Hello again.

I've ordered a couple of unmounted Sheffield-style bowie blades, the kind with straight-edged slab tangs, similar to the attached image. I'm wondering how to make sure the hilts have a secure grip, given that they have straight edges and no widening at the butt end. Was the reason they were often given antler scales so the textured surface would make them grippier? If I use smooth wood grips, should I regrind the tang edges so that they flare at the end? Or am I worrying about nothing?

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One thing you can do is make the grip scales grow slightly thicker away from the blade. Just a couple of millimeters thicker at the butt end often makes a surprisingly big difference!

And, of course, you can also file the sides of the tang to the more common slightly waisted shape (as shown in the attached image, or probably a little more pronounced depending on personal taste).

Thanks. I unfortunately didn't inquire about the exact dimensions of the tang and fittings before ordering, so I'll have to find out how much wiggle room is available when they arrive.

Hi Dan,
Bone is a good choice for a grip scale material, you can work it to a nice satin finish and it’ll still have a bit of tack, grippiness even when wet, at least to bare hands. Good chance that’s what the scales are in the photo you attached in your original post.
You can certainly flare the grip toward the butt, either in thickness or in height (reducing the tangs breadth close to the blade if needed), as Mikko states before, but many of the older bowies that I’ve seen are pretty narrrow and straight in the grip. A fatter butt is an advantage if you’re building a chopper, but might not be needed or even desireable for an all-purpose outdoors knife (which most Bowie knives were).
Best,
Eric

Here is a Sheffield style bowie made by Tod Cutler

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Thank you for all your suggestions.

The blades arrived yesterday. Unfortunately the tangs aren't wide enough to give them a significant waist (though that does appear to have been a historical method). I think I'm going to taper the scale thickness. That won't make them look too different from the originals.

By the way, this is the blade I'm talking about, the 003 classic clip point Bowie. It's cheap because it's not finished at all, doesn't even have pin holes drilled. It was 4.5mm thick to start with, I sanded it down to just over 4mm and still couldn't get all the hammer marks out. The Sheffield Bowies, even old antique ones, never seem to look this rough.

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Remember, less is more! Very subtle shapes are surprisingly effective at improving a grip - the biggest thing IMO is just having some kind of unintrusive tactile feedback so you can tell where along the grip your fingers are and which way the edge is oriented without looking. If you file the tang to be just a total of 2mm narrower in the middle than at the ends, and/or make the scales a total 2mm thicker at the butt than at the guard, that's easily enough to feel (and see!), and since it's not a huge heavy blade that's honestly all you need - and probably more than you strictly need; as was pointed out, a lot of the antiques are straight and smooth all the way, and with light knives that's most likely just not an issue at all, as long as they're not also slippery.

I managed to give the tang a very slight waist, but I felt the entire tang needed to be made narrower from end-to-end (and thinner) so as not to require making the slot in the guard so big as to weaken it. Drilled pin holes, shimmed and hard-soldered the guard, and I've got some holly for the grips. Also have some sheet nickel on order for the scabbard fittings and escutcheon plate.

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Oh, I like that! Really nice subtle shape.

Thank you.

My scroll saw is in, but I'm planning to get a cart to keep it on and do all the cutting and shaping of wood components outdoors so sawdust won't be a problem. Made the frog button heads and the first escutcheon plate. They're pretty rough-looking, as expected at this point... but I'm going with the conceit that these aren't Sheffield Bowies but rather domestically-made Bowies in the Sheffield style, which is, of course, exactly what they are.

In the meanwhile, I have to ask about the frog buttons. Can I just silver-solder the head to the shank and the shank to the throat? How tall and wide should the shank be? Lastly, how do I design and build the frog sleeve and buttonhole so the button will go through the hole easily without the hole or sleeve being too loose?

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I recently finished a guardless early "Bowie" (a large, thick knife probably more like what Bowie used in the sandbar fight as opposed to the knives later called "Bowies"). Mine is inspired by a very rare example that sold for $13k at auction. That knife has stag scales, which would give a good grip. Mine uses smooth ash, so I left the solid brass rivets slightly proud and domed over brass washers to help with grip. This feels very secure to me.

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In the final stretch now as far as the knife itself goes, with the grips polished and taking on their first coat of linseed oil. They look alright as they are, but hopefully subsequent coats will give them more of an aged bone color. I'm mainly posting because I feel the need to say: This holly is barely harder than poplar, and if it's representative of what holly in general is like, I'm surprised anyone uses it as a knife grip.

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It is, thanks! Thing is, to me the holly just feels little harder than poplar. Of course, that's not a fine instrument for gauging and it's good to see the actual numbers. Surprising that holly has a Janka hardness comparable to black walnut! It may be that the particular piece I used is softer than average.

Remember that a whole lot depends on exactly how, and how fast, the tree grew, as well as which part of it the wood comes from.