Aaron Gann

thanks for the advice you're probably right. I've made a few knives but never got seriously into bladesmithing until last year. it is more of a hobby than anything though I wouldn't mind one day trying to sell a few. I've never actually burned the steel while making a blade I try to keep it at orange, so rather than just ignore it and keep going I want to try to make the best that I can. for clarification it's more of a long dirk than a sword. once again thank you so much for the advice

well hello again here again with another question. when I was forging the other day I left it in too long and started burning it, early stage no real melting let it cool down no hammering. it is a spring clip from a railroad. so my question is. did I ruin my sword by that or can it still be saved?

hello there I live in east tennessee where red clay is abundant and I was just curious if it would work well for a heat treatment on a japanese style blade

maybe I've got it wrong but isn't your anvil a little bit low?

the only thing I can say is wow. it's beautiful. just.....wow

alright well these are cell phone pics but it's all i got for right now hope ya enjoy

speaking in a general sense western european short sword. right now it is a little more than 19 inches. alas I ran out of coal and my fire died so i'll be doing some more next week

hello again. I'm forging a blade out of a spring railroad clip, not sure if this is a dagger or short sword yet so I was just curious how long does something have to be for it to be considered a sword?

Maybe I'm wrong or it's the camera angle, but is the handle just slightly off center of the blade? great work still but it's buggin me lol

well it's high carbon, I heated one up and after straightening I quenched it in straight water. hit it on the anvil and it shattered like glass. so looks like I found some decent knife material

I found an old tiller in the back of our garage and have been taking off the blades they are all stamped 365 EL, does anybody know what that means??? thanks a bunch for any assistance

thank you very much i read somewhere to use water but to me that seems....hazardous to my knifes health. then again I am not the expert here. so now does anybody know about the hamon line?

hello I am making my second knife out of a railroad clip. i was reading on here somewhere that they are most likely 1060 carbon steel. I want to differential harden it regardless but does anybody know if it will show a hamon line? and what would you recommend quenching it in?

I have had a lot of problems with these as well. best thing is just to use a hot cut hardy or an improvised chisel

hahaha someone else who uses ground forges!!!! mine is made much the same way