Loneforge

Nice job for a first! Keep em coming!

Cool

That has nice flow to it.

Got a sheath made for it. What do you guys think?

I heat treated mine and it has held up well. Let us know how the Normalized blade holds up.

Beautiful job....well done!

Cool

One of my biggest problems with blades warping was simply caused by my inexperience as a smith. I can make a long list but I won't. Major culprits for me were....#1 Bevels not forged/ground even on both sides. #2 Blade thickness not even throughout grind. #3 Not getting blade STRAIGHT into the quench with an even heat.....turning 180 degrees to get to quench can cool one side of blade more than another.....causing uneven hardening....Warps. These are a few of the things I strove to correct. I may also recommend not trying all of these things at once as if you have suceess you may not know what the original issue really was. I hope this helps and I'm not coming off like a guru....I most certainly am not. These are some of the things that I've learned from other more experienced smith's here and from other sites. Forge on and you will get to the bottom of it I'm sure. Keep them coming they're looking good.

Ya gotta carve the handles....keep us posted. Looking great so far!

No need for a touchmark when you can perform DNA testing on my blades! Thanks for the positive vibes gentlemen, and yes the hand is healing quite nicely. The feeling is slowly returning!

1084 Full Tang with Nickle Silver bolsters. Stabilized Spalted Maple scales.

I don't browse through the Sword section all that often, as the work involved to make one properly rather intimidates. I will say that this short sword you have here is a beaut! Nice work thanks for sharing.

Very well organized twist pattern. Impressive!

We put the board in an old 100 AMP circuit breaker case and used part of the plastic casing from the treadmill body as a shield to keep grinding from entering the motor.

Sorry Don.....haven't looked back at this thread for a bit. We simply replaced the motor from a table saw.....Used table saw is my grinder bench.....Replaced the blade with a pulley and mounted the grinder on the Saw deck. We stepped the whole ratio down 4:1 as the top speed on the treadmill motor was 6000RPM. This allowed us 1500RPM on the drive wheel. Only thing I would do different is not using V belts as they offer a bit of vibration at various speeds.....And make good and sure you keep the motor and circuit board dust free.....Burned one circuit board by allowing grindings in. Hope this is not way too late and have fun!

Nice work Tim. Glad to see you're back in action! Scales on the second folder are gorgeous. How long are the blades?......After looking through your pics in the link I see the blades are just beyond thumb length! Thank the IFI gods for the edit button!

Nice work. Looking real good.

I tried to fold on my first few billets Theo and they all failed. A wise man (Rich Hale) told me that I would have better luck by cutting and restacking. I tack weld the ends together and once I knew the billet has at least stuck in a few places I grind these welds off to prevent uneven growth in the billet.....and I always get rid of the ends of the billets near the welds as they almost always have some weld flaws near the ends. I ensure all scale is gone before restacking my billets. I never even try a weld unless the flux is dancing around like crazy. I am using a single burner forge and have been having decent luck with my welds. Prep of the billet is key I think. If the billet surfaces are ground nice and clean and I get the flux on before scale can start I usually have good success. Like anything though, 100% success is not likely to occur! Get back on the horse and try again! Cheers, Darren

To do anything may be seen as simple. I play guitar a bit and to some, I may sound like a virtuoso, to some others I may sound like a complete hack. Point being is this. At what level do you want to take your skill? I have been at knifemaking for about a little over 3 years now. I have a come a long was in a short time and I owe a lot of people credit for this. The first on the list will be me .....LOL. I work hard.....do a lot of research....ask a million questions.....post pictures of both failures and sucesses. When I ask for critique I expect just that....it does not bother me a bit that someone with years of skill or none at all may throw their 2 cents in. It's what I asked for and what I expect. I wanted to hear what the Pros think. This is how I get better. the others that need credit know who they are......IFI especially......awesome site for learning. Place a pic for Rich Hale and ask for critique....he will be honest.....It might be painful and it might not. Bottom line is.....these guys have been doing it for years and know their stuff. I took all the advice that was offered and then looked for more. Look into all the above mentioned links and lessons. They will help, and by all means ask questions. A lot of what you want to learn is already typed on this forum. Look around and you will found out. Once the CREW here see you making honest efforts and improved results you will get all the support in the world. Cheers and enjoy the site......Enjoy

3 More, Lacewood, Ziricote, and Black Walnut. One with Ziricote has a Rosewood linen Micarta Guard.

That's coming along quite nicely. Nice work Geoff. Sam will be pleased I'm sure. :)

Beauty! You did a nice job on that one! Thanks for sharing.

Really nice work. I love the leather on the handle. Like to know how you finished it.

Cool walk through, thanks!