switchjv

is the band aid from the knife?

Actually, no. I cut my hand at work with a utility knife. it required 14 stitches.

new pics of the knife. i think i screwed up the hamon. But i guess it looks good to me. i also did a little bit of filing on the spine.

What did the spark test say about the carbon content?

while i was cutting the bar in half with a grinder and cutoff wheel, i noticed bright sparks that branched off further from the wheel. which leads me to believe that the steel had good carbon content. However, being new to blade smithing, i know there are is still a lot i need to learn about the art. most of the blades i am producing are meant to familiarize my self with the processes.

yesterday i bought a nice piece of steel at a yard sale for 50 cents. i forged this knife and attempted a hamon on it. it actually came out pretty good. i just need to make the handles.

great work!

Wow! it came out great!

Nice! Looks like something an Uruk-hai would carry!

thats what i thought too. when i was making it. :)

beautiful work!

You mentioed that you have tempered and annealed? I would normalize first, then anneal so I can work my files. Then harden and temper. In this order. Are you following me?? Inbox me if you don't get what I'm saying. These steps are very important in making a good reliable knife!

Nice job by the way, looking good, keep them coming!

I guess i have my terms wrong. because i normalized the steel before i worked on shaping and sharpening. after i was done with that, i heated to non-magnetic and quenched. then i tempered with a torch and let it air cool. Does that sound about right?

So i finally got around to finishing the lawn mower blade knife. i tempered the blade and annealed it. and used walnut wood for the handle. then i inlayed some turquoise on the end. I stained the handle and clear coated it too.

Excellent start. i found some cable a while back. this is going to be a future project.

it looks great. i made on almost like it too.

Great start! I made one as well.

Excellent!

I found a lawn mower blade at our local re-store for 3$. it was still in its original packaging and unused. i needed a large knife when i went to haul firewood last weekend, so i decided to make a knife i could use to trim brush and small branches. The knife is still in its early stages, but i have the general shape. just some areas that i think need some more work. Ill post up more pics as i progress. Thanks for looking.

Nice! I really need to learn how to do this.

really nice work! great details

excellent work!!!

excellent work! great finish on it.

thank you, i worked on another one. my second "hawk".

^^^thanks for the info. I had no idea. It's funny because while I was looking for the spikes, a truck with some guys in were rolling on the tracks. Obviously, they worked on repairing the tracks. They happily waved at me as they drove by.

I travel to colorado on a regular basis and stopped along the tracks which run along side the highway. i found about twenty spikes and they sat in a bucket for a year, until one day i decided to start a couple of knives. after the knives, i watched a couple of videos of guys making tomahawks out of the spikes. However i didnt have a tool to make the hole for the handle. i found an old truck axle and made a 10" punch. the steel was excellent for the tool. i found a broken shovel handle along the road and decided to keep it, just in case i needed it for something. It was great for handle! i just turned it down to a smaller diameter. The cord on the top of the tomahawk is just for decoration, it doesnt hold anything in place. I forged a small metal wedge to hold the handle in place. Its rock solid. I hope you like it.

Were the straps put around the wood hot or cold? Seems like it would be too lose if done cold, but you would burn the handle if hot (even if pre-soaked)

i heated up the steel(not red hot) then hammered the straps around the handle. i then drilled the holes for the rivets and heated up the rivets red hot and hammered them into place. the tricky part was keeping the straps tight against the blade while i hammed the rivets into place. ive been using it to cut kindling for the wood stove and its still holding tight.

lol. the blade is made from 1/4" X 2" flat stock (mild steel). and the straps were made from 1" flat strap and held in place by 3/8" round bar. my wife said it looks like a world of warcraft axe.HAHA

finally finished my gas forge and made an axe as my first project.

i,ve seen something similar. however, it had a hair drier attached. what is the purpose of the hair drier? and is it necessary?