WmHorus

Patience and grinding.....alot more Patience than anything else...chuckles

I put this one together in 3 days, luckily I had the blade sitting around, it was payment sorta for some deer antler I was gifted with.

Ive been working on this one on and off for most of the summer, the steel is of course cable my main medium and the handle is caribou and the guard is elk. Hoping to have it finished soon so I can finish the trade for a Bow.

I think its funny he cant handle his drink as a 'pirate'

looks good, you know the girlies might like them

Cool Tom, I had someone ask why I didnt put up a blueprint to do it and I simply stated if you looked the guy who taught me how to do it has a great one up.....

Sorry to hear about that man, I havent actually had my accounts violated yet but i constantly get scam emails about people wanting to buy my anvils or the power hammer, the latest was some Marine SGT who is out to sea and he wants to have the hammer when he gets back so he wants to ship it to Alabama ( rolls eyes ) and will paypal the payment to me if I give him my information.....LOL sorry charlie I wasnt born this morning.

I always got a loud reports when the belts break, and they usually have slowed down some when they came around on me since the breaks always occured at the platen and below. But ya scared the crap out of me anyway...

Nice clean slit, I am having a heck of a time keeping mine nice and straight. only on my 3rd one though. Nice work.

Well at least yer not floating farther down stream, glad yer ok.

Ya my belts sit outside in the shop and get exposed to a wide variety of temp changes so they probably just got messed up, some however rip from the belt grabbing the blade and getting thrown in between the platten and the surface of the grinder and ripping. The one i want to tape back together is a 400 grit 2x72 from the old grinder. I figure I can cut out the bad section and downsize it to fit the 48 inch one...but ya ill see about finding some of that glass filiment tape that was recommended and thanks for that advice...

Ya ive had them pop apart in my face and ive been lucky to not get a cut up face......ductape just to experiment....spare cash is hard to come by these days....

Ive had a problem with breaking sanding belts and I wonder if there is some special adhesive tape they use to put belts together or can I just use some ductape on the back to get them rolling again.

I would like to thank Forger for taking the time to come out today and show me where I was going wrong and explaining axe making to me so I can actually understand it now....Next step is practice practice....so I can make a really nice cable bearded axe. Thank you again Mike... Paul

Dang 2 foot x 2 foot, must be a great friend

Thanks Ric ya, eventually I will have to travel more than likely.....

Long conversations about certain topics make my head hurt....Dont get me wrong they are full of great info but it still gives me a migraine.

I've read a bit already, its just that I learn More from watching in person and being hands on, which is why I am looking for someone local who knows the style. Its harder to unlearn bad habits than it is to learn properly first.

I mean the style in general woody, including seax and longswords, the fullering....the patternwelding stuff can come after you learn the style.

I am just curious if there is anyone in the Tacoma Area who makes viking style swords or daggers for future reference. Its a style I'd like to learn on top of everything else :D

Ya you can do the brass or copper, heck even melt some high nickle content steel to get a high contrast between the cable and whatever you use...I'd just be careful doing the brass and have it in a well ventilated space and NOT breath the smoke....

Everyone has their own opinion about how the finish of a blade should look, some folks agree some don't. I have learned go with what you think is best. I have people think I should make my cable look like a homogenized piece of steel, but personally I like to leave a few closed shuts on the surface when I am not etching it to show that it was made not bought steel. Heck some folks like the half finished look of blades some don't. I really am not one for leaving scale and schmutz all over but once again its personally preference. The handle looks great Ive always liked the leaving a bit of the cable whole idea, I just have never done it since the size cable I generally use is inch and a half and thats a bit large for your average human hands.

Heck I get black snot from not wearing my mask while grinding, and im sure all those tiny metal shards cant be good for ya, hence why I have a mask, though I sometimes forget.

Hi Mike, just let me know when you are available and we can work a time out, I will now spend part of today working on making the wedge or hotdog for the bun. right now its about 5 inches long and about an inch square so I should probably flatten it out some. :D Paul

I was wondering if there was anyone in the Tacoma area who might have experience doing the hotdog/wedge type of forge welding axe heads together and has a forge with a wide enough mouth and would be willing to walk me through it in person. I decided to go this route rather than bend the bar to a right angle while hot which would be difficult given my limited tools. I can bring the steel hammer and drifts and some beer in exchange for a hands on tutorial. Thanks, ive tried it several times before on my own and keep failing, I can forge weld cable together but not this for some odd reason.... Paul