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Yeah, the folk school is about 6 hours from me too. So even their weekend classes are out of the question for the most part. :(

I don't know how close you are to the NC state line, but there is the John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Among many other things they offer courses in jewelry. Their website is www.folkschool.org . I really want to get up that way and take some of their blacksmithing classes.

Can't speak for the welding failures as I'm backing up to work on basic blacksmithing skills myself. But I can say that I had one pop like that once that scared the daylights out of me. It was due to water on the anvil that superheated to vapor when the hot steel hit it and it kind of exploded when the hammer was applied.

Beautiful work. That bubinga is a pretty wood isn't it!

I am envious of your cousin - for the pick and for his profession. Not for the cancer. That demon took my father nearly two years ago. Here's hoping he gets many good years of use out of it.

Also pay close attention to the colors of the steel when you are tempering. I heat treated a knife yesterday, then tempered in the forge. Evidently didn't pay very good attention to the colors. After heat treat, the knife skated a file pretty easily. To make a long story short, I had the knife in my hand a little while ago. As I reached to turn on a radio, I dropped the knife, point first, into the concrete carport floor. Took the tip off of it, I noticed while I was reshaping the tip that the edge is VERY soft now since the tempering. So losing the tip was a bad thing. Finding out I ruined the temper was not so bad.

Rich, as always that is a beautiful knife. You're one of those makers who always makes me look at the new knives you post. I love your work.

Hey Sam, that's a good looking knife there. Can't wait to see it finished.

Finnr, you could market that as the wonkey billet bracelet! You'll make millions!!! Of course, I'll require a small finders fee of 15%. Nice looking bracelet you've made there. Just another example of how a blacksmith can turn a mistake into a masterpiece.

I agree with Frosty. That girl needs to design more knives with Dad. Beautiful work and a more beautiful tale behind it.

My suggestion: follow what everyone is telling you here. I am one who tries to create a masterpiece without a single second's worth of practice. You can imagine how that works out. I forget how many years I have been at it now, but late last year/early this year I just put out my first knife. Now every time I go to the forge, I lament the fact that I never developed good forging techniques. So it's time to back up and practice said techniques. Practice your basics. Follow the advice in this thread. Scour the blueprints and use them. That's my plan of action anyway.

Those are really good looking hawks. I like the rough finish. After 15 years of marriage, my wife has quit teasing and just shakes her head at my perceived weirdness nowadays. :rolleyes:

Beautiful seax there. Looking at it, I just had one of my stupid "duh" moments. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to have the circular cut out (for lack of a better term) at the ricasso, then have it taper down into a hidden tang. (grumbling under my breath) don't know why that was so hard. This is important to me because I have been trying to picture it for a project that I am about to start. Thanks for the pic.

Nice knife. I just cut the two blades off of one of those and I plan to try my hand at making one of them into a tomahawk. that is if I can concentrate enough to weld the stuff. Do you have any ideas for what to do with the center piece? I'd rather not just throw it away if I have the option to use it.

Your responses help us to understand if we are in fact helping. So, IMHO, no, it's not too personal. I just look forward to the day when I can ACTUALLY help and not just give references. I read these posts to learn from what others are asking and answering.

Hi Mark, On pages 44-45 of The Complete Bladesmith, Dr. Jim briefly discusses aus-forging. I haven't tried it yet, I'm still working on basic knife making skills myself before I try something new like that. But if you have access to the book, you can read what he says. Maybe he'll chime in to this thread soon?

Thanks, I didn't get the opportunity to work on the cable today - chaparoning son's field trip and now it's raining. I hope to get to it tomorrow. I'll be rereading the thread and trying what I've read here.

Those would be the names of the companies that turned the steel into blades. I don't know anything about York, but Simonds Saw uses Uddeholme these days. But you said the blades are old. What they were using then, I can't say for certain. It would definitely benefit you to have it tested.

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, I'm only heating a small area each time I place the piece into the forge. I need to heat more area and I want to make sure the next time that I have it hot enough - something I have thought about since I started this thread. John, you could be right about how hard I am hitting the cable. I was using a ball peined hammer of less than two pounds and not hitting really hard. I'll try my two-pounder and put some more force behind each blow. The two-pounder has a square face that will cover more of the work area. Bruce, I like the idea of untwisting a little to clean. Also I have plenty of angle laying around to make a swage from. I'll carry a bit of it to the shop at work and have some flat stock welded on.

It was Tamarack. I couldn't remember the name when I typed up my first post. From the coworker's testimony and yours, I'd love to see some of the work those folks do. Love your idea for selling the plans!

I thought about kerosene, but it would have been a further drive to get it. Though with the volatility of gas, the drive could be worth it. Considering there was nothing on the surface of the cable when I put it into the fire or took it out and that it seemed to come from within the cable when I twisted it, I'm thinking it was asphault. Since I had my computer in the shop, I have a hard time posting pics to the net, so I'll try to get it figured out and take pics from where the cable is now in the gas until it is forged into . . . something whether a knife or a mass of whatever. :rolleyes:

Not a bad thing I guess. It's experience. Anyway, here's what I got and here's what I think happened. Over a period of a couple years I've been able to collect some logging cable from work. I've gotten my hands on some new and used 7/8" and some pretty rusted 1". During my last lay-off week - now two weeks ago- I started trying to weld up a piece of the 1" stuff. I don't have a way to melt over the ends because I don't have an oxy-acetelyne (sp) set up yet. So I welded both ends first, slapping the hot piece at a dull red on the anvil to knock out any loose junk inside. The welds came out nice and solid. I then started from one end. I heated until it was a dull red and fluxed with borax. Then it was back into the fire. I slowly brought it to a welding heat. At welding heat I twisted as far as I could. Then up to welding heat again and hammered it lightly a couple taps, then a 90 degree turn and a coupel more taps all the way around the piece. This is the way I welded all the way down the piece. I knew that some of the welds were not as solid as I would have liked but I planned on a second set of welding heats anyway. Yesterday I started on the second set of welds. I noticed that the piece was pretty spongy everywhere I hammered and the welds wouldn't take. Here's what I think I did wrong, or what went wrong. I didn't really want to take the cable apart and clean it in gas so I thought I would get away with just trying to beat out the gunk on the anvil. I think the dirt had something to do with the failure. Also, the cable is old and rusty. The reason it was thrown away is that it was partially burried and it broke when they tried to pull it up to use. So I'm wondering about the integrity of the fibers. The possible third reason is clinkers. There was a black junk that ran out of it a couple of times when I twisted. It hardened and was brittle whne I knocked it off with the hammer. But black isn't the usual color of clinkers in my experience (please correct me if I am wrong. After all that's why I'm posting. ). So last evening before I went in for the night, I took another piece of the cable and some of the new 7/8". I unwrapped both and threw them into some gasoline to soak overnight. I'll wire brush them today then move them around to make sure everything gets good and soaked. Has anyone tried to weld the individual bundles before they rewrap the cable? It was just a thought. I don't have a swage block to try the bottom v swage as JPH suggests. Anybody know a good way to get the gas off of the cable. I had a stupid run-in with gas and a burn barrel last year. I don't care for a repeat in my forge. Btw, you don't know how bad it hurt to pour gas into something besides a gas tank to be used for transporetation. :(

I end up changing gears on every knife I make, or have so far. It's the difference between wasted material and a finished product. You just try again with the original design on another piece of steel. This one, however came out pretty nice. Nice job on saving the piece.

You're welcome. :cool: Bruce, don't know why I didn't think of doing that with the circular blades. Makes perfect sense. If you can find the maker, or even the seller, they should tell you what kind of steel it is. The trick with the seller though is that he COULD just tell you what he thinks you want to hear. I've run into this with sawblades that just did NOT hold up under normal everyday use.

Play with it? NO, you're testing it for functionality! Very interesting blade. Khukuri blades only slightly hold my interest at the moment, but that is a good looking piece of work. It looks like one mean chopper. I'd love to see the youtube vids but with my dial up connection it takes forever to download. So maybe later (sigh ).