BigCotton89

That looks great. I especially like the guard. Now that I've found a practically endless supply of rr spikes that are free and safe to get I'm always looking for creative ideas for them.

Nice. I like the burlap handles.

Nice. I agree with Steve though. It would look much better forge welded. But believe me, I feel your pain on not getting hot enough. The methane forges we use get so close that it's kills a little piece of you when it just won't get there.

good to know. Thanks Rich

Honestly I was just messin around in the shop to see what I could come up with and this is what came out of it. It's 1084 with a hububalli handle on it. I know it has some scale on the sides there but I like the look and even the wire brush on the angle grinder couldn't take it off so it might hold a while. either way I left the scale on some of my first items out of the forge and when it finally fell off I just re oiled it and had another interesting finishes. This one is just for me anyway so whats it matter.

Howdy folks. I'm from down in Laurinburg NC. Just starting out as well so I can't give much in the way of advice but I'm always happy to lend a helping hand. And for anyone in the far west of the state, I'm a full time student at Western Carolina University so if anyone out that way needs a hand I am happy to help.

I'm no expert like some of the folks on here but I just drew out the last maybe 10th of my tang to a roughly round end that was a bit longer than I needed and threaded the tang it's self. worked excellently for me. I drilled an tapped my pommel filled it with a dab of JB weld and screwed it on tight lined it up with the blade and let it sit for a few days. The knife hasn't been done for that long but I chop through some thick wood with it and really abuse it to test it's durability. It's held up very well so far.

great work man. I especially like the larger rams head knife and the claw on the bottom of the 1080 knife.

Not real happy with the final results but it'll do. I think I'll try and remake this one and implement the things I've learned not to do and be a bit more careful with the belt sander on that leather and red cedar handle. It's only sanded to 400 grit and finished with a few coats of boiled linseed oil. it's comfortable to hold and it keeps an edge fairly well and chops like a champ but it sure aint too pretty. Maybe I'll be able to make it better next time.

What I think I might do is make a spring swage type deal that just sits closed and does the top and bottom at once so basically if I decided to make it for 1/2" round stock it would be a roughly smaller than 1/2" opening so that the stock holds it open a little bit then I can hammer it till it's closed and that should do it. I might make a "multi-swage" to make the ends of my tang uniform for threading and get my rebar swage and maybe one more if I can come up with one.... Sorry to hijack your thread like this, I just felt inspired.

Just felt I should share this. It throws real nice http://i.imgur.com/EFLrA78.jpg

I like the swages idea. the only reason I was thinking rolling mill was so I could do a lot at the time but I guess for the price difference it would be smarter to make a set of spring swages or something of the sort.

good to know Wayne. My only issue is distance. I'm a broke college student with no money for gas so maybe one day I'll make it out there but for now I'm stuck within 30 miles of Cullowhee.

Mark you're on up there aren't ya