I’ve discussed this build in the cascity forum but not here. Many years ago I picked up a cheap 1917 Bolo with bad scales and no guard. I bought replacement scales but never got around to building a guard. Some months ago I discovered the Krag Bowie, a really georgeous hunk of steel. But at 2 to 4 grand definitely out of my neighborhood. But I got to researching and figured that if I turned the bolo blade slightly I could get a pretty good facsimile of a bowie out of my junky bolo blade. Would of had to cut it anyway. So I found a rough Krag bayonet without a scabbard and started cutting. I had discovered some dremel cut off blades with the little bowtie reenforcements in the wheels. These worked great making the top bowie curve and the tang cuts. I used several belt sanders to get the blade shaped. Got the tangs tig welded together and the scales fitted. I oxpho blued the tang and guard and truoiled the scales. Last thing is to set the rivets. Here it is on my Constabulary Krag. I plan to use it this month as my cas club is trying a boltgun, 1911 and 1897 match. Ought to be a hoot. Plan on using my homemade charger then too. Hope my build doesn’t upset anyone, I wasn’t trying to build a fake, just a lookalike. This was how the first Krag Bolo was created according to Hartman’s Krag bayonet book.

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