SpringsKnives.com !

One of the longer ones:

I was going to do the 2nd long knife, but it had enough of a bend in the tip that I'd rather fix it at the forge than cut off ~1" of blade length to get it straight.

Time for sheaths.

I wanted to get better pictures outside, but it's like The Birds out here. Literally got pooped on running back from the garage. Didn't want shit to get on my brand new sheathes.

astromech Got some copper, and am testing it out myself:

I've got 2 kitchen knives forged, and 1 more camp knife. I'll grind those and then try to set this billet. See if I can get it to work.

Quote from lazs

Did you see the vid where the guy heat treated and sharpened a butterknife?

lazs

I hadn't. But just because you go through the process, doesn't mean it's hardenable. For example, the last time I was out forging I wanted to make a kitchen knife out of some bar stock I had sitting around. I was 95% sure it was good steel, and that I knew specifically which kind. But I can sink 10-20 hours into a kitchen knife, so I needed to be sure.

I cut off a small sliver, heated it up, and quenched it. Then I hit it with a hammer. That it broke just confirmed to me that it was good.

astromech I think it got stuck together.

Heated it up. Smacked it a bunch. Then ran it through my fullering tool to get some texture to the copper.

No breaches. No copper squirting out. I hope it's stuck together. Fuck, I won't know til I cut it apart. Not tall enough for a cheese knife, this is just a test to see if it can work. I'll probably make my USN Mark 1 kabars out of these. Will have to forge out the tangs.

If this works, we can go nuts.

storch Started on the kitchen knife, but I broke my flatter tool. Could have kept going, but wasn't worth it to continue without it. Will weld it back together tomorrow, keep forging, then forge a second.

astromech

It stuck! It's still too thick, over 3/8". These are the tangs, I'll forge them to shape. Already welded up the exposed parts.

And there's not enough "texture" to the brass pattern. I'll work on that, too.

Quote from Arrow

Anyone take you up on the spatula?

I think I'm going to do it. But I've got a handful of commissions I've got to finish. One for Storch. One for Astro (these steel / copper billets are test pieces). And then on top of those custom knives, I've got 3 more kitchen knives to grind, and another camp knife. And heat treating it all.

The 2 copper billets, with the tangs forged out.

2 kitchen knives forged out.

Lastly, built a sliding door for my forge:

Don't look too closely. I had a plan, it was working. Then the "steel" rollers I bought turned out to NOT be steel, and I had to improvise.

Success!

And failure:

Same Knife ^

Different knife ^

I think the first knife is saveable. I think the second is a loss, but I'll still try.

Brief experiment with bluing on very roughly ground unhardened steel.

storch One of the troubles with smithing this stuff out is that you need to get your hands on it to see all the faults. Or you can forge it really thick and grind it down.

So I sent one of the pair back to be touched up at the forge so I don't lose too much grinding.

^Your knife plus 2 more I had forged previously.

Quote from storch

Actually the Celt likes the one on the left best

Left one is 6-3/4" blade. Middle is 7.5" blade. Right is 8.5" blade.

You buy multiple, I'll give you a discount. I had planned to play around with hamons on several of the blades. I.E. Claying the spine, and polishing it up til you can see the line between hard and soft steel.

I don't know if it'll "show" on the left side blade. That one has a lot of nickel in it. But I want to find out anyway.