gabe4183

I dont condone breaking the law nor do i do it. Here where i am located there are Zero trespassing signs or warnings and there are old abandoned sections of track. Do they miss a 5 gallon bucket of rusted spikes that they pulled out years before or care? Here, i dont think so. If that were the case every person with a railroad spike knife or creation would be getting sued ?

Well Ive picked up enough railroad spikes to be put in railroad prison - In my area it's not that big of a deal -- nor are the tracks maintained or patrolled like they are in different places - Never been told that it was an issue and i have a buddy who works for the RR

walk a railroad track with a 5 gallon bucket tons of free spikes to practice on

i was impressed with David roeders work - upset that his heat treat didnt go as well on his sword he had a far better design!

Johnson C smith Blacksmithing school in brasstown is like a 5-6 hour drive for me. Im sure there's bound to be people closer but they arent searchable on the web. Ive secretly been wanting to save up some money and take Brian Brazeals couple day course to get a kick start of knowledge. But I had no intentions of hijacking a post I was just giving some advice.

Dont ask steve sells anything he will make you cry your pants and quit forging for 2 years :*( I live in a area where finding training or other blacksmiths seems impossible -- I learn by seeing it. Theoretically I know most forging basic and intermediate forging techniques; however i quit due to over frustration and repeated failures. SO, i would suggest tackling simple projects where you can achieve success. Rounding squaring tapering etc master all those and find a project that involves all of those techniques and practically apply it. In my mind seeing a guy make it in person one time would save me years of research so that would speed up your learning curve 10 fold. ALot of these guys get the same vague questions over and over i suppose get annoyed because the communication barrier is there for some folks. Im back to hammering as soon as i get my set up moved --- so here to xxxx off some more Steve Personal attacks are against the site guidelines.

oh I swear, i searched the forum 3 times and didnt see this thread or the other one --- and someone politely moved my thread here -- this sites search function hates me Lately this site hates us all.

Double post

I know Thomas but it's readily available materials and the handle was pretty easy to dispatch of I just wanted to finish forging something I had tongs almost made and burned my jaws all up in a series of unfortunate events lol. Besides non knife people don't know the difference between rc levels and that sort of thing. I think I might could make these for my step dads sheriff buddies. I have no experience dealing with wood and traditional knife handles. I might could do a wrapped handle with 550 cord or a handle similiar to what I have. Besides I'm baffled as how to even attemptessing with a c clamp do j draw it out straight then. Square it off he. Start forging. It has all those edges on it. Last time I folded the edges onto itself andnlooked hideous--- not sure how to fix or avoid that

Yea the bolster there has a little place for your finger to rest it's actually fairly comfortable to hold I was a little surprised. I was afraid I'd get the metal to thin. The first day I was messing around I made some re spike paper it was super thin I was trying to make a knife lol. I was aiming for a straight spine drop point knife. When I flatten out the knife it promotes that curve is that correct? I shoulda flattened form the other side to get the curve and then straightened the spine?

Ok so from start to finish today based on my practice sessions in 2 weeks this is what i came up with after 2 hours --- still needs to be annealed i think ill bake it in the oven a few times. Then hand file the edge since i dont have a grinder? then hardening and buff and polish? I couldn't get the point to... come to a solid point -- i wanted to make a drop point knife but i knida just went with the flow.. Being my first project without alot of smoke blowing.... what are some constructive criticisms? as you can see its about 11 inches total. I feel the twist came out pretty nice but my pliers made some indentations ill have to grind out or something....And perhaps next time i will start drawing the blade out from the heel next time to avoid this minor folding at that location. Thanks for your time!

I thought draw filing was the safest most efficient way when not filing hot material?