Well, this is an interesting one.Some of the guys at Primal Fires are into wagon wheel rims, because they're usually wrought iron, for making guards and pommels for knives. A guy sent me some wagon axle, telling me that it was a simple, high carbon steel. This started giving me an idea. I have a couple old wagon wheels in my yard that are falling apart, and it made me curious. What if I made a Bowie knife entirely out of old wagon parts? Call it a Conestoga Bowie, after the Conestoga wagons. The gears in my head started turning. So, first thing was to cut into one of the rims I have. Tried bending and tearing it. It's pretty tough, and finer grained than I'd imagined:

 

 

 

 

 

Polished an end and side, and etched it. Pretty cool stuff. The side:

 

 

 

The end:

 

 

 

 

So, that's going to be the guard and pommel. I then cut a spoke up. As I suspected, some nice old Oak:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now on to the axle. I forged out a blade from some of the axle, and rough ground it:

 

 

 

 

He told me it has a pattern in it, which disappears when you harden it. I wanted to see, so I sanded and polished it, then etched it. Wow. 

 

 

 

 

Stunning stuff:

 

 

 

 

 It looks like Damascus. If it really does go away, I'm planning on clay coating the spine and differentially hardening it, to preserve as much of this lovely pattern as I can: