Frozenthunderbolt

/| |\ | |_| | \ / Shape your steel blade like this (there is already a mil-spec fighting knife in production like this with twin blades) run your conductive elements up the inside of each prong - inset.

Not sure about damascus from it, but large diameter HSS drill bits make decent knives if you draw out and flatten the shank end rather than the twist. I've made some beautiful little whittling jack's from drill bits. If you were to experiment with Damascus in this way about the only useful thing I could contribute would be to avoid any bits with a Tungsten carbide coating.

Thomas are you a T1 or T2? Here's hoping we can get you off this island soon . . .

While I'm waiting for Od, I notice some coniferous plants that are oozing pitch, I quickly whip a few dead and dry branches off and smear the brushy tips with as much resin as i can from one of the living bushes. I've heard bears don't like fire, so a few quick torches might come in handy. I'll also use a bit of the resin and some cordage to bind the largest spike I can find in the salvage pile to the end of a straight cleft willow sapling - I'm sure as heck not going to go HUNTING a bear, but it might do to help see off a simply curious bruin. (Q. Frosty I assume black bears rather than grizzly?)

Having spent most of yesterday making cordage, but no bow wood apparent I'm ready to go for a hike to see what's around the coast in the berm of flotsam and jetsome our newest member talked about. I'm taking 30foot of 3 ply cordage and 10 foot of single stand with me, I'm also taking some embers in a lidded folded tin box I've made and lined with punky wood, carried on a string attached to the wire handle. I've got my sen/knife, a few fish hooks that our rebel with the leatherman made out of the mattress springs. I fill up on boiled water before leaving I don't intend to be away for more than one night - you can expect to see me tomorrow at the latest. If anyone wants to come with me that would be great - better to stick in pairs at least. Those staying at camp - perhaps you could use the bolt Frosty mounted in a bit of green wood, then fire dried (shrunk on) to make a usable hammer for forging - might even be able to come up with some tongs after a fashion - blowing through the 1/2" should get small bits hot enough - perhaps flatten a couple more 1/2" pieces and rivet with one of the spikes found by Prevenge and odblacksmith.

Some cedar and spruce varieties will work as a board bow, but generally only effective if backed with sinew - think we might get a deer in a figure 4 if we make it big enough? Not much to bait it with though and I don't think my willow cordage is up to the demands of a spring snare that will take a deer! Have the others gotten up to go beach combing again yet? We could really use some polly or nylon of any thickness they can find washed up.

Having finished my hand blade last night, I've got and stripped some long bits of willow bark off of a few sapplings and boiled them with handfuls of ash from last nights fire to make them more pliable. I'l fish them out and twist, then countertwist them into cordage to improve prevenges crab traps, I'm hoping that in return he'll knock over a 6inch, 6 foot straight willow sapling for me that I can split with wedged made from the gathered angle iron to work down to make a greenwood survival bow. I'll ask everyone to keep an eye out for any white Birch or service berry saplings too, multiflora rose would be good for arrow shafts if anyone spots some too..

Having washed up on the beach a bit further along, the smoke brings me in to the others. Lacking a cooking pot, and worried about giardia, I team up with Thomas to use a rounded cob of rock to dish one of the bits of tin he found into a large wock-like pot (armouring is armouring), it's rusty and apparently lead-paint free with no holes will it do to boil water to drink and cook shellfish if anyone can find some that looks and smells safe? I vaguely recall ray mears boiling strips of willow bark with ashes (for the lye in them) in order to make it more pliable for cordage. While we are sorting through the scrap iron sheet salvaged I work a triangular piece of the edge off a rusted sheet about a foot long on the hypotenuse. Using the same cobbles we used to dish the wock, and the 100+ pound boulder I fold the point of the triangle over on its-self towards the hypotenuse a few times leaving me with a trapezium of scrap metal reinforced along the top edge. Despite having had a tetanus booster before I left on the our trip on the ill-fated boat, I am careful not to cut myself on the rusty iron as I start to work it back and forth over an abrasive looking slab of rock to remove the flaky rust, and try to establish something of a bevel on this knife/drawknife/sen, it will be useful to make a greenwood bow with. Looking down the bay in the darkness I wonder what remains of the cannery that used to be here . . .

If you are planning on armoring, I would recommend 'Techniques of medieval Armour reproduction' by Brian R. Price. It is a truly excellent read. Though the armor specified focuses on the 14th century (from memory) however it gives great elaboration of general armoring techniques and tools also.

If you're going to try this try to find another kind of steel as a shim between your layers - leaf spring is notorious for not wanting to stick to itsself!

Hi Vullgaren, I'm a relative newbie too. Spent the last 6 months of last year hard at it till I had to move for work - I'm in Ruakaka now, moving to my own house in Maungakaramea up near Whangarei in a few months (all things being equal!) Will finally own my own place, and with no nearby neighbours and a large garage workshop I'll be back up and running.

Cool to see the progress thanks Theo

Picking up burning logs perhaps?

Note on gluing: many 'superglue' type glues contain acetone that will degrade the rubber rapidly. Always best to tie - agreed! Over the top/fork is the easiest IMHO - however (missing from the pic above) the tops should be rounded over front to back (but not side to side) in order to reduce wear on the bands (particularly flat bands). @OP: you can even fit flat bands to your forged SS (which are neat!) You would just need to sit the bands over the top of the forks and lash them tightly while under moderate tension, with strips of rubbers also under tension. Slings (roman kind) are something else! I've put river rocks through 18mm plywood with out trouble and when you hear one released with a 'hummm' you KNOW you have got a good 100-200 meter distance on your projectile . . .

Oh wow, I simply adore the scabbards you have created for this set; it looks as if you have carved them from lapis lazuli!

Oh dear Frosty, this line of thinking brings to mind Monty Python's fish-slapping dance for some reason . . .

Beautiful! Wiping the drool of my keyboard now!

I like it a lot Stormcrow; love the fact that you have an elegant tanto rather than the hideously angular tips that 'tanto' seems to have come to mean. I like how you use the turks head as a small guard - echos of a tsuba in this piece, or generally reminiscent of a dirk, very nice.

This is the blacksmithing birthday cake Seth (one of my 13YO students) made for me! Awesome surprise at school today. Woodhill School rocks!

Karambit style? I like the scroll. Looking at the hammer marks on the blade (pitched forward by the look) I would think your anvil face may be too low? Try working with faster, lighter more controlled strikes with a lighter hammer perhaps? Unless were after this texture, in which case ignore me!

Interesting. What volume of canola did you use and did you pre-heat it? Ambient temperature? In fairness to you I often tend to do a secondary edge quench in water after an initial oil dip (though I use oil only on leaf spring) that may have affected my results described. The next lawn blade I do I'll try going straight to water and see if it makes a difference for me :-) I concur with your temper cycles; i'm using a toaster oven (notoriously inaccurate) and 2x 180C gets me a dark straw with occasional patches darkening a little more.

Thanks for the idea NBS, there is no locking mechanism in this one correct? Could we get a picture of the spine view open and closed?

Glad to hear it Worshipdrummer got a few more I've made since, just need a new digital camera to take photos.

You might like to do some filework first?

Good on you Jhcc - if nothing else you'll learn a lot from making it. For all that people knock them, I've had good successes with lawnmower blade. Heated to critical, canola oil quench, 2 cycles at 180-190 C. Can cut a sheet of A4 paper in one stroke and has reasonable edge retention. Known steel is better, but if you have it, play with it!