John Martin

This one isn't great, but it's my first one, they are a lot better now. Lol.

What everyone's been waiting for, the pictures. I had to re-size them as they were 1600x1200px. And 1.9mb a pop.

It's a 12" bowie. I re-did it at about 370F today for an hour. It's not going to break if you're worried about that Matt. It's been through a lot of stress in the first two days of it's creation. It's a primitive bowie that was made for abuse. That's why the whole thing is so darn thick. I made two more yesterday as well.
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Same here mike. I think it's easier. But permanent. :)

Sorry keykeeper, I don't remember, it was a long time ago that I was on there. But the tongs had one jaw that was flat and when against the back of the RR spike's head, and then the other jaw was split and it held the sqaure stock of the rr spike.

Go to FredlyFX I made mine based off of his. It hold the spike by the head very securely. Works great.

Well, my blacksmithing friend came over yesterday, we get out to the shop, and pretty much just start messing around with metal. Seeing how far we make a piece of 3/4" piece sq stock, 12" long go. And he's like I'm gonna make a machette. So he starts on that, burns it up while talking to me. Hehe:)

So he starts on another one. Well, me wanting to make my first knife ever, take a piece of leaf spring and stick it in the fire. Take my hot cut and cut a 45 degree angle from the beginning of the stock. I then procede to forge the bevels in. Then forge my hilt or handle. Fix up a few things here and there, cut it off from the parent stock. Now I fine tune my forging even more, anneal it, and stick it my coal container to cool down. That took place from about 7-8 pm to about 1 in the morning last night.

Today, we get out there today at about 8am. He starts on his bowie, a smaller one. I polish my bevels with sand paper, and started the edge for the bowie with a file. Heated it to about 1450F. Guessing, I have an approx color chart. It was non-magnetic how's that??? Quench in motor oil. Polish the bevels again, and finish my edge to about 2/3 of the way, not sharp yet. Temper in an oven at 300F for 30minutes. Polished the bevels for the last time, sharpened it and beeswaxed the part of the blade that isn't the bevel,edge,shiny part, and the handle. Let it cool down completely. Do a few tests with it. Was able to "chop" logs for our fireplace. Cut straight through a water-bottle. Ended up putting a rope handle on it.

Took it out to our land today, while we worked on a bridge over a creek, my dad, me, and quentin. We put our bowies through a lot of abuse, mine is still sharp, very sharp. lol. He cut himself pretty bad while de-barking a piece of wood, while we were waiting for my dad to come by with more concrete so that we could finish setting some posts.

Took me about 9 hours from start to finish for my bowie.

Will get pictures tomorrow.

7" Blade
5" Handle
Overall: 12" long
Blade's widest point, about 2"
I'm gonna say it weighs about a pound. Bevels start at the middle of the blade go from 1/4" down to edge. Rest of it is 1/4" thick. It's a worker.

Nice knife Alan. Really like it.

Keep it up Larry!! Good job, I love hose scroll tongs.

Is that your's John? If so, when'd you get that monster?

Nice setup larry, you could just take four things of flats and weld it to the sides of that rectangle. It'd make it more stable and save you $$$

Lol. Thanks Peyton.

Thanks Glenn for re-wording my title. Lol :)

I do not have to worry about this yet, but I will in about four years. right now it's my parents problem. However, I will be book marking this thread for useful information.

Simply beautiful and inspirational.

I wanna see your own chest that you made or other's chests that they made, I got some cool ones off of BlacksmithGuildofVA.com

Mike, or peyton, if you do not want me to post these on here, send me a PM and I'll take the images down.

BTW, can yuo actually make padlocks for chests??? I mean I'm sure you can, but do you order them from a locksmith or.....

My teacher has like a nose cone thing, that is attached to a spring to his anvil stand which he throws over the round horn when he isn't using that part. It deadens the sound completely. However it makes no different to him and I because we have ear muffs on. :)

Lol ironrosefarms, you could use that for tongs if it's tall enough to keep the reins out of the water.

I completely agree, safety glasses are religious to me !!! lol.

Any pictures, btw, nice SCORES!!!

Awesome knife. Cut real good, or it just a display one?

I wish I knew more about this stuff, but I know nothing, however, there are some pretty cool things going in this thread. Lol.

From those two pictures, looks like you got one heck of a deal, for a really nice anvil. I don't see much wrong with it in those two pictures.

Now that's some nice work, can't wait to see many pictures. :)

one online source for H13 is speedy metals Speedy Metals - H-13

That's where I get all of my metal from, well I might start buying from my bsing teacher, not sure.

You really don't want anything smaller than 1/4". I stick with 1/2" and up, then forge or taper down to the desired diameter.

I get the white(gray) 24x36 from Blacksmithsdepot. Been using it for a month now, VERY USER FRIENDLY.