Stormcrow

WmHorus - The hemp is colored somewhat by the amber shellac I seal it in. The hemp and the black cotton cord comes from Hobby Lobby. I also use clear shellac with India ink added to make black handle wraps. Jimmy - Thanks! As for the Wookie, I come close enough. :)

Thank you! One of the things I wanted to do when I first started blacksmithing was to get to the point that I could make my own machetes. Now i can! :)

More work to go to Atlanta: bush swords! These are all forged from 5160 spring steel and given the triple normalization, triple hardening, triple tempering heat treatment I use for that alloy. All have integral socket handles, hemp cord wraps, cotton cord two-strand Turk's head knots on each end of the handle, and shellac sealer, with either natural amber or black. All shave hair. :) The handles are oval in cross section and are aligned with with blade. Some are straight, some are curved to drop the chopping sweet spot below the level of the knuckles. The dha is based off of blades from Thailand and Burma. Its blade length is 15 1/4" and its overall length is 21 1/2". The willow leaf is more Chinese in design. Its blade is 15 1/8" long and its overall length is 21 1/2". The top bevel is unsharpened. The jungle chopper is based on blunt-ended choppers found across Southeast Asia. Its blade length is 14 3/8" and its overall length is 20 1/2" The cleaver is also based on Southeast Asian blades. As another knifemaker put it, "This thing wants to take off a leg!" :D It's particularly fun to shave off a swath of leg hair with it, knowing what that edge would do when chopping. It's a bit too short to really fall into the "bush sword" category with a blade length of 11" and an overall length of 17 3/8", but the construction is the same. I have about half of the inventory for the Blade Show fully completed and will put up pictures as the rest of them get sharpened and sheaths made. I'm going to be a very busy boy!

Indeed! I'm saving my arm hair for the Blade Show in order to demonstate the sharpness. :D EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Robert. There's sure a lot of good knifemakers in the challenge. I'm very curious to see the outcome. Most of us are using steel from Aldo Bruno. Surprise, surpise, Aldo Bruno pops into the thread and joins the challenge! He has his own blade in the mix now. :) If you overlap the tongs a bit more, you'll get a more even band of colors. This has already been tempered multiple times prior to drawing the temper on the spine, so I didn't get too concerned.

All right, I finally remembered to weigh it. It is 18.87 ounces, and the point of balance is one inch in front of the choil, even with the edge of the touchmark that's closest to the point. I also did a little experiment, and it initially looks like shaving hair takes a sharper edge than slicing an average sheet of paper. I'm not sure about such things as slicing through a phone book sheet that's rolled into a tube, which is one of Tai Goo's party tricks.

These got made a while back, but just this week got sheaths. All are forged from 3/4" round 5160 and given the usual triple normalized, triple hardened, triple tempered heat treatment I use on that alloy. All have paracord wraps with an underlay and an overlay with two strand Turk's head knots, all impregnated with Minwax Wood Hardener. They'll be making the trip to Atlanta next week. The tanto and o-tanto are both my rendition of a shobu-zukuri style, with a pinched-in spine and no yokote. But I don't claim to be traditional in anything I do, especially making a forge-finished Japanese-style blade with a paracord handle, so I throw the quasi in there as well. :D If nothing else, there's a secondary bevel that true Japanese blades don't have. And a choil. The tanto is overall 13" long with a 7 3/8" blade. The o-tanto is 18 1/2" overall with a 12 1/2" blade. I gave it extra curvature prior to the hardening phase, and it straightened itself up to right where I hoped it would. What's weird is that I seem to get negative sori mostly on Japanese-style blades. It's like they know. :) Except I didn't get a noticeable amount on the tanto. They need some length to them for the negative sori to really show up. The sheaths are Kydex with two MOLLE locks. I think of the color scheme for the paracord as "Kill Bill". :) The upswept fighter has an overall length of 11 3/4" and a blade length of 6 3/8". Its paracord is black for the underlay and olive drab for the overlay. The sheath is a foldover design with a single MOLLE lock.

These are part of my Blade Show inventory. They are all forged from 1" x 3/16" 1084 plain high carbon steel, triple normalized, single quenched in canola oil, and triple tempered. The handles have a slab of leather on either side that runs the length of the tang, with a hole at the end so that the hemp wrapped over the top goes through both the steel and the leather. A three-strand Turk's head knot in black cotton cord tops off the wrap and it's all sealed in amber shellac. The sheaths are made for me by Mike Casanova. The ones for the big blades are ambidextrous. The little knives range from a blade length of 3 7/8" to 4 1/2" and overall length of 8 3/4" to 9 3/8". The big knives range from a blade length of 6 1/4" to 6 3/4" and overall length of 11 1/4" to 11 3/4". I have an ever-growing bald patch on my leg from getting everything sharpened up and ready for the show! :D

I gave the Challenge knife my typical triple normalizing, triple hardening, triple tempering heat treatment that I use on 5160. Given the nature of some of the proposed tasks, I decided to hedge my bets and selectively temper the spine to a tougher spring temper. To do this I used a trick I learned from Tim Lively: tempering tongs. I have a pair of tongs with 1" square bar welded to the jaws. I heat the jaws up, then use them as a heat reservoir as I pinch the spine of the blade and temper down the length of the blade, drawing the spine to a blue color and the edge to a straw. This method is how I heat treated all of my big blades before getting a kiln large enough to fit them in. Some folks do the same with a torch, but I find that the slower speed gives me more control, as well as letting the heat soak into the core of the blade and not just temper the outside. I keep a soaking wet rag (one of my old gray T-shirts) handy to control the edge from getting too hot. I'm getting a haircut tomorrow so I don't scare folks away from my table at the Blade Show next week! I work my way from the base of the blade to the tip. The jaws have to be pretty hot for this to be effective, and I had to reheat the tongs three times. It takes longest at the base of the blade because you are bringing cold steel up to above 400 degrees. After that it goes relatively quickly. I drew the very tip back to blue to make sure it didn't snap off under stress. Before that, I held the blade up and dropped it on the cement floor point-first. No damage to the tip. At this point it's ready to sand down, wrap the handle, seal the cord, and sharpen.

I'd be missing my strong left leg if I did that! :wacko:

Thank y'all! Kwisatz - Other than just generally using my blades around, I test big blades on brush; I want it to be able to slice easily through thin, whippy branches, yet still chop the big stuff well. As for weight, it's a bit heavy, though not bad at all. I'll try and remember to weigh it next time I'm in the shop, but no guarantees.

I live in San Antonio, though I'm about to move to the county outside of Floresville. Around here, the only steel supplier I know of that carries anything other than mild steel is Westbrook Metals. The highest carbon alloy they carry is 4140, though. Good for axes and tooling (I made my power hammer dies out of it), but not a good knife steel. You'll need to order online.

Thank y'all! Jaques - Nah, just gravel along the train tracks next to my shop. :)

Judson - Do you have a picture of this kind of handle? It may just be the lateness of the hour, but I'm not being able to visualize it.

This one and its two brothers that are in the works are inspired by, but not copies of, the big knife wielded by Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5. The knife is forged from 1 1/2" x 1/4" 1084 plain high carbon steel, triple normalized, single quenched in canola oil, and triple tempered. The overall length is 18 3/4", with a blade length of 12 3/8". The clip is fully sharpened and will shave hair. The handle wrap is neon orange paracord for the underlay, black paracord for the overlay, and black for the triple strand Turk's head knot, all impregnated with Minwax Wood Hardener. The sheath is Kydex with two MOLLE locks. I took a picture of it in hand, but I think even this doesn't really convey just how big this thing looks in real life. I don't name most of my blades, but this one demanded it be called Aggression. And I didn't feel like I should argue with it. :D

The Mk II version is now ready for heat treatment. I need to do the stock removal on four more big blades for the Blade Show and then I'll heat treat them as a batch, including the Mk II. Notice that the false edge isn't as well defined on this one. I wanted to just even it up a bit and not thin down that section much, leaving it plenty thick for hammering. I've had a couple of people question me recently about my integral socket handles being offset; they aren't. I align them with the blade. There's a little bit of asymmetry due to the ends of the socket preform moving differently than the middle, meaning that the seam side tends to be just a bit flatter than the opposite side. I put the seam to the inside of the fingers so that the more curved side fits into the palm, and when I wrap the handle I lay the end of the cord along the seam before wrapping around it, helping fill out the seam side better and also making the cord *really* anchored. Here are some pics I took of a different integral socket handle to show what I mean. The view of the seam side: The view of the opposite side: Looking at it from the top. Notice the handle is not offset to the blade but is aligned: You can also see how much the end of the handle is rolled back on itself. This also makes for a stout anchor for the cord as well as adding some visual interest. Notice also that the socket is an oval cross section, making a mechanical lock in the hand to keep it from turning sideways while chopping. I'm all about handles having mechanical locks. :)

I have a guided helve "Rusty" style hammer with a spare tire clutch. The guided helve is about three steps up in complexity from as absolutely simple of a power hammer there is, which is one reason I chose that path. The tire clutch gives better control than I've seen on the Little Giants I've used, though it hits somewhat slower the way I have it set up. Still over 200 beats a minute.

I'm poking fun at the mentality of "small knives are all a person really needs in the wilderness", not you. :) I live in central Texas, where simply to walk from one place to another may need a machete. I say what wilderness you're in and what you're doing in that wilderness determines your needs, not someone else's opinion.

I thought having a blade longer than four inches out in the bush was a sure sign of being an ignorant greenhorn with a tiny wingwang. ;)

Thank y'all! Robert - I agree. It's nice to see some rationale behind a design. :)

This is something I came up with for the Extreme Knife Challenge on BladeForum's Wilderness and Survival Skills Outdoor Gear, Survival Equipment & More sub-sub-forum. :) Basically, the idea is that a number of knifemakers sign up to make knives that they think will meet the requirements for the challenge and they are sent to one or two judges who put the knives through their paces and post their conclusions about how they performed. The first one that I heard about was the Custom Machete Challenge, but only after it was over. :( I would have loved to participate in that one. There have been several others since then, but this is the first challenge I've participated in. The challenge this time is to build a knife to handle extreme survival situations, which can take place anywhere, including urban environments, and may include what would constitute testing to destruction. I did a rough sketch, then forged the blade from 1 1/2" x 1/4" 5160 steel. I wanted a plenty capable chopping blade with a big belly and the sweet spot dropped below the level of the hand for extra chopping power. However, I wanted the blade to remain straight for general ease of utility (such as drawknife duty and choking up for fine work) and to make it easy to sharpen on a flat stone, so I made the drop come from the curve of the handle and the angle of the blade to the handle. It needed to handle a variety of task sizes, and I wanted it to not be too heavy and to also be somewhat concealable if needed in an urban environment, so I went with a 12" long blade. Big, but it could be slung under a coat or long-sleeved shirt or fit into a backpack. After forging it out, I decided that although I was quite happy with the profile and that it would make a great brush chopper, the thickness of the blade was a little suspect for some of the suggested activities for the challenge (breaking padlocks and chain, etc.) The spine was approximately 3/16" before the raised clip, 1/8" for most of the false edge, and about 1/16" just back of the point. I knew how it would handle hardwoods and such, but the more extreme end of things had me worried. I decided that I would finish out the blade, but then would forge a heavier version for the challenge. As it stands now, the Mk II version has been soaked in vinegar to eat off the scale and is ready for stock removal. The false edge area is around 1/4" thick right now, but will thin out a bit. The MkI had a shorter handle than I typically do, making it where I wouldn't have enough room for my usual Turk's head knot at both ends of the handle, so I made the Mk II have my standard handle length. I chose some subdued olive drab paracord for the handle wrap and two-strand Turk's head knot, sealed in Minwax Wood Hardener. After sharpening, I tested it out on both thin, whippy hackberry branches and a good-sized pecan log. I'm happy with it and will put it on my table at the Blade Show, while finishing up the Mk II version for the Extreme Challenge.

The customer has sent me some pictures and description of the blades in use. He commented on how "alive" both blades felt in the hand when he first got them out of the box. The first major task he put the bush sword to was clearing away oak saplings along the bank of a creek to be able to access it for catching trout for breakfast. He then put the smaller knife to work helping to process out a steer that they were butchering. He said it worked great, and after touching up the edge, he put it to work in the kitchen chopping onions and beef tongue for some lengua tacos. A few days later, he sent me this story about making use of the bush sword again. He has quite the talent at storytelling, so I'll use his own words: "Figured I'd give you an update on the chronicles of the Bush Sword. Walked in the house last night after work and noticed a box of wine and the Titanic dvd. Not a good sign... Talking with the SheBoss, I confirmed my worst fears - her friends were coming over to drink wine and watch that movie. The trifecta of Team Estrogen, boxed wine, and the Titanic is a sure sign that I should not be anywhere near there - it is also a signal that my dog will likely end up getting dressed up like some city dog that rides around in a purse in New York City. Can't have that - he's a hunting dog! Anyway, I remembered that I still have a turkey tag, so I strapped the bush sword to my pack, grabbed the shotgun and headed out to the woods for the night with the dog. It wasn't all that cold (only about 40 or so), but it was raining so I figured I'd do the dog a favor (he's a hunting dog, but he's kind of soft) and set up the poncho. A couple of whacks with the sword and we had tent pegs. Not only did it make short work of cutting them to length and cutting the point, but it is balanced enough that making the notch for the twine was no problem whatsoever. Excellent! Woke up a little colder than I thought I should be and couldn't understand why until I noticed that the dog had basically stolen my blanket. Selfish mutt. Worked out OK though since I was able to sneak off and get a bird while the lazy hound was still sleeping in my covers. Just in case you ever run into an invasion of turkeys, let me assure you that the sword quite slickly decapitates turkeys. Never know when that knowledge might come in handy! Here's a photo of the sword strapped onto my pack. Really slick with all the attachment points on the sheath - carried great. Again, really enjoying the sword and am astounded at how handy it is." I'm really enjoying seeing my blades being put to work like that. :)

Beautiful work there. Looks like it would fit the hand right nicely. :)

Looks pretty darn good! On mine, which have filed bevels, I finish the blade down to the point that all that is needed after heat treatment is to clean up, put a handle on, and put on the secondary bevel, which can be done with a coarse whet rock followed by a fine one and then stropping. No filing for me after hardening. Lots of folks do varying amounts of stock removal post heat treatment, from just final finish up to all of the grinding on the bevels. But they're doing it with belt grinders (keeping the blade cooled) and not with files. If you're aiming at the style of handles I do with the leather under the hemp (which you PMed me about), I make the leather go the full length of the handle. The tang has a 1/2" hole drilled in the butt, and the leather slabs have a 1/2" hole in them as well. The hemp goes through the steel and the leather to anchor it at the end of the wrap. A Turk's head knot is a good way to clean up the transition where the handle ends and the blade begins. Love to hear how this one performs.

Darn good job there!