brucegodlesky

Only thing I would reiterate is to have a critter proof building and make sure they are locked up every night. The night you don't is when Brer Coon will begin his eatin'. Other than that fresh water and food keeps 'em happy. I feed out a flock of capons every fall. 30-60 birds, depending upon orders. They reach butchering weight(for roasting) in 15 weeks. Make sfor some great eating , lotsa meat, fairly cheap. Plus they sell for higher prices than your run of mine cockerals. They been averaging 11-13 #. Finger lickin' good!!

Doggone Bob! Another dandy!!!

The dinners up here usually have fresh ramps, ham&ramps, scalloed potatoes w/ramps, green beans/ramps,saladw/ramps, ramp butters, well you gwet the picture. I like them in potato salad, salad dressing, stuffed in fresh trout plus the traditional ham&ramps :-) I even dried a bucketful last spring . Not so flavorful dehydrated tho. oh ya, ramps and scrambled eggs is good too.

You attend that one DonA? We have dinners up here, mostly put on by the local VFDs. Lotsa greta eatin'!! Grant , they are a pleasure to lift to yer lips! (BOG)

You fellas below the Mason/Dixon diggin' any yet??? It's prit near time :P

Nice hammer Don!

I got tired of hammerin' out tomahawks by hand and in around 2005 found a Fairbanks A 50#. And have been happily smashing stuff ever since.

Beautiful piece of work Rich!!

Pop is a good guy , for sure. Sounds like you're on the right track. I like tjhe atitude you have. Talk is cheap and time is short. Go out, make beginner mistakes and learn by doing and asking questions. There is no short cut to experience. Find a local smith who can give some guidance. Let us see how things are progressing. bruce/birdog

Thanks guys

Thanks guys These guys over there are doing a thankless job and need all the help and encouragement they can get. bruce

Here's another I finished this morning. High layer pw steel, figured walnut handle, Ns furniture.

Thanks guys. Those aren't scales Tim. I hollowed out the antler and filled it with Accraglass.

Here's one I finished recently. finally got it sent off to my cousin in Iraq. Low layer w2 and sawblade. hidden tang w/dyed elk antler and NS furniture. Used the W2 as I wanted to keep the carbon a bit considering the location of the recipient I did quite abit of chopping with it before shipment. 12" long 7" blade. Thanks for looking

Nice work ChadJ!!

If ya do a little srarching, you should find some good info on power hacksaw blades. Try some of the older knife boards. Somewher ei wrote down a list of specific blade sand their type. Some were M2, other )-1, and I don't remember the rest. Some are junk(bi-metal) too.

It would work but not a real good idea. Safety and all. Try warm vinegar first.

smokestak.com

Ah OK, that really isn't Pennsylvania over there, is it? (BOG) All kidding aside, there is lots of good info on this site , Learn the basics and you can make dang near anything ya want. bruce

Joshua, first start reading all the stickies and everything else ya have time for. You from Winfield Butler co?

5160???? easiest steel to work on the anvil, imo.

The ease of sharpening is all in the heattreat. A lot of the sawtooth configurations ya see on "survival blades" are for cutting aluminum and sheet metal, as in helicopter skins.

Fellas, forging blades is done using basic blacksmithing techniques. Plain and simple. You can rename these techniques if you choose. But they are still basic blacksmithing techniques. Nothing more nothing less. These techniqes have been used for hundreds of yrs with good results. If you think you have come up with a new way to forge blades using more than these basic techniques , lets hear it. Learn the basic techniques or don't. The first couple blades I made were tribunals . I didn't know the first thing about blacksmithing and there wasn't any IFI to go to for advice. When I decided I wanted to LEARN how to forge blades, I had to follow some well worn guidelines, like how to draw a piece of metal into a point.

Ya don't have to be a master of the basics. You do have to use those basics to do what you describe. There won't be any reinventing of the wheel here.

It may be a good idea to learn a few basic blacksmith procwedures before jumping into forging a blade.