the branch

Hello there Ironers! I´ve finally gotten back to my smithy for the summer! After a few weeks of retweeking the smithy, I could finally start making stuff again! Anyways, here is the thing you want to see: Knives! First out is actually one of the more recsent ones. A sett of four sisters Yes I know, rough... but sharp! =P Next up is some commitions a laminate blade. Allso a pattern welded blade with a birch handle. And then a gift for myself :D Twisted pattern welded carving blade with carved handle. Its just so much nicer to work with tools that inspire =) And now! *Drumroll* My little pride for now. A multibar seax. Tight twisted, about 70 layers tight twist back, with a not visible thin bar of about 30 layers of iron from an old shipwreck. Then a "serpent pattern" that didnt come out right. The cutting edge is a pretty low layer bar. This knife I´ll come back too later with the handeling etc. Well thats it for now. Hope you like them! Im off to the smithy again!

oooh, better get me going on a pilgrimage soon then :F thanks I´ll look into that. Sorry for the slow reply Thomas, but thanks you =)

Fantastic! I think you just furthered the science of bottle openers!

Hello there! Long time no see. I have been busy with studying this year so havent been able to work in the forge proparly since summer! (yes it IS killing me ) But I´ve finally had the chance to dust off my anvil and start a new project! First one out is a folder, now this style of knife (folder) is totaly new to me, but found a picture on the web of a beatuiful arceological find and just had to try it. Well enough of my babling, heres some pics The blade is made of a bandsaw from the garbagebinn at my studyingplace and the wood is from a pallet my dad piced up somewhere, looks like some kind of excotic wood, smells like peppermint. made the little spacer in the back of brass and the pins are (i hope) stainless steel. GOD it´s good to be back in the forge again Hope you like it and take care! -Jens

Don´t forget to use sapient pearwood!

Hello again there! Have been a busy bugger lately and finished up a knife for my mother today. The blade is a low layered 16-18 ish, handle is colored birch with silverish spacers. Pretty standart shape, but its good in the hand and with the "meaty" blade it will hold up to most things she can throw at it. Gonna make a standart "scandi" black sheath for it, will post the result later. Hopa ya like it, or atleast get some inspiration

So finally got back to my beloved blacksmith for the holidays. And here is the result, a bit in the same spirit as my dwarven knife with the materials and that. Seen here Resized to 68% (was 600 x 1030) - Click image to enlarge The blade is of a broken bandsaw band i found in the binn at school. folded it to about 50 layer, handle is made of oakwood, scorched and buffalohorn. hope ya like it

Thanks for the kind words peeps! I´ll continue to try and do better for every knife made. :P

Heyhello! After the last blow of the cracking seax I set myself to finish up the huntingknife for my first "real costumer". Well yea, twist pattern, but got a bit bugged up at the tip due to streching... Handle is african blackwood and coloured birch and a silver-ish spacer. Cheers! -Jens

Well... Fa**... It cracked! Weirdly enough it was not visible before after the hardening and tempering and then grinding... Ohwell, the serpent and 1000layerd bars are intact atlaest (afaik). Gonna try and make a small knife out of it. Now im off hunting the imp of flaws and ridd him from this realm once and for all!

UPDATE! Got the knife formed out and ground a bit. Mostly polishing and profiling it to see how the pattern came out. The serpent pattern got a bitt blergh at the tip, but what else is there to expect when one bends a bend. Bear in mind that this is just a cleanup and all those pits and "coldshuts" will higst likely get ground out. First a little profile of eatch side: And then with my l33t photoshop skills a closer look:

Done with the weldin! woop woop! The whole welding went pretty well, some minor places didnt want to stick at first, but flux and patience sorted that out. Resized to 50% (was 700 x 525) - Click image to enlarge Welded and happy Resized to 50% (was 700 x 525) - Click image to enlarge Ground it down a bit and etched it for a bit in vinegar. hope you can see the fine layers... Resized to 50% (was 700 x 599) - Click image to enlarge Now for the actual forming...

So... I buggerd up the lamination... So ended up with a 400layerd flat pattern with a layer of the twisted one in it... Wont give up just cause It got waveary and stuff, I cut it up and rewelded it. So now I got 1000-ish layerd pattern with three stripes of twist layer iit! Should justify as a good cuttingbar afaik :P

UPDATE! *Maybe I should have put em all together into one single update. But phah! Got to do the twisting now (its about 50 layers) and making it ready to forge together with the 200 layers. I allready think I did a fatal flaw here with using way to little material and thining out the stock... Ohwell, Ill probably end up with eather a realy thin edge or use it for a nother knife.

Ecart, It will probably come out well, if not you allways have a example of how NOT to do it ^^ (Have way to many of them now ) I hope you´ll post the results on the forum tough! =D Don, its dangoures... I mean here I was with a healthy addiciton, able to take a few pauses and thinking of other stuff than blacksmithing.... But now... well I havent left the smithy for a week, starting to be known by name by the birds and mice that live there, I especially like Odgeir hes a bugger... Anyways enough me talking jibblerjabble. I managed to get my nerves together and make the next step of the last bar. Its a 200layer flat pattern, Its gonne be cut in two and then Those are going to be the outside of the lamination im planning. (san mai for some?) The core is currently under construction... Please stand by.

Cheers! Sounds interresting. I take it you´ll post the results on the forum? The nice thing living in Norway is that the warmest we get is about 28celsius and that just 1 week at max spread over the whole summer, now its 18 and im sweating xD

Hello there fellow forgers and the likes! I wanted to share with you my first patternwelded knife I ever made. This was back in 2008 when I was in school and I got the liberty to choose bladesmithing as a final exams project... thingy..? Its a 300count, cant remember the types of steel. With birch ( "whale birch"), some shiny spacers and curly birch on the tips. and a buffalo horn innlay on the back. As far as I can remember this was right about under half a year after I started with the smithing. (10 hours a week) When my teacher said, "wanna try patternwelding?" Well, Its all done by myself, the color watching, slitting and all that, but had help from a queit proud powerhammer (My dad with a sledgehammer) and ofcourse the keen eye of my teacher. Well, I got an A on the whole project and graduated with a jolly big grinn on my face and a life long addiction. Hope ya like it

Well there has been alot of progress today. I´ve finished the 3rd bar and welded it to the other two. I wanted to try out the serpent pattern, First time I did it and it came out "ok". A few tryouts on squared rebar Then the real bar, went better than expected After this I cleaned it up and chose which side to have showing Forged them together Ground the side a bit and etched it for a few minutes in vinegar Hope you are entertained and will update with the next bar soon!

Two pictures of the first two bars. The twist came out pretty nice i think, and well... its not possible to see the layers on the thin one but ill try to get a picture of it tomorrow, welded together and all. Now to just get people to post here, its so lonely and cold here xD

Hello there fellow iforgers! Im working on a multibared seax thingamajigg where I havent planed out what kind of twists and stuff to do yet, nor how the finished product will look. Im working on the third bar which is going to be the serpent pattern. The two earlier are just a simple tight twist with 60-ish layers and a 1/2 cm thick strip of 100 layers. (yesyes pictures will come :F) Now what im asking is for you to post the seax(s) you like the most and why. Its kinda to get a feel for those elusive seaxy things, and ideas of what the finished knife will look like. Oh and ofcourse to bask in the glory that are seaxes! =D Thank you for reading and smite on! -Jens from Norway

Hehe, Want I ment is that the etch is very deep so it will clogg up between the layers. Dont take me wrong Its very useable, I wouldnt make a knife that wassnt. But If it should be practical in form of cleaning etc. Id have to grind the edge clean, which would change the look of it. Hmmm... patternwelded spade... :F

Cheers! Thanks for the nice comments. I know the chances arent big on this forum for getting negative ones, but still! Gonna go start on a new project so stay tuned! -Jens

Thanks. Yupp its Oak. We have a bit of it here south, but I got mine from an old door frame, uhm... (the piece one walks over). The front part is buffalo horn and I charred the handle "a bit" to get that nice shading I personally love in burnt oak :F.

Thanks mate! The length is ca. 13.5cm (5inch) just the blade and ca. 26cm (10inch) in total. so a tiny bit longer blade than handle. :F

Hillo all! I just have to put it out there at once. This knife has been inspired by the Dwarven miners knife of MadDwarfWorkshop, (mostly the inspiration and the deep etch) Well its finally done after a rehandeling. this knife is a bit unusual for me. Its a knife which issnt too practical in everyday use, cause of the etching. But I wanted to make a fantasy-ish knife to get me going on broading my normal design taste. (Did that make sense? o_O) Cheers from Norway -Jens Strassegger