darksaber

Had a great time last year and managed to pick up some items and stock I had been looking for. It's a great place to meet other blacksmiths in the area especially if you are close enough to get out there for a day. I'm planning on heading up there for part of the day next Saturday.

The rebound is very good and it does have a decent ring to it. As for the hammer marks on the underside of the horn, not sure where they came from but it does add a bit of character to the anvil. The price may have been a little high but it was within my price range and it is one of the better anvils I have seen for sale in the past two years or so, so that didn't bother me so much. As for it having collectors value, I will worry about that more after it has been used for a while and if I find better, I plan on using it quite a bit till then though. I would like to find out some more about where the anvil came from, which I plan on doing some in the coming days, so I would appreciate it if anyone has any ideas about it or even where to start.

Picked up a new toy last night. Very few markings on it that I can find which is shown in one of the pictures they are 1 2 2 and 8 (1 or I) 5 underneath the first line. Not sure of the weight, the gentleman I picked it up from said it was 135 lbs. It has a nice rebound on it as well as a good sound. The size is 19" x 4 5/8" x 9 3/4" overall, with a cutting face of 11 1/2" x 4 5/8" with a 7/8" hardy hole. Hopefully Saturday I can get a weight on it as well as seeing how well it does when forging. Paid a little over $2.50 a lb. for it. I had been looking for an anvil for a while now but nothing worthwhile to be found or no money when I did find a decent one. The gentleman I bought it from gets a lot of blacksmithing stuff from Pennsylvania near Amish country, and once or twice a year gets a trailer load brought down here. He had a larger Fisher anvil, and Champion blower with stand, and a lot of hammers, tongs, and swages. Just goes to show you that if you are hunting for an anvil don't settle for something less than what you want, just keep hunting and it will turn up.

Those are absolutely gorgeous, both the Damascus ones and the wooden ones. It's good to see other people using the beauty of Damascus on something other than knives. Just curious about how they are made, I am assuming with a lathe, after they are welded. In the past I have made some Damascus pendants and keychain fobs, and thought about doing a ring, for myself, but not sure how to go about it. Otherwise I may have to order one in the near future .

Very cool Brian. I really like the looks of them. Am I correct in thinking that you did the eye for the axes basically the same way you do a hammer eye?

Closest I have come to making something similar was a little after Thanksgiving last year. For our Christmas play last year and other times we did the life story of Jesus, complete with crucifixion. The directors needed somebody to make the nails to hold the people on the crosses, so I told them I would take care of it. Since we couldn't exactly nail them to the crosses through the wrists and ankles we made them slightly different. Took 6 railroad spikes cut the heads off about 3" down from the top and then took some flat stock and bent that into a U, then welded the 3 pieces together. The spike would be driven into a hole in the wood and with the persons wrists in the U it looked like they were driven through the wrists. I like it and may have to steal that idea, and give it to my pastor for Christmas.

Very nice man, you're like me enjoy working on the projects rather than finishing, but need to get in gear and finish more . If you need some help with the woodworking stuff give me a call or come on over , not too good at it myself but learning it just like I was/am the smithing part. Get some handles on the other stuff, I want to see more pics.

Using my grandfather's old forge and small anvil. Me and the rest of the grandkids remember a huge anvil but nobody know what happened to it. I hate I didn't get into blacksmithing sooner, he could have taught me a lot without me having to go to school and figure it out on my own. Anyway here is a pic of my setup, drag it out of the garage to forge and after I'm finished drag it back in.

Just finished forging a spear head for the Christmas play in a month and about to head to Waynesville to an estate sale. Drop it by and leave it in the garage or truck and I'll get to it later today man, or just give me a call later this afternoon.

Thanx adamj, bring the knives on over I'll slap some on it but the wood is rough on belts so I need to grab a few more. Rhyfelwr the handle seems very solid so far, I'll know more tomorrow after a test run on the mountain. The blade was already hardened and tempered before I even though about attaching a handle so had to forgo the pins on this one. The ones I am working on now will have pins. As for the African Mahogany I got 10 board feet from a small wood shop in Greer, SC, I saw an ad for it on craigslist and thought it would make beautiful scales. Got it for too good a price to pass up on so I got enough to do a lot of scales for knives. Oh, and thanks for the compliment.

Here is a knife I have been meaning to get up on here the past week and finally got around to it. The blade is 3.5" long, just under 1.5" wide, and just under .125" thick and 8.5" overall. The handle is African Mahogany and the pictures don't do it justice. The steel started as half an old file, and was hardened in water and tempered to a light straw color on the edge and light blue on the spine. Finest grit I had for the belt sander was 120, and then hand sanded up to 2000 grit. The handle was sanded with 40 grit on the belt sander then 80 and 120, then sanded up to 600 by hand and finished with tung oil. The blade has been sitting on the shelf fresh from the sander for several months, finally got around to trying to put handles on some blades. When I put the clamps on to hold the epoxy the clamps pulled the scales up from the very front so a tiny gap near the front of the scale where there is no epoxy, and the very end of the handle has a slight corner to one side, but other than that I really like this for my first handled knife. The last pic is a pic of my setup after I finished forging on some stuff for Christmas. Thanks for taking a look at my new play purty.

Used the tung oil on the stacked one, and for the others and as for pics, look for them tomorrow morning sometime. The tung oil gave it a nice looking natural finish and really made the grain, color, and ribbon effect pop. It's getting dark fast here now and have to go out in a few minutes and my camera is at the church, so I'll get it when I go out. Finished up one knife Friday and one this morning. Need to re-polish one blade and put the final edges on them both, but don't need that for the pics.

Their birthday party was last night, but might have to do that for Christmas. Thanks for the idea.

I did up some key chain fobs for my sister and one of my friends for their birthdays. I remember being told in my blacksmithing class that wrought iron would etch black in a damascus pattern. Well after a few hours of work both Friday and Saturday here are a few pics of the fobs, made using wrought iron and L6. As you can see the wrought iron didn't etch black but silver, I was a little disappointed, but still looks pretty neat. Both the girls loved them especially the wood grain appearance of the wrought iron. What type of steel would give me a black or dark gray when etched, this is for some decorative pieces like the below, so the carbon content doesn't matter to me? I want the couple I am making for Christmas to really stand out. Again thanx for the help and comments everybody.