Nolano

I use coal because its what my forge was made for(charcoal requires more forge space due to it being less dense), and I can get it for a not too bad price here. $20 a 50# bag. Not really great, but its really good stuff.

Yes, you can forge a bevel on a knife, then just sharpen it. I've known people who make knives like that. The next few knives I make are gonna have forged bevels shined up with flapwheels.

Rich, I'm sure if my good knives were as good as your screwups, I would be proud. I need to get my forge set back up so I can get back to work.

Actually not all fishers have an eagle. Mine didnt, and my teacher's doesn't. I forget where, but he said he read somewhere that fisher manufactured some anvils to be sold in the south, and a lot of southerners didnt want a "yank" symbol on their anvils.

Nice, I dont know anything about it except I want one too!

I have a 16 gallon drum(with lid) filled with coal. Makes a nice container.

I like my 2lb cross pein, and I also like my 2.5ish pound diagonal pein that I made, but the handle needs some work to be really usable.

Nice work. On the topic of hammer marks, I generally move the metal by really putting my arm into it, which leaves lots of marks, then smooth it over with softer, more controller blows.

I would probably get Cobalt. As it is, I have a set of 13 bits between 1/32 and 1/2, I think, they're bosch cobalt bits, and cost me $35.

We don't get much humidity here, but boy do we get rain. I think I'll take the rain over humidity though, I cant stand it when the humidity is high.

That was my post in "It followed me home..." but it applies here, too.

Wow. Very impressive for a first attempt. Even for a second or third attempt. Thats better than I could do, and I've been off and on smithing for a year and a half.

Due to the weather since about late october, I've gotten about no smithing done. My forge is impossible to light when the coal is slightly wet, and I haven't had any opportunities to do any forging. So here I was, thinking about how out of shape I'm going to be once I can forge again, and how I'm gonna need to find a shelter and build another forge that will work better. So here it is, Christmas Eve, and I open the huge heavy package under the tree for me. photo 1 And then in the other, smaller also heavy package we had this: photo 2 So the story behind them, is here in Eugene, we have something called the Saturday Market. Its a place where a bunch of hippies get together and have booths with handmade stuff and good food. There was a blacksmith there, one that Conrad thought wasn't very good. One day, he disappeared. He just left the market, and never came back. He abandoned his tools and setup. So the market found Conrad, and gave him the stuff. So my dad wanted to get me a forge for christmas, and he called Conrad. Conrad gave him this one to give to me, and my dad bought the blower from a guy who sells forges and such on eBay. My dad's other good news, is that he got an awning(like the kind people store there cars and stuff under for long periods of time). So now I have a decent forge, and even a way to keep out of the rain. Hopefully I can get back to work now.

Well, I heard when you use L6 and mild steel in damascus, the mild steel you use is thicker originally, but it gets forged down to the same thickness as the l6 because the l6 is tougher. Just what I heard from Mark Asperry.

Yeah, it is. I have a partially made knife out of cable. I got almost all of it, except for a part in the middle, which just refused to weld. I think it was due to a problem with the forge I was using.

I think they are usually hidden tang, using two scales with a routed out inside so that the blade fits in between. Allow me to demonstrate with an ASCII diagram: [|] The ['s are the scales, and meet at the top and bottom there, and the | is the tang. I could be wrong, however.

good luck fitting that in your pocket.

Something I found, is a place where you can enter any steel variety, and it will give you many different entry's, all telling you waht the steel is composed of, and it usually has various heat treating results, like "oil quenched at 1500 degrees, 55HRC" and a lot of other info. www.matweb.com I go there whenever I want to know what a steel is made of, or some other info. It also has most other metals.

Ah yes, what fun. I had a lot of fun using that powerhammer. those things are so useful.

Grarr. Im mostly liberal, but there are liberal ideas I dont like. This is ridiculous. Some people call me a hippy liberal, based partially on where I live. I correct them, and say , No, Im a guntoting hippy liberal. Weapons are about the only place I dont share liberal views.

Hmm, like an LG instead of a helve style.

I agree with you.

I like Woody's idea, but I would heat it to a dull red then stick it in wood ash or vermiculite if you have any, as it will be easier on your drills. if you dont, normalizing it should still work.

Yes, please take more pictures. Once I get a welder set up, I am going to consider building a powerhammer. Of course, It needs to find a place inbetween all the other stuff, like a 2x72 beltsander, a new forge, a guillotine fuller, etc etc.

I make my holddown tool out of a piece of coil spring just smaller than the pritchel hole, then I flatten one end, and shape it depending on what its supposed to hold, and bend it. I dont have a pic, and Im trying to think of how I would describer the shape. Maybe like this, kind of: .. _ _/ | ... | Yeah, thats about the best I can give you right now. (ignore the dots, they are just there to get the spacing right.) Oh, and you may need to do some grinding on the straight part to get it to bind right. Just hit it downwards to hold, then hit it on the back to release.