Rangerdave

Can't get pic to work. oh well take my word for it "it's not great but it was a great day for dad working with his 16 year old son!!!!"

Take 3 Ok it won't let me post a pic. I give up.

pic from above. Letter opener.

My son and I with my limited hammer time made a letter opener. He said it's his first cool thing so he's keeping it. I think it's ok but know it will get better with more tries. I wire wheeled it and used a grinder to round the blade side a little. Started with about 5 inches of 1/2 inch mild steel rod.

Like them Striker. I have to get the handle situation going. I have a few blades already for sanding and shaping, but need to think about handles too. Get one thing and move right to another. A grunch load to learn. Thanks for sharing the pic.

Sweeeeet!!!!

Very nice. I think it looks awesome.

Very nice Len. I have yet to weld in my forge on my own. Still new at this. I will however be trying. Do you have a power hammer or did you do those the muscle and hammer way? I will be working the arm muscles as I don't have a power hammer. But I need to learn how to swing consistently anyway. Still working on making hooks /tools and some file knives (heat treating and such). Thanks again for the input. RD

I was lucky enough to get a metal bandsaw blade at the local metal fab shop. The owner is going to let me dig through his scrap dumpster periodically so I am a happy camper. My ? is does anyone have pictures of a knife made from a bandsaw blade. I searched but the pics are gone. Also they are thin so is it best to weld them with something or just make thin stock stuff? Thanks in advance. Hopefully someone has some pics they can share. RD

I think they both look good. 2nd is better but at my level I'd like to be able to make the 1st one that good. RD

I built this today with the help of a friend. Coating is drying and should be ready tomorrow. Can't wait. I also took an old grill apart and will use that as the base. Thanks to reading here I am using that idea.

Wow I actually just screwed up normalizing a couple of files. I am going to do a do over prior to screwing them up anymore. Do overs work right? Thanks for posting. RD

good plans. I will try using once my forge is operational. If I would have started with plans rather than just winging it and not really knowing where I was going my 1st would have been better I think. I sure love this site. I need to do more of the thinking and less of the winging it. But sometime (inexperience probably) you (I) just wanna hammer it out and although fun probably not the best idea. Mental note made. A change in thought process is in order. Thanks to the site..... RD

Thanks for the replies. I am questioning the things I do with my limited (very limited) experience in metal. For that matter it goes for the things we do in life as well. RD

While writing a post I thought of this and would like to hear some of the opinions of members with more experience than myself. When someone experienced makes something are they / you satisfied with your work totally or do you always think I coulda or shoulda maybe done this or that instead? Are you happy with the art you produce and the flaws here and there make it one of a kind art? Or do you know exactly what you want to do and do it with no flaw or imperfection? Rangerdave

Started by drilling then heating and punching the drift hole. Drifted (my messup and what I don't like) both top and bottom. Inadvertently flipped the top and bottom when heating and didn't notice was just happy to be banging on metal and OOOOPs. Once realized tried to fix but still not tight enough. May try and tighten again later when my forge is finished. I used a grinding wheel for the hammer end and a belt sander for the finishing/shaping. I like that part. It has good balance I think. I can stick it so I assume thats good. I am a newb once again. I have only thrown an axe 4 times before I made this. Next one I will get better pics and ones of each stage to better show the process. I may even see if I can weld a good edge piece in. I may use this one as the ginny pig just to see if I can make it work. So I would say it went well but not perfect and I have to make due with what I ended up with verses being totally satisfied with the outcome. That is a good question in itself. When someone experienced makes something are you satisfied with your work totally or do you always think I coulda or shoulda maybe done this or that instead? I am going to post that to get answers from all.

I used 1 inch square x 6 inches long mild steel for my 1st hawk. Still have a lot of ideas and errors to work out but I think it turned out ok. thanks for looking and your opinions. Feel free to give the good and bad. Rangerdave

Thanks Frosty. I don't know what kind of metal they are. I will take your advise and make sure they don't get to hot.

Very informative post. Thanks to all for their opinions/experience. As for me I'm stayin away from it. I want to enjoy life and to do that being sick or dead doesn't appeal to me.

What medium did you use for etching? Newbie here not sure if medium is the right term. Very nice pattern and blade. I can't wait to get my forge built so I can try myself. Dave

Very nice indeed.

They look good. I like them. I have yet to get to making a blade but I am headed there.

I actually like the hex and size so I left it. I should have drawn it out as my bro in law has a air hammer. Would have made process a lot easier than by hand. And it will be quite some time before I have the $ or knowledge to need an air hammer. But it works so I will work on the looks when I do my next pair. RD

wow the pictures actually worked. I figured it would be a hassle. Very good instruction as even I could follow it successfully.

My first attempt at tongs. Functional but not very pretty. I will be trying again once I get my forge built.