mcraigl

Hey guys, the wife bought me a guitar for christmas, so now I got another hobby to learn! Anyway, the key thing here, just like forging is practicing. It's a bit of a pain to get it in and out of the case etc. every time. I'm thinking if I had a nice guitar stand I could just leave it set up, plugged into the amp right next to my chair and whenever I got 3 minutes I could pick it up and at least run through a couple of scales. I'm in the research and design phase. Not really sure what's important for a guitar stand other than it be stable and hold the guitar securely. It would of course be desireable to have them look nice to boot. Any design ideas or input or pictures etc. would be muchly appreciated.

Good job. I've had similar issues around the boss / jaw transition. What I've found that seems to help a lot is to not tap around when setting those shoulders for the tong and boss. Usually only takes one or two hits. And making sure after the first hit, that you've got the shoulder repositioned well. Anyway, after about 20 or 30 more pairs you'll get the hang of it.

I'm wondering about the need for a forgeweld at all in your design. Seems to me that you ought to be able to upset a piece of torsion bar to get the mass needed to split off the different parts of your design. Not something you'd want to be doing a lot of, but your doing a one-off... You'd be amazed at how much you can upset a bar with a little care and patience. Good luck and post pix of whatever you come up with.

Hey John. NICE!!! I really iike those. See ya in a couple of weeks bud.

The weather's darn nice this time of year. Was in the mid-upper 60's today. A little cooler than normal but I"ll take it. You should come on up for a visit when you get burnt out down south. Look me up when you do!

Good luck Keith. Keep yer head down bud.

Dang Par. Those are real nice. Known a lot of Buckaroos in my time and they'd all be proud to ride with those spurs. Beautiful

Keith! It is nice to see another BLM'er that's into smithing. First one I've come across. I'm the GIS Coordinator in the Klamath Falls Office in Or. When did you retire? Do you know John Olthoff? Anyway, I think it's cool to find out... And nice shadow box!

Looks good. One thing I'd suggest is to brush the scale off very frequently. Especially when you start getting close to final shape. If not, you'll be pounding "pockmarks" into the surface of the steel and that just increases the amount of drawfiling / grinding that you'll have to finish it up. Also, I'm not totally sure I agree with reefer man above. True it takes a little bit more work to forge 5160 or one of the 10xx series steels. But not 10 times. I'd say it takes maybe 20% more work in terms of the number of heats etc. as long as you're starting out with stock that's already flatstock or almost.

So I went to visit my buddy John Emmerling in Gearheart, Oregon on the way home from a business trip up north. We had a very fun day of making some pattern welded billets. I love sea level. I love BIG power hammers, and hydraulic presses. John's got a real nice shop. Thanks for letting me stop by for a visit buddy. He showed me one of his prize posessions, a sushi knife made and sent to him by a master bladesmith in Japan. There's an interesting story behind him getting that knife, the gist of it was the bladesmith was in the NW demonstrating for the NWBA and had in the past had a power hammer accident that had damaged one of his hands. John forged him a custom tong out of Titanium and several months later this beautiful knife showed up in the mail. This was the first time I've "handled" a real sushi knife and was intrigued. So when I got home all inspired I launched into making one. The billet was some odd number of layers of 1095, 5160, L-6, and 1018 (I think it was 13, or 15 layers). We welded it up, then drew it out to about 3/4" sq. and 24" long. I rounded / beveled the corners and then we cut it in half. We twisted one half clockwise and the other anti-clockwise tighter than I thought was possible without it falling apart. Then we re-squared and welded the two halves back together. I think this is called the maiden hair pattern? Anyway, I came up with a couple of new grindin techniques that I'm sure some of you pro's already know or have better ones, but I was real happy with the grind except for one small hicup on the flat side that's not really very noticeable to anyone except a knifemaker. I decided that since it was a Japanese themed knife it ought to have a bamboo handle. Where in Klamath Falls, Oregon do you go to get bamboo? I looked in every likely store, then remembered the Mike-HR was out of town and has a piece of bamboo leaning up against the side of his shop. So I went out and stole about 16" of it. I came clean when he came back to town and he wasn't to upset once he saw the knife:-) I carved a piece of myrtlewood (what I had handy) into a dowel shape that fit nicely inside the bamboo then cut a kerf for the tang to fit in. Then slathered and filled the cavity with Acraglass, so the bamboo handle is actually very solid (I was worried about it splitting) For a ferule (not sure of the official japanese name for this part), I remembered JPH's instructions for making some of these parts and parts for scabbards by fabricating from sheet metal (copper in this case) and silver soldering. So that's what I did. I was pretty trepid about it when I started, but as it turns out I'm really happy with how it came out. A one sided bevel is a more difficult blade to grind in my opinion, but overall I'm pretty happy with how the whole thing came out. Not super happy with the fit of the slot in the ferule, will do better next time.

Good video Mark. Adding the dialog makes this video a lot more powerful than just adding text-overs. Thanks for all the effort you put into education for our community. Mike Limb

Graham, I'll second that. Those are really nice. How do you get such a clean fit between the bolster and the handle? Some sort of filing jig or something? I did a couple like this and they turned out pretty nice, but didn't have as nice and crisp and clean of a junction there. I used dye in the epoxy and the slight gap isn't noticeable to anybody but a knifemaker, but always looking for ways to improve. And the Madrone burl... Wow, seein' as I live in Oregon I should get some of that stuff and give it a whirl. It'd be a hit around these parts. ML

Mr. Hofi, I'd like to second Wayne's motion for a blue print, if I may. I really like them. I can't tell scale from the photos. What are the dimensions of your bulls? Thank you sir, ML