E Schroeder

Rob I also run a charcoal forge and also live in the ATX, my shop mate and I by lump charcoal from Sams club 40lbs for ~$14 which is about 35 cents a pound, as far as I know that's the about the best you can do unless you buy by the metric ton, and I've done lot's of research and running around.

proswimmerguy, I know that the excitement and intrigue of making a knife and making sword makes you want to make these things now. However there is no replacing Black smithing basics, take a piece of half inch round bar, and make it square, try to get good sharp corners, when you have done that make a octagon, turning the square on edge and hammer the edges to create a new flat, once again try to make as crisp and clean lines and edges as you can, then make the bar round again, make a square taper on the end, then make the square taper almond shaped, this is a very basic exercise, and you should do it till its easy.the experience you can gain from something like this will be very useful, and maybe your next knife won't look so much "like crap"

yes you do understand the pipe method correctly, and as for the AO method no you don't start on the edge you start about a third of the blade off the spine as heat travels up and you are trying to heat the blade not melt it, if you start on the edge and move back you risk melting the edge, done it a couple times had to learn by ruining several blades. Also I do all of my work on charcoal, so if I can get it the pipe method to work you should be able to do it pretty easy using coal.

if You can lay your hands on a piece of steel pipe(non-Galvanized, very very important if you like being alive) that just a bit bigger than your knife heat the whole pipe in the fire and the heat will bleed through and very evenly heat your knife which you can then quench. Its really good at keeping your blade clean. If you have an OA torch you can heat treat with that too. Use a welding tip and hold the blade with the belly facing up. heat from the spine to the belly going back and forth across the blade, you have to be careful that the knife is roughly the same temp on both sides or you can get a wicked warp or crack in the blade.

I have had some issues with just a file by itself, I always seem to take off an uneven amount. The drilling and saw and filing sounds like a good idea. My main frustration is that many of the people I have tried to get help from own a machine shop or something and their response is well just use a mill. Which I don't have or know how to use. I have seen the use of layout fluid and calipers used to mark grind lines, and I've picked up tricks here and there like how to square your shoulder with a file and a jig, and then use a chainsaw file to take the sharp angle out so the blade doesn't break. I did have the chance to apprentice with a blade smith and I learned alot in the six or so months in worked in his shop, however getting that knowledge from him was like trying to pull a barge with a row boat. So I have lopsided knowledge, like I learned all about the heat treat and grinding and how to chop charcoal and just a little bit about forging, but there are also huge gaps like, how I didn't know how to properly fit a guard.

so I have some practice at smithing and I am working very hard to increase my skill. However I have hit a snag, and that snag is getting a good fit on guards and the other fittings. I don't have elaborately stocked shop. No milling machine, no lathe, only a wide grinder, a narrow grinder, band saw, drill press, and a oxy/act torch, and my forge and anvil of course. So please any techniques, tricks or just processes you can think of that could help, I do appreciate it.