Ecart

Weather permitting, I will let the anvil ring for your father tomorrow. My prayers are with you and yours. I lost my Dad to cancer two years ago. He wasn't a smith, but he was a craftsman- a woodworker.

Thanks John. Yeah, plunge lines are a pain for me to get right anyway. So seaxes are right up my alley then! ;)

Thanks Chad. The great thing about my wife is that she wants me to teach her how to make sheaths so she can do that for me. It'll be great to have her involved. She loves how beating on hot steel takes all of my stress from the day out of me and how it mellows me out by the time I put the fire out and come in for the night.

Okay, let's see if I can post pics today. I always check to see if I'm posting pics correctly before I continue with the post. Anyway, I finished these back in August. Both are now spoken for. The bottom one went to a very pleased customer (which makes me pretty happy). He promptly dubbed it "Wolf's claw." It has an overall length of 9.5" and a blade length of 5." My wife claimed the top one, the broken back style. It is around 8.75" long with a blade length of 3.75." Both are full-tang construction, forged from 3/16" circular saw blade steel. I heat-treated, quenched in oil, then tempered to a straw color. They have walnut handles and brass pins. I finished the handles with tung oil and Butcher's paste wax. Please keep in mind that these are not designed to be historically accurate. I took my inspiration from what I have seen other- better- makers put out. I thought they would be fun to do. I am interested in making more historically accurate seaxes, I just don't have the research behind me yet. So, with that, I present my first two attempts at seaxes. Comments and constructive criticism are certainly welcome- especially if said comments or criticisms can point me to historical facts concerning this style of knife.

"What atetment that would be I have no idea.." Try, "I'm one big bad Naginata. Don't mess with me!" Thanks for the explanation.

Unbelievable. Your family is in our prayers. May God help you to heal in this very difficult time.

Sword-on-a-stick! Sorry, the NC state fair ended last weekend and I worked at the ABANA booth both Saturdays that it was in town, so all sorts of foods attached to sticks came into my line of sight. On a serious side, that is a beautiful piece of work. I don't often comment on oriental work because it simply isn't my thing. But a masterpiece is a masterpiece no matter its inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

David, it's great to have you aboard! I agree with Unicorn about the tongs. When I first started, I used a pair of channel lock pliers to "hold" a yellow hot RR spike. And I use the word "hold" loosely because that's how they held the spike. Soon I learned the fine art of moving my head to one side in an instant before the spike was able to catch me between the eyes. It didn't take long to buy that set of spike tongs that blacksmith's depot offers. If you can make your own, that'd be great, only you have to show pics. We love pics. It looks like you are well on your way. Ecart.

WOW!!! That's GREAT news! We'll keep praying at the Cartrette house.

Okay, this is from a Damascus-maker-wannabe, so take it for what it's worth. M_brothers, I think it looks really good. I understand wanting to get your twists even. But I believe you're on the right track here. I'd love to see the finished product. John, you always do awesome work.

I am planning on a 12X16 leanto. I'll have to do it in stages as I am on a very limited budget. But 12X16 is about all my land will allow. I am going to do this in steps. With winter looming, I need to get a roof over my head at least, so I will build maybe half of it now, then add on as I can. My initial plan was to take 12' and 10' 4X4s. Of course the 12 footers would be the front. I would sink them 2 feet and concrete them in place. I will have half walls with the upper half hinged at the top to swing open. Most of the floor will be dirt. There are going to be drainage problems so I'll probably have to put in corrugated pipe and backfill it with gravel. It'll be a better shop than I had before I bought my house. That was a small old car shed that I and my father had to practically rebuild to keep from falling down.

Yeah, I know it sounds funny that I am praising when my mother was in an accident. She came up from Georgia last Saturday. I had been at the NC State Fairgrounds helping set up the forge for the upcoming fair. I was almost back in Louisburg and ready to go for home (a little ways out of Louisburg) when the cell phone rang. It was her and I fully expected that she was at my house waiting for me. Instead, she was in a nearly head-on collision with a pickup truck maybe 20 miles from where I live. She realized too late that she was making a wrong turn, but decided to turn anyway- ironically- to get out of people's way. Then she would just get back onto the right road. Well, once she committed to the turn, the pickup topped the hill and slammed into the front and passenger side of her van. I saw the scene of the accident when I was headed to the hospital they took her and the other guy to. I knew she was okay, but I was afraid that the guy in the truck was at least severely hurt, if not worse. She came out of the accident with bruises from the seatbelt and being banged around the cab of her van. We found out from the highway patrolman that the other guy only suffered a banged up shin. We are feeling truly blessed around the Cartrette house that both people are safe. Vehicleless, but safe. Things can be replaced. People can't.

That's a smith for ya. Unicorn, I'm personally glad you posted Texas. Like I say, I haven't tried them out yet, but I plan to. And I agree, Corby fasteners would do great for you, Black Maple. Though using what is on hand isn't only acceptable, it's encouraged. :cool:

This is the last time I go without checking the prayer forum. This is the first time I've seen this. Deb, you and Frosty are both in my prayers and Wood Baptist Church will soon be praying too.

I haven't done business with the one UnicornForge posted yet, but I'm sure they are good. I get my Corby fasteners from Home Page. Pop is a real easy guy to deal with. The knife looks too, by the way.

Heheheheh .

I have a mild case of asthma. I use a coal forge. It doesn't seem to bother me. That being said, different things trigger different asthmatics. I love forging with coal myself and would hate to switch to gas, but if it was the difference between forging with gas or forging not at all, then gas it is. I would say first off to listen to the Doctor. Then if he doesn't say anything about the coal, don't let your son anywhere around the green coal fire. Or consider a different forge as already suggested.

That looks real good! I like it. You're inspiring me to finish one I started months ago. The head looks like it is wet, or has some sort of glossy finish. Is that a trick of the camera, or how did you finish it?

Make something beautiful for her. Unless you already have and it didn't work. Then I'm all out of ideas.

Ya know, you've got a point there. I spend a lot of time over on our website. There, "ranger" only means one thing. I will have to remember that next time I post something Dunedain related. Thanks for the complement too. It is much appreciated.

I've worked with Cocobolo once before and because of a similar warning, I wore my respirator. No problems from it that way, thankfully. I was told that some folks are allergic to it and I have enough allergies to worry about so I went ahead and took some precautions. Thanks for the warning though. It never hurts to make sure somebody is protected. And thanks for the info. I'll be looking everything up this evening.

Thomas, I've been thinking about this idea more. I am going to be producing another similar knife soon. Silver wire: Where can I get my hands on it? Is it available at crafts stores, or am I thinking of the wrong stuff? Inletting it: Is there a tutorial anywhere on doing that? (Having said that, I'll be using the search function in a little while, so I may answer that question myself). I plan to work out some of the bugs that are in this knife to come up with a better looking second edition. The guy I'm thinking of making it for- if we work something out- really liked the idea of a Cocobolo handle, so that may be one modification. Thanks

Hmm, that would be a very nice touch. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

Hello all. Some of you here know I have an interest in Tolkein's Middle Earth Rangers. To that end, I am a mod over at a site dedicated to the reenactment of the ranger lifestyle. I won't go for a shameless plug and free advertizing though. If you're interested in the site, PM me and I'll direct you to it. I set out to make a boot knife a few months ago. It turned into a very experimental knife for me. It has a few contradictions and foul-ups, but overall I think it came out all right. I'm afraid though that the handle and bolster may be a bit too bulky to fit comfortably into the boot, so I'm considering making a sheath to go at the back of my belt at a slight angle, tilted up from horizontal with easy access for the left hand. So without further ado, here is the link: Picasa Web Albums - Eric - Ranger Boot k... Stats: OAL: 12" Blade length: 6 1/2" Blade width: 1 1/2" just in front of the ricasso Handle: Walnut with brass screws. Handle thickness at bolster: right at 1" Bolster: Mild steel from angle iron As I stated, this knife was experimental for me. At the time that I started forging, it was the biggest knife I had tried in recent times. All others were my first attempts at knife making and failed miserably. As you can see in the pics, the tang doesn't make much sense- to me anyway. I fully intended this to be a hidden tang knife with bolster and butt plate, but I cut out and drilled the full tang before I thought about what I was doing. There were several times I thought I lost this knife. It developed a nasty warp in the heat treat. I would heat to a straw color, straighten and quench in oil only to see the warp come back. I decided for a while to leave the warp. One factor in helping me decide not to sell this item. This was the first try at bolsters and soldering. I accidentally got the knife too hot around the ricasso and completely annealed that area and part of the cutting area. I was afraid the knife would crack in heat treat because I had taken the edge down pretty far by this time. I blunted the edge a bit with a file, reannealed the entire knife then reheat treated and tempered to a dark straw color. I did draw out some of the hardness in the tang. The soldering isn't the prettiest, but it held so I'm happy. Oh, and there is still a small kink in the blade, but nothing like the warp that was there before. This was also the first attempt at carving the handle. I was trying to go to sleep one night, but was thinking about how to do a different handle and this idea came to me. I carved it with my pocket knife. Brass pins are no fun to try to carve with a pocket knife. But I accomplished what I wanted to there. There is a space between the bolster and the handle material, but I'll have to live with that I suppose. I am happy with the way it turned out, but see the vast potential for improvement. I think that's all there is to tell. Any comments/suggestions/questions are not only welcomed, but encouraged.

Frosty: That's good. I mean BAD!!! Kevin: Your work just gets better with each piece. That is one lovely knife. I have yet to try clay coating. But I completely understand about warpage/twisting. I am working on a knife that has become quite an experimental piece for me. It will be finished with a bit of a kink in it. I'll keep following this thread to see if you get some good advice on it. It is quite discouraging to get a piece close to finished, then drop it on a concrete carport floor, but it can be far more painful/deadly to try to catch one. Hope the hand heals up quickly and well. Be careful and keep working and posting the results.