Canska

I''ll second the tung oil suggestion, I've used it on rosewood a few times. Scuff up the wood to remove the oxidized surface and brighten it up, then wipe on the tung oil before it darkens. Let it dry, then scuff again with fine steel wool and apply more tung oil, repeat to your liking. I've been consistently happy with four coats. I like tung oil because it doesn't yellow over time like linseed oil typically does.

I'm addicted for most all the reasons already mentioned (creating with your hands, primal fire and hammer, stress relieving, etc), but often times the biggest hook is its utter simplicity. It just works. There's no electronics to fritz out, no software crashes or reboots... unlike most crap in modern life, my forge is reliable. The coal always burns, the steel always gets hot, the hammer always works, and the only thing that determines my project's success is Me. I like that.

I'll second that. I still do destructive testing every time I try a new type of steel. There's no better way to know you've treated it properly than putting it to the test.

Get a decent welder and learn to use it well Build a decent coal forge Practice forge welding Forge more decorative (salable) items

Replacement electric water heater elements are about $10 at most hardware stores, wouldn't be hard to permanently install one in the bottom of your tub and hook it up to 120V. At 4500W, it shouldn't take but a few minutes to thaw (and bring to a boil, haha) the entire tub. Actually, its a 240V element. At 120V you'll only get 2250W and draw approximately 19A. Make sure you have sufficient wiring (12gauge or heavier) and circuit breaker. And of course, make sure it doesn't leak before introducing electricity :)

Specs... the blade is 5160 coil spring, the handle is Honduran Rosewood, the guard and butt cap are mild steel. I don't have a tape measure, but I'll guess about 9.5" long overall with about 5" of cutting edge. It really is a handful though. This is my first completed knife in many years (about 12) and it hasn't been like riding a bike. I am figuring it out though. This is the last time I do just epoxy though! And I really need to work on my woodworking skills, the handles are pretty crude and too thick. Hopefully the next project will be better. If anyone has criticism or suggestions, I'd appreciate that greatly. So... I've been making a pair of these knives simultaneously. The first one is nearly done, got it epoxied and roughly cleaned up and the handle has about 5 coats of tung oil. It just needs another quick run on the buffing wheel and sharpening. The second one just got epoxied last night, it'll get cleaned up and tung oiled tonight. Tomorrow (assuming the oil dries in time) its getting Christmas gifted to my father. It still amazes me that a month ago, these knives were a coil spring on my car. Transforming junk into pretty shiny things is good fun. In the 2nd pic, the bottom knife is the unfinished one, and its slightly larger than the other. More pictures here. ps: Taking pictures of knives is harder than I would've thought :(

... speaking of exploding fireballs, a few weeks ago I was preparing to light my propane forge with my trusty (ancient) propane torch. As I angled the torch downward to aim it into the forge, it sputtered and nearly went out, then whooosh! I hadn't turned the forge's propane on yet. Somehow, I'm guessing, the torch vented some liquid propane, which rapidly vaporized and caused a 3' diameter fireball at arms length for about a second, singeing my hair. Stunned, I just held the torch for a few seconds, still with 2ft flames streaming from the entire valve/tip. My buddy snapped me out of it, I waved it briefly trying to put the flame out, and ultimately decided to chuck it out into the yard (30ft or so), making a great whooshing sound as it went. I've replaced that torch. But in all the years I've used the things, I've *never* had one do that! Sometimes it doesn't matter how attentive you are, stupid and crazy things happen. Even so, I more frequently burn myself in the kitchen than at the forge :)

Good to see I'm not the only one sucking it up and forging in the winter weather! I've got a huge shed, but its unheated and not always even a good windbreak. I managed 3 hours last night during the ice storm and 2 hours the night before, while it was 6F outside... brrr. Anyhow, are you going to post some pics of the finished knives? :)

That is just amazing. How do you make so many beautiful knives so quickly?!

I've got a big music collection, and often load the mp3 player up with a random assortment, resulting in everything from the 60's to present, mambo and latin music, folk, etc. Its often funny when something like CCR is followed up by Rammstein or techno. But I'll confess, my favorite smithing music is the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack. Maybe I'm a dork (ok, I am), but that's my favorite soundtrack of all, and its great background while working. The Rambo II soundtrack is also suprisingly good. Yep, I grew up in the 80's.

Those pics are incredible and inspiring! I should hope to do so well some day!

Canska is a Native American word (Lakota Sioux) for hawk. Its supposed to be said like chawn-shka, but I've gotten used to people butchering it every which way you can imagine. My actual name is Rob Judd.

I've heard Carnauba wax (like Turtle wax for cars) works well. I'm going to try it myself, but I wonder if anybody's had experience with it?

Maybe I just don't have a big enough grinder, but making an entire knife by grinding down a bar seems tedious and converts a lot of fine steel into filings. I like to forge things mostly, starting with a 3 pound hammer for rough shaping, and 1 pound hammer to nearly exact shape. Then take it to the grinder or belt sander, if need be. But I prefer to do the final finish with a good sharp file, then sanding. There's something very gratifying about filing. You can see the work becoming exactly what you want it to be with each stroke. To each their own, I s'pose :)

I live in the middle of nowhere, but Bloomington is the closest real city, so Chicago is a good haul for me. Thanks for searching though! So now I know what I'm looking for, already I've got a dozen leads close by, shouldn't take long to get something decent and affordable. I'm guessing the best way to get started (other than having a good mentor) is to carefully practice drawing a bead until I can consistently get clean and uniform beads? I've got a good bit of 1/8" scrap for practice. Thanks again!