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Thanks for all of the advice. Chris: I really like the idea of going to a kitchen supply store OR finding a chef to talk to. Bruce and Steve: I agree it would be much better to know what you have and how to work with it - if it's workable. I don't want to be guilty of asking for advice then not listening to it.

Thanks Steve, will keep it in mind.

Thanks Jimmy. Those are certainly things to be considered. I had not thought of them before. As for carbon content, it is a high carbon steel. It is most likely L6, but I really should send off a sample to be tested.

Things have been a bit tough lately as everyone can attest to. Since January, I have worked a week-on-week-off schedule. Well, I've also gotten several orders for meat cleavers. I didn't advertise or anything, the people came to me! (What a blessing!!!). So I'm finishing the last one today that I have an order for. This morning, I went into the hardware store that is owned by the mill where I work to pick up some epoxy. I told the store manager about the cleavers. He wants me to make some so he can sell them in the store! This got me to thinking. When I was a kid, every kitchen in America had at least one butcher knife in it. Now they are few and far between. I've heard many people lamenting the loss of good butcher knives. I have a good supply of .100 plate circular saw steel. I am thinking of making some butcher knives out of it. Finally on to the question: What is needed for a butcher knife to be considered "good?" Will it need a differential temper for chopping or in case it bends? What about length? I was thinking an overall length of 12" would be a good starter. So, what do my fellow forumites think?

Thanks Dave. I'm almost out of coal, so I'm going today to pick up some more. Maybe this afternoon I'll get to try out these suggestions. Maybe if anything noteworthy comes of it this time out, I will post a couple of pics tonight.

Thanks a bunch! Yeah, hammer control keeps haunting me. But the more I forge, the more it comes to me. I'm still doing more grinding to shape than forging though. :(

Late summer or early fall last year, we had a nor-easter blow through here. There were a lot of tree limbs down in the yard. The wife and I had the kids pick them up and throw them into the barrel that I had used for making charcoal. It has a cut out at the bottom for shoveling out the coals that fall down through the grate. So a couple of Saturdays later, I went out and decided to burn the limbs. I poured some gas on the limbs and noticed that some of the gas poured down into the bottom of the barrel. I didn't want the fire shooting out the bottom when I lit it at the top, so I stuck the lighter at the cut out and pulled the trigger. I don't know where I thought the flames would go if I did this. Well, any thinking person could see a while ago where this was going. In an instant, I watched the fireball race up my arm and into my face. I fell down trying to get away from it. I half crawled/half ran out of range of the fire. My glasses went flying somewhere. Once I came to my senses with the water hose dousing my burned and hurting right arm, I thought, "wait, am I on fire?!" A quick patdown told me I was not. But I spent quite some time with my arm in a bathtub of cold water to stop the burning. My wife wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I flatly refused. Well, Sunday night I had flu-like symptoms and stayed home from work Monday to go to the Doctor. I have a pretty cool Doc and he was rather impressed with my burns, which he said were causing hte symptoms for the most part, that and the nasty cold that was setting in. Thankfully most of the burns were 1st degree. The scars from the small 2nd degree burns on my hand are almost gone. I singed my eyelashes and my hair. Why I didn't use lighter fluid, or make a trail of gas away from the burn barrel is still a mystery to me. :confused:

I'm a little shakey on the terminology here. I am working on my second and third knives. I have forged the majority of the edges down to 50% of the original thickness of the material per JPH's instructions in The Complete Bladesmith. But I have a problem. The area where the blade edge meets the ricasso area- I think it is called the plunge cut- is still pretty thick. I was wondering about how to hammer it in. Should I put the part where I want the edge to start at the edge of my anvil and hit it with the hammer head half on and half off the anvil, then flip it over and do the same? Or will flipping it over to repeat the process only destroy the work on the other side? I hope this is understandable. I'm afraid I'm not explaining it the best.

Thanks Rok. Yeah, sooner or later you have to realize that no blade you make is going to be perfect, especially when you first start out. The best advice I can give is: just make a knife. Don't worry about making it a certain shape or specific type. One of the two knives I'm working on now started out as a drop point utility. With one slip-up, I changed the shape. I found that I liked the new shape it took so I hammered it into something that- to me anyway- looks more mideastern in origin. I think It'll make a good skinner.

Thanks. You should see the ones I scrapped! I'm a severe perfectionist and when the knife ventured a little from what it was supposed to be in my mind's eye, then it was junk. Finally my wife said, "JUST FINISH A KNIFE!!!! Don't worry about shape or anything like that, just finish one!" Then I realized that this perfectionist attitude was getting me nowhere. I've messed up on this knife more times than I can count, but it came out pretty good. I love it, but I'm anxious to do a little better on the next one.

Thanks Steve. I'll work on it with the next project.

I like the shape. It sort of reminds me of a pocket knife. I'll bet it will serve your mother well. My wife wants me to sharpen her kitchen knives and to make her some more steak knives.

Hello all, It's been a while since I've posted. But it wasn't wasted time; I've been busy trying to produce a serviceable knife. And now I've done it! This is a small camp/utility knife. It is made from 3/16" circular saw blade steel. The handle slabs are Bobinga with brass screws from Pop's knife supplies. Maybe one day I'll try to post pics to the forum gallery. Stats: OAL: 9" Blade Length: Right around 4 3/16" Blade Width at ricasso: 1 1/8" Blade is tempered at 400 degrees in a toaster oven for a couple of hours. I know there are obvious flaws with the knife as at least one of the pics shows. This one was more stock removal than forged although I did forge down the edge bevels some. The next project- that I hope to start this coming week- will have the edge bevels forged closer to the end results. . . I hope. So, what do you think? Any constructive criticism is certainly welcome.

I've seen muratic acid at Lowes here in NC. They should have it there too. I just can't remember off the top of my head where it was in the store. I'm thinking it was on the same aisle as the glues and epoxies, but I could be very wrong about that.

The knife looks good. I always wondered how zebra wood would work as a handle.

Let me know how e-bay works. Out of the blue, I ended up with four orders for cleavers. I've never made a cleaver, but I am going to use these four for practice, then hopefully start selling them on e-bay and build from there to my own website.

Still the same for now. We can't seem to be there when the Doctor comes in to see him, so we aren't getting things first-hand. Today Keith got to see one of his daughters that he hasn't seen in years. It encouraged him to see her.

We'll be remembering her in our prayers.

Thanks for the prayers. Keith is still sore fromt he heart attack. We weren't able to get to the hospital today because of car trouble. My wife is going to get my mother back up there tomorrow to see him. Hopefully he can get out and head back to Georgia where something more permanent will be done.

Thanks for all the prayers. The Doctor today said that Keith had a serious heart attack. He is doing well, but he is still in pain. The Doctor is concerned about that, but Keith takes in a lot of caffein and he smokes. He can do neither in the hospital so I personally think some of the pain is from that, especially the headaches he is having. He knows he has to stop smoking now. It's not going to be an easy road, but it's one he has GOT to travel to stay alive.

My mother and brother are visiting from Georgia for Christmas. My wife and kids and I took my mother out to go shopping and when we came home, my brother, Keith, was not here. Not even five minutes later, the phone rang and the man on the other end insisted on speaking to me. He told me that my brother, 41 years old, had a heart attack and that he was in a hospital in Raleigh, probably 40-50 miles away. Mom and I went to find him. He has three stints now and the Doctor talks like it isn't over. We didn't get to talk to the Dr ourselves, but he told Keith that there would be more to do. He and I have not had the best relationship since we were teenagers. This is the best Christmas I've spent with him in a very long time, but now he is in the hospital. Please pray for him.

You callin' me old!? Well if I could reach my cane, I'd show you a thing or two. Ranger Blades conjures of the idea of something that is durable. Something you would want to carry into the woods. I'm mod over on a site dedicated to trying to reenact LOTR Rangers. If you are interested, PM me again and I'll send you the site.

Chris, I noticed you are in Wake Forest. I graduated from WF-R High School back in '89. Now, I'm just up the road. Back on topic: I have considered Tar River Forge because the Tar River is the closest major river here in Franklin Co. NC. I have considered Franklin Forge- again a Franklin Co. reference. But I think I have settled on Ichthian Forge. You know those little Christian fish symbols that folks have on the back of their cars? It is a very early Christain symbol. I am seeking to train up my children to grown into good, responsible and hard working adults with a strong code of ethics. So we call ourselves the Knights of Ichthus (no, I haven't been knighted but I'm gonna work in that ) The Ichthian Forge will hopefully help fund some events we will attend in the future. Also, I have a desire for each piece that leaves my shop to be better than the last. Then I won't be ashamed to associate that piece with what I feel my God has enabled me to do.

Will certainly remember it. I will also remember that it was 18 years ago that we returned from the field only to be called upon to go to Desert Shield/Storm on the 26 Dec. 1990. Thank you to all of you out there who are serving and have served to keep us free and alive. You are my heroes. Former Spec 4 Cartrette 54th Engineer BN (Combat, light mech).

I'm really not a good welder yet. But I have welded a piece of cable before. It looked pretty good when I was done with it. I ran into a problem when I doubled it and tried to weld to two layers together. Don't know/can't remember why though. I can't weld chain yet, but I'll give that another shot soon enough.