job, even though you point out some stuff you would fix, you learned a ton and it was super fun to watch!

The true test of a craftsman is not in the mistakes, but in the recovery from them.

Hey man! Props to you for pointing out the problems so we can all learn from them! That being said I still love the end result. I say you made the most sleek knife of the challenge! Cheers!

Your honesty about your errors is refreshing. That is still a beautiful blade. Nice work

Wow! Another beautiful Damascus pattern - absolutely stunning. A big thank you for showing us your “mistakes” so we can all learn from them. That being said that is still a stunning Bowie knife that the vast majority of us would be delighted to have made in our home forge. Knife making is so therapeutic for me regardless of how they turn out. Taking raw materials and turning them into something useful and, hopefully, as gorgeous as this is awesome. Keep up the great videos. 👍

Having full access to a quality machine shop has its perks. Thanks for showing it can be done without

A great all day bowie knife ! It is often the small mistakes that make the uniqueness of the object ... your honesty is your value! I'm totally a fan 👍

I love the learning process of knife making and its always good to see the trials and tribulations of fellow knife makers. I know I go through plenty but the learning process is the best part of making things. Great knife and I like the EDC feel of this knife.

I love that you point out areas where you made mistakes. That helps people like me that are still learning this art to be careful in those areas. Keep up the good work, I’m loving your work!

A true artist is always his own worst critic. Amazing work Red Beard !

You win the award for the biggest damn block of green compound I've ever seen!! 😂

Props to you for sharing the mistakes. It takes a bigger person to do that.👏👍 Pattern came out nice.

Knivemakers don't make Mistakes, only smaller Knives ;o)

Your ability to make tools is awesome! And I'm with you hidden tang knives are tough. Getting the guard and handle fit up can be so difficult. Nice job James I think the pattern looks great!

It’s a beautiful knife! Showing the mistakes are great teaching/learning moments.

Great video, I appreciate all the advice you gave throughout. Looking forward to more videos from you, keep up the good work

James, thanks for your honesty and your motive to help us of a lesser order. I still feel that the quality of your workmanship shows. And I will certainly make sure to build myself a guard jack. The last thing I want to mention is that art does not always comply with strict rules. I still like your knife a lot.

You are brutally honest on your builds which I like . Great job Sir 👍👏 keep up the good work.

There is a boat load of helpful tips in this video! Thank you for making/posting it. Good lookin knife.

I like the concept on this. Nice little vest Bowie.

I voted for this knife in the bowie knife challenge. The beauty in simplicity is something all the other contestants we're lacking. A knife is a tool, yours is simplistic, yes, but also utilitarian without sacrificing elegance.

Voting has closed. Check out some of the amazing videos for the contestants below! The Participants: Aleeknives : kzfaq.info B.Kohn Knives: kzfaq.info/love/OdEhPeKNd8iI1eGM0QFjnA Black Beard Project: kzfaq.info Brackin Blades Forge: kzfaq.info Encik Alee: kzfaq.info Faraway Forge: kzfaq.info Fire Creek Forge: kzfaq.info Green Beetle: kzfaq.info HANS: kzfaq.info House / Work: kzfaq.info Mystic Mountain Forge: kzfaq.info Old Hickory Forge: kzfaq.info Red Beard Ops: kzfaq.info RvD Knives: kzfaq.info Sperber-Knives: kzfaq.info/love/YgFiVrouzX5OH68ZJuXBWw The Rivers' Experience: kzfaq.info/love/dYgdTzDUMUYlqbJOiyVLQg Tyrell Knifeworks: kzfaq.info Wengels Workshop: kzfaq.info/love/zGSxdiprFKcUqLxqLD6vGA

Great job James. It's great to see you forge weld and use your press. She's a beauty!

Dig it man! Adjust adapt and over come. Fixing mistakes is what makes it hand crafted

Cute wee Bowie. Love the honesty! Still turned out amazing

I really appreciate your transparency in the process and thoughts. Your designs and classic and beautiful all the while executed really nicely. I’ve been making knives for over 40 years and mentored several a couple of which have gone on to become excellent makers. I own a Starrett hardness tester and I am very glad that I saved up and plunged for the tool. My confidence and ability to test blades is quite a bit higher although many seem to do well with out such an expensive tool. I confess that I have never used a file guide. All of my blades and guards (narrow tang) are hand and eye fitted. My only regret after this length of time is that I have never mastered the skill of soldering my guards. I don’t believe I actually need them soldered but I wish now I had learned the skill. For now, all of my guards are precision fitted (by eye and hand). The length of time is long but my pride is satisfied. God bless you and your channel. I appreciate the skill you have with both knife making and video production.

Excellent. I like that waterfall platten. Might have to build the same.

Great video mate and your knife turned out really nice despite the small mistakes. Thankyou for the commentary explaining your process and how you made those mistakes, very much appreciated!!

Excellent job. I just picked up a log splitter to convert to a press to make the forge weld process a bit easier, so making something like this is a way off, but videos like this keep the dream alive, and teach me what to do and what not to do. Keep 'em coming, please!!

I LOVE your shop build. your tools and your presicion. Good to know our channel tnx to this event.

Honestly I enjoyed your honesty! I like the pattern Damascus because it is random. Thanks for the tips and tools included in the video. I truly wish I had the time, tools, space to to do something like this. For now I just watch and learn.

Love the knife . Perfect for EDC . 💓💓💓💓💓💓

Your tool game is really coming along. Great video - very instructive!

Good and educating video. Thx for letting us see all the misstakes, it makes us understand alot more. Im in the beginning of starting making knifes myself, this channel makes me wana do it even more. Keep up the good work m8! / Sweden

Amazing knife, great work.

The end of learning is the end of life! Just started watching your build, cant wait to see the finished knife :)

That's a beautiful knife man you've definitely got my vote

I’ve watched a lot of your videos and I think your skill set is top notch! First time anything never turns out perfect! But it is a very custom knife and it looks great.

Nice work!!! Love it!!

Very nice knife, thanks for sharing and for your honesty, good luck...

Hi James, as everybody knows, knifemakers don‘t make mistakes, they just make smaller knifes..... You really left your comfort zone and you saved me a few f**k ups in doing so. Btw competing in this Build off against Denis on his Home Turf was quite brave to Start with. My Respect goes to Texas!

Everyone likes a tight tang slot. Thanks for the video

You did an amazing job on this knife!

Im a believer in forge thick grind thin . Nice work

Nice to see that lovely oven get some use mate!

I like how you show how you make your tools. I was wonderin why you were makin with the wood clamp and was like man I woulda never thought about doin that. Great job brother.

Beautiful knife !

Wow you really made a cool pattern. Such a nice job on this. Mistakes are all part of the learning process. Sometimes making the mistake allows you to look at it in another light and come out better on the second go round. Keep up the great videos! Really like the channel and all the content

Nice job on the knife too

you did a great job james ilove it

Warts and all, it’s still a great project and far more educational than if you played “glory days”, hiding or obfuscating the troubled areas.

A really beautiful knife. Best wishes for the contest!

Very well done, sure you are a MS by this time, very informative and well explained !!!!

Nice job!

Great vid, great knife! I voted for your entry.

Those micro imperfections are the signs of a one of a kind hand made knife, if I owned it I would treasure it.

Dude nice shop. A lot bigger than the garage you was in. I been MIA for a while but startin back up. Man your knives are great. And I am learnin a lot from your and other videos.

I came from Black Beard Projects after I heard about the build off. I like the end results of your knife. You earned a new sub from me and I will be watching your previous builds.

god. i wish i had a tenth of the tools you have. working with a walmart angle grinder and a 1x30 with some files is rough. i couldnt even begin to think about making my own tools to youe to make other tools. toolception. on a serious note, i am beginning to get into stock removal and want to thank you for the plethora of educational videos you have on the topic. ive watched your various bevel grinding videos multiple times and probably will more as i attempt to improve my own skills. keep up the amazing work. just know it is appreciated !!

than knife looks amazing love the pattren

You have Money,your officine it's awesome,i started with Just a file and saw last year

Flaws huh? You're just showin off again.👍🍻

When I started making knives I only made hidden tang and never had to many problems its been about a year since doing one till last week and I wonder now why I did hidden tang for so long. I like the Knife James its a good effort for someone who hasn't done many hidden tang

Great looking blade, we learn as we go. At least you're honest about the issues you had so you learn from them. Someone else might try to fit a butt cap over the end to hide that issue etc. Good build and great to watch, listen and learn from :)

Love the knife I would have used screw type fixing so could move the blades about And a tool where you have your spike but this is just my brain trying to make it practical when it is a fantasy knife lol Keep up the great work

Look in to the evolution steel miter saws they don't make dust or get the metal up but make a really nice cut

It is a beautiful knife.

Essa Bowie está linda 👌🏽👍🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽😃

Great video and build, thank you! P.S. I'd love to see a build video of that jack.

Посмотрел с удовольствием ! Хорошая работа!

I'm curious about your background previous to starting your own shop? Thanks man, Love the knives and your excellent way of explaining processes.

That combo press die. Holy crap, that's genius! Why have I never seen that before? I'm sure they must've existed for a while at this point.

As I said in a previous clip, you’re critical eye looking over your own work is important and a key to getting better. The thing for me is, when I look at things you disapprove of, I always find myself saying, “Hell…that’s barely noticeable and seems to add more character to the blade than anything else. Although from a makers standpoint, you’d rather not have it there at all. Personally, I thing it came out beautiful. The steel was gorgeous and the handle came out great. But I’m an old man and I find myself looking past things and finding the best in my knives….keep up the great work, lad. You’re pretty far into the journey and we’ll on you’re way to becoming a Master Smith. Thinking yet of taking the test?

The HRC Japanese Made files set from I think 40- 65 HRC and when I used them many year s ago they worked perfect and I could get within 2 points of what the files found.

I usually braze the allthread to the tang, imho better than welding. I like your method too.

28:39 Magnificent damascus 👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👍

We're all our own harshest critics, James. The centred pommel nut is noticeable - once you pointed it out - but I'd have struggled to notice the handle/ricasso alignment, I have to say. Great job overall, man 🙏🏻🇬🇧

Simple sleek bowie 😌

Nice video brother! I still wish I could get one of those magnetic chucks for my sga lol Oh and if you ever find yourself in the position with an unsquare block again... Reference off of your blade on 1-2-3 blocks instead (while you're scribing your lines with your height Gauge)

Very nice 🚀🚀🚀

thank you brother, hope you don't mind mind using some of your ideas. aweesome job brother

Dude, an actual hardness tester would be badass, but the files work too. I had the same irritating feeling about not knowing how hard my knives were besides "does a file skate"...it just felt too imprecise. So I bought a set of files and they gave me a LOT more info than I had before. My previous method was to take a new file and go by feel and sight, but after getting the file set I decided to revisit that method and that's when I realized just how little I actually knew about the hardness of my steel and how inaccurate that method was (and how much a file varies in hardness and sharpness). If you're really shooting for a particular hardness (say, 57-58), then a hardness tester will get you to that point...but a set of files will get you pretty close to that point as well with the right technique. Steel at 56 will be slightly scratched by a 55 file, but at 57 it's really faint, so you can estimate. Adding to that, you'll never get a homogenous hardness throughout the steel, so you might hit a soft spot somewhere or a harder spot, you never really know. Damascus is more difficult still, and even a dedicated hardness tester won't tell you the whole story as you have to average out a whole bunch of test points in a certain spot to get a reliable reading. If you do get a file set, don't go by the instructions and start with the softest and work your way up, start with the hardest and work your way down. Running a soft file over a hard knife will dull the teeth, leading to future inaccuracy, but you can always take a file scratch out of your blade. As for coating your stack in WD-40, that's probably just as good as dipping it in kerosene or Jet-A, the point is to fill the gaps with something that isn't oxygen or water. Better still is to get a tiny amount of flux in with it, and you can do that by mixing boric acid (not borax) with denatured alcohol or methanol. This gives you a liquid that not only displaces oxygen, but also aids in forge welding. The recipe is simple...just add enough boric acid powder while stirring until it becomes saturated and you get precipitate at the bottom. Jewelers use this flux at about a 50/50 mix and stir up the precipitate to get a better barrier on their pieces for soldering, but I've found that much acid isn't necessary for forge welding and could potentially cause inclusions if the gaps in the stack are big enough. Always add the acid to your solvent when mixing, not the other way around. I use an airtight ammo can to hold a gallon of the solution, because the mixture is hydrophilic and will be contaminated by moisture in the air. Dunk the stack and stir it around for a few second and you're good to go. You can also use it as a fuel in tiki torches to get a green flame, just in time for Halloween.

Never seen one of these waterfall patterns before definitely gonna make one. Any reason you didn’t run in reverse just looking I thought it might be a little safer to use but obviously there could be reasons that you didn’t do that

Hey man, love all your videos but i was wondering if you could possibly make a video on upgrades you would do to the harbor freight 1x30 belt sander when you have the time? There are alot of people out there that buy that to get started in knife making including me.

I don’t know about you guys but I actually prefer low layer Damascus. Still wouldn’t want any for myself because I’m a form follows function guy, but the lower layers seem more primal and beautiful to me

Как всегда отличная работа. Нож очень понравился. Молодец!

Hey Guys; going to post this in all the videos. Have to say lived these builds & was a HARD choice since we only get 1 vote. Would be better to have a 1, 2, and 3 choices since many channels have fewer subs but did great builds. That way there could be a bit more of an average top choices & determination of top 5 kind of challenge. @Tyrell Knifeworks got my vote but @Green Beetle, @Red Bears Ops, @Wengels Workshop were all right there at great builds for a 2 or 3 place fight.

You have work to do... but you'll get there I have not doubt

Very informative thank you. You mentioned that you sprayed your stack with WD-40 to prevent oxidation. Do you still apply a flux (Like Borax) when forging the damascus?

I am sorry but... this is amazing!

I get the point you wanted that to be in line, but for 99% those are happy little accidents not big mistakes. The back end one is a painfull one and a mistake one makes easily in the flow of makin a knife. still looks nice!

I need to snag one of those file guides. How wide of a blade does yours fit? My DIY one isn't big enough, and that one looks beautiful.

Hi James, nice looking knife- simple but very aestetic. You have a bunch of DIY tools in your workshop (that is cool- I'm also DIY guy). I'm curious, is there any advantage of "Guard Jack" comparing to simple hammering? Regards, David

I prefer the low layer count they pop better. Anywhere between 37 to 67 count really look great.. Nice blade though!

nicly done

Still a very nice blade and we’re never done learning that’s for sure. I might have missed it, is that Ironwood?

This is late lol. But i got one of the grizzly hardness testers. And its been doing really well. It comes with test blocks, but i bought a phase 2 test block to verify also. And it seems to he spot on, on everything. Its been super useful for developing heat treatments. Though i mostly am using a bunch of crazy steels, and a lot of variety between them so it probably is much more useful to me.

Ausome vid do you have a preference in which 2by72 belts you use brand wise.