Ed Steinkirchner

sorry, havn't been on for a week. just read your post sam. that is a lot faster than i go from "i want to make one of those" to "well its done". but for the sake of others wondering.
to mount the head.
after the blade is forged, measure the widest part of the base of the tang,subtract 1/8 inch (3/16 for soft wood), and drill a hole that size in the handle. heat half the tang to red, not orange, not yellow, red, and burn it in to the last 1/2 to 5/8 of an inch(add 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch to that for softer wood). once it burns the hole, pull it out and let it cool till it just turns wood brown when it touches it(much too hot to touch so don't grab it!). when it is at this heat, drive it home with a piece of wood so you dont hurt the edge. if done this way you have a hard time banging it out with a hammer. dont let the fit be sloppy! the head will either stick into what is being chopped and pull out of the handle, or fly out of the handle and land in the nearby jagger bushes and make fun of you.
sorry im late on the answer, but it might help someone

Ed Steinkirchner

very nice Sam! that is the next evolution of that simple design of mine. and the next that i make will be similar to that, not identicle, but similar. i know what you mean about the soloidness of the attachment, but if you have the wrong taper on the tang, or a loose fit, the blade goes flyin into the woods on the upswing and you need to go through the black raspberry bushes to get it back.(just trust me on this one) mine was made at a demonstration so not very ornate or complex, more a proof of concept thing. again, very nice, and i am honored someone liked it enough to take it further.

Ed Steinkirchner

i use a milk crate, and throw my glove and apron on the bottom to keep stuff from falling through. it has four handles and if you flip it over it makes a graet seat, and you can stack them. but you shouldn't just take them they frown on that, round' here. but most people have a dozen in their back yards. :)

thanks everyone, and its not an axe its a tomahawk. :D

the saturday and sunday before last as well as sunday, me and a smith who lives near our store, demonstrated at the meyersdale maplefest. and sunday we got rained out, but i made an arrowhead and a flint striker before it started. i wasn't working constantly, he would work, i would work, and so on so forth. from about 9:00 am to 2:30 pm. so while one of us was working the other could talk to the on lookers. well for 2 and a half days this isn't that bad.

from left: the two parts of a hasp for a trunk, and a tomahawk head that i nearly burnt talking but thats how those things go


from left: soon to be bottle opener, small ball peen hammer from 3/4ish inch bar(OLD wagon axle), arrowhead, drive-in candle holder, 3 nails made in the same header one's just longer, rough forged integral bolster chopping knife, flint striker, and a slitting chisel. the anvil face is 5 inches wide for scale.


Ed Steinkirchner

the first part, i don't have pics of. a paper pattern was made so it would fit into the recesses in the scabbard chape and point. then they were roughly shaped and brazed shut. the point only half though, because of its curved cone shape. this is them in the muriatic acid pickling solution. you can see the gap in the point's joint.

here they are out of the acid

if you look you can see the marker marks, the arc shows the area to be drawn and the small line shows where it needs the most.

then the remaining gap is brazed and the point soldered on

here you can see the 3 copper parts, the point, and the chape, and the other part will be soldered on to the back of the chape and leather belt straps attached to the rings.


this is where the ring assembly will be attached on the back of the chape

here are the parts layed out, they still need some tweaking and final polishing and the scabbard needs carved, as does the grip. the guard has been filed and heat blued. the next pics will show the carving and the steps.

Ed Steinkirchner

i forged this dagger a while ago to learn forging a double bevel, and how to heat treat this steel. the first pic shows the filework started on the guard, and the recess for the copper cut in the scabbard. the grip is wormy chestnut, the scabbard is mahogany, the guard is mild steel.
more pics when i upload them from my camera.

Ed Steinkirchner

sounds to me like your friend needs a crossbow! nice little spearhead.
Ed Steinkirchner

for me it has the righ angle, but it wasn't forged in perfectly. if you look closely the head is on an angle with the handle, not perfect 90. it does work well but it hasn't seen serious work as of yet. and i am with bentiron, in that i do more metal than woodwork. thank you all for your comments.

Ed Steinkirchner

i made one but, it wasn't forged from leaf spring. it was roughly cut from a 3/16 mill circle saw blade, and the bevels forged in. also mine wasn't completely traditional in features. go to the search bar at the top of the page and type in "khukri" and you should find my post. i made it more to fit my needs and scrap pile so it reflects that. if the final result is the same the process is somewhat minimal. the one i made was hardened in the traditional way and it holds an edge and the edge hasn't chipped and the "neck" hasn't bent yet. i would not be without it now, or it's scabbard for that matter! hope it helps in someway.


Ed Steinkirchner

thanks everyone for the compliments, i havn't really used it that often yet but i'm sure the need will arise at some point.

Ed Steinkirchner

i have a pair of safety glasses that would show haw even a few ounces of ballpeen could really cause some damage on rebound! you should look at Uri Hofi's hammer technique, it would help with your problem, but i think it was in the blueprints it might be found somewhere else though. hope you get it figured out.
Ed Steinkirchner

seem to be making more wood tools than metal recently. this is a small adze made from a small wagon axly from the 30's, about 7/8 to 15/16 inch square. the steel seemed to be higher med carbon stuff.

Ed Steinkirchner

if you do anneal a tool's striking end like jimmy said, hold the working end in water and heat the end with a torch or, if using the forge, take the working end down to bare metal(emery paper or a grinder) that way you can see to it that temper colors aren't drawn. or, the way i have done it in the forge is, hold the working end with your fingertips while the striking end heats, if it gets too hon to hold its too hot and you should dip the working end in water and continue heating. don't let the working end draw colors! the torch method is the best way though. Ed Steinkirchner

in 8th grade my friend told me how you could make a taser out of a disposable camera, i didn't really believe him, so on a field trip a few weeks he showed me. well i didn't realise that there was a capicitor that was used to charge the flash. the 2 double-a batteries pack a punch like a mike tyson. he tased me in the friggen leg on a crowded school bus, and you wouldv'e thought i had been stabbed in the eye. and my excuse, you ask? i don't remember, but the shapperone believed it and my friend and i got away scott free. the lesson? well... i don't think there is one, accept maybe that if you don't believe that something is a taser have them show you by zapping someone else. :D

thank all of you for the complements, i will start on the simple inlay pattern soon, if i can devise a way to hold the thing so i can cut the keyways.

i am not too worried about stresses from cold working, to see if it would be worth it to haft it well, i took an ols shovel handle and fit it to the head. i did a few full throws at an old stump, and even when it hit VERY off it didn't bend. i also tried stabs and thrusts and they had no ill effects on the spearhead. actually many finds from the early iron age showed that work hardening was common, even when there was enough carbon to harden them, too bad they didnt know hardening and tempering then. i dont know what was used for spearheads in ancient times. and i forgot to give the dimensions. the blade and the socket are each about 7 inches, so the overall length is near 14 inches. BTW is there a way to change your name on IFI cause my name is Ed Steinkirchner and i would like to use it instead :unsure:

made this spearhead alittle less than a year ago. up until then i never rolled a socket or forged a double bevel before. it is made from what used to be 3/8 x 1-1/4 inch, but it was pretty rusty so it was slightly less. the bar was off of an old porch railing so it is mild steel. after the blade was rough forged, and the junction between blade and socket done(it is still full thickness there), i closed the last 3/8 inch gap in the socket cold, and cold hammered the blade. actually that made it quite rigid and i can't bend it in my vice bare handed. the ridge is still a little more than 1/4 inch thick. since these pics, ive filed the blade to a point, filed the bevels smooth, and fixed the gap at the opening of the socket. can start on the herringbone inlay lines now, if i ever get out to my shop again...so much i need to get done. -sigh-

i know what you mean about a better finish for a selling piece. my knives have a lazy finish on them, but anything that goes out into the world has to be near perfect. i don't go so fine on knives i use every day, but if there is a chance someone will see it, i may go a little finer. if i had a belt grinder that would probably change. hand sanding isn't my best friend and i know what you mean about needing a touchmark, i just cant seem to shorten Ed Steinkirchner :D

very good work, but that is a lot of work to do before heat treat. if it fails heat treatment that was a lot of good work wasted but 5160 is pretty forgiving, so the likelyhood of success is good. BTW what kind of wood is that? very nice knife so far, keep up the good work. Ed Steinkirchner

if i remember correctly there used to be a blueprint on making a guillotine tool. the grooves in the sides were milled in. i made mine so it would bolt together so i could use different sized dies

well the one fall was about 1 foot and the rest were about 8 inches. but the impact onto the roof kinda hurts. and i do have a roof rake i love it, but if the snow gets hard or REALLY deep it has to be shovelled. ive never heard of using a rope, that i will use in the future :D

wish my only problem was rain we got literally, LITERALLY!, 3 feet+ of snow here in western pennsylvania. 26 inches over night 2 weeks ago! roofs are collapsing all over and ive had to shovel my TIN garage roof off 5 times! i have never seen this much snow in all my 18 years(not long compared to some)the only thing i heard of that compared was the mid 1970's i can't get to my car, my shop, anything! good thing i don't have a job at the moment. and BTW tin roofs get super slick when wet or snowy so ive fallen OFF of the roof more times than ive shoveled it :rolleyes:

must be the movie he meant then thanks for the kind words

yes the clasp was made by coiling some copper wire around a mandril and letting the last coil neck in to catch the brass pin. i will post pictures to clarify