BlissStreet

Is it the reflection of the sharpened edge or is there a rather sharp bow in the blade 1/2 down? Otherwise, a beautiful use of a bed frame!

At the risk of sounding pedantic, it translates as "tail hammer". What it means is another thing entirely, and I trust you are totally correct here. But Schwanz translates directly to 'tail'. In colloquial use it means something else. Not quite vulgar, but you wouldn't use it in front of your grandmother either.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'later in life' but I started a 36. In any case, welcome and I hope you enjoy what you learn; both here and in class.

Still, closer then I am.

I'm liking the copper detailing.

Thank you everyone for the encouraging replies. I'm actively trying to get back into the forge, even volunteering my time to forge out rough blanks to help put before a show. And the #1 rule you learn in the military is never to volunteer for anything. I actually don't see this as strict volunteering since I'm getting something valuable in return. I don't want to go overboard, but I did take quite a few. and I'm happy to do a few quick edits if people are interested in seeing more details. I liked the idea of catching as much of the process as possible. Reading books and others' descriptions is useful, but a picture is truly worth 1000 words sometimes. I'll try and upload a few more with some comments about what I found to be noteworthy for the first time. The Picture Edit: Hammering in an upset to mark where the ricasso will go, and to drop the blade edge down....if that makes any sense. No, we didn't use the flatter to do it, he was just using it as a pointer after the blank had cooled past the working temp. It was still way to hot to point at with a finger. One of the many lessons I have learned in my 11 years as a chef was to assume everything was hot, a lesson I think will transition well to a forge setting. Using a custom hardie tool to start the drawing out of the tang. I assume this is rather easily done with a squared off edge of the anvil, but with the tool handy why not use it? Here you can really see the dings I left with the hammer face during the initial face grind. I got most of them out, but to be honest, part of me likes the fact that the first knife has visible flaws. I think it gives me a feeling of starting a process of learning. My wife, starting the initial hand polish. This actually was by far the most painful and time consuming part of the whole thing. Here she is starting the 600 level of grit, across the lines left from the 400. The best part was, she had just had her nails done. Part of the reason I keep her around is the fact that she didn't blink an eye going into the office the next day with blackened nails from the fine metal grit. She even took the knife with her to show off. Pretty sure that is against the "no sharp stabbing implement" rule they must have, but she showed unusual restraint and no one was shanked. Here is my blade, somewhere around 800 grit. Here you can see how much of the dings were removed at the belt grinder. It also shows the angle of the blade bevel at the ricasso, giving you an idea of how thick the spine is. Looking for scratches. It was surprising how many stayed visible as we increased to finer grits. There was much swearing at the sailor level. The benefits of having a German Mother and a Father that was a drill instructor. I should give lessons. Here is my blade after the hand polishing, right before we started on the handles. It got a final polish at the very end after the epoxy had set and the handle was sealed. Initial fitting of the bolster. The drill press we used to drill out the bolster and handles was a classic "dear god man, don't do this at home". Of all the dangers in the shop, I swear to you that drill press was lethal. Much nervous laughter was heard, many bad life insurance jokes made. To get executive approval to move past this stage of my interest, I had to sign an affidavit that I would never, ever buy, install or use a machine in that state ever, ever again. I think she even framed it. Here is the olive wood blank fitted on her blade and epoxied in place with some rough shaping. You can make out the red and white spacers just behind the bolster. Next to it is mine, after a few minutes on the shaper.

Hi Mark, To keep thing organized, I went ahead and posted the pictures along with some thoughts over in the Knife Making section. Pop over and take a look.

Hi guys, so I got a request in my intro thread to post some pictures of the first knives my wife and I forged during a 2 day basic knife smithing class. Fair enough, I like pictures as well. First, this is my wife, Melanie aka "The Powerhammer of Doom™". As you can imagine, her foes flee before her and she gets very annoyed by the lamenting of their women. Behind her is the 2 burner propane forge that we used. The set up looks rickety, but was stable. On the lower right you can see the pan with the semi solid Goddard goop. Also behind her are the leaf springs off of a Toyota Landcruiser. They were donated after it got a coil over swap in preparation for a Cape to Cairo run. I'm fairly certain they are 5160. Next up are she and I hammering out the blanks. With 20/20 hind sight, and some research, I don't think they were the best hammer selections. But then again, what's the point of jumping in feet first if you aren't willing to make some mistakes? Here we are doing some flattening. I would think that with time and practice we won't need to do this set. But being on a schedule means when things started to move radically in a bent direction, flattening was the most efficient. The forged blades after a goop quench, but before tempering. you can just make out the marks of the file test to ensure they actually hardened. That was day one. Over night they were tempered at 180°C in 3 cycles. The next day was pretty much entirely dedicated to the grinding, shaping, and polishing of the blades; making of the handles and sheaths. Turned out that second day was significantly longer and more tiring then the forging day. Edit: I added a picture of my blade after the scale was brushed off, overlaying the sketch we had to make before beginning. Here is us grinding away on a rather sketchy looking belt grinder. For some reason abrasives moving at high speed instill more...concern...then metal at high temperatures. Am I alone in this? And last but not least, the finished products: On the left is her knife. She opted for a flatter blade profile; a brass guard, formica spacer, and an local olive wood handle. I chose what I thought would be a more useful profile in the kitchen. It has a belly to it, but I think I'll be refining my ideas in this area. I use a brass guard, giraffe bone and leather spacer with a local pepper wood handle. Both are, for the first time forge, rather pretty knives. Looking back thoughts: 1. We had to think about and draw out the blade profiles first. This was a great idea. The thought of banging away freehand with no vision or goal would have been very frustrating. 2. The hammers we picked out of the pile weren't ideal. We both went too heavy and the face profile of mine left heavy dings that you can see on the blade. I should have listened. I will be buying my own hammer and will spend some time getting it tuned. I think a lighter hammer with a more smooth profile would take a bit longer to forge with, but will save me time later in grinding. 3. I think it would be more efficient to forge 2-3 blades of similar profile at a time. Granted this was the first attempt (with instruction no less), but the repetition and focus was frequently broken by having to wait for the blank to heat. I might be crazy, but the rhythm of hammering and the thought process of where to strike was similar to the focus I find in photography and cooking. Breaking that can be jarring. 4. The blades themselves are too thick. The taper isn't as graceful as I had envisioned. I use a laminated Japanese chef knife and compared to it, these knives can be driven through a steel helmet with no problem. Useful in only a limited number of scenarios. But, I also know that that will come in time. This has been on my mind since 2000. For 11 years I have been reading, thinking, scheming and planning. But the timing was never right or we were simply in the wrong place. My wife finally pushed me and it was the best 2 days of the last decade. I was on a week long high, seriously. The downside is knowing I wasted 11 years by giving myself excuses. If you are reading this, and are thinking about it; do it. Do it now. Take the leap. Lastly, I want to thank Hylton Rutherford of the Rutherford Forges for sharing his home, forge and knowledge with us. We laughed a lot and had a great time. I know the feeling of openness, laughter and camaraderie that I want to feel in my forge is what we felt in his. Matthias Edit: I want to apologize about the quality of the forge pictures. Not knowing what to expect in terms of dust and shrapnel, I took the P&S camera. The files it gives are....mediocre. The last 2 are by far nicer, and next time I'll make a point of getting better images.

It's not actually that cold. South Africans, particularly on the high veld, are spoiled with the most insanely moderate climate. Having lived in Minnesota where -40°C is cold and having lived in the desert where 55°C is hot, this place is heaven on earth. The sun here is rather 'sharp' so even the coldest days are a pleasure with the daytime temps in the 20's. So far, there haven't been more then 3 nights where we hit freezing. Hard frost here is so rare, it's a conversation topic. It almost makes one miss the aching damp winters of New England....almost. It will be heart breaking to leave, let me tell you. Where will the gate be installed when it's finished?

Hello everyone, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Matthias and I am an American expat currently residing in South Africa. I'm 36, and a freelance photographer. My interest in knife smithing, and black smithing in general, began in the late 1990's when I was a Chef. I was working with sharp implements daily and often wished the knives on the market were more ideal for my particular hands, stance, and job. Since then, it has grown from an idea in the back of my mind to a practical reality. We are in the final 6 months of our time here and in all likelyhood will be rotating back to the United States for a time. Since we often shift locations, acquiring things like an anvil and a forge have been logistically difficult (although this idea is quickly changing in my mind). This will be our first time back in the US in over a decade for any length of time, so this is the ideal opportunity to get a basic set up. Even if it means having to store it when we shift in the future. That's not to say I have been idle. My wife and I have recently completed a one-on-one (well, technically it was two-on-one) knife making course here with a great smith who has been fantastic about encouragement and opening his smithy for me to use to gain experience. We were absolutely astounded that, with guidance, our first attempts came out not only looking like knives but beautiful ones at that. It seems this community is rather open about information, something not all professions that have a hobbyist following can say. I look forward to learning from, sharing into, and (in time) giving back to a community like this.