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That's probably the coolest bowie I've ever seen.

It's just beautiful. I wouldn't change a single thing, really great job!

Don't listen to people telling you not to waste your time on spike knives. They may not make a high quality knife, but they sure do sell well. Just don't promote them as high quality knives. People want them for gifts and showpieces. You can make a spike knife a heck of a lot faster than a "real" knife, and use the money for coal and tools.

I'm really not a fan of paracord on knives, but I think you did a pretty good job. The blade looks nice.

What I would do if it were an heirloom of mine, would be to cut it off near the guard, then weld the remaining portion of the blade there and keep it as a wall hanger. You could make it look pretty good that way, it'd just be a tad shorter. Wouldn't have to worry about joining the engravings, either.

You don't have to secure it . . . you just wrap it around. The copper is strong enough that it'll stay on it's own.

Looks like it'll work, but it's missing it's spring.

Yep, ball peen. Just hit it a little harder than I normally would to make it look a little extra rough. Finished these 3 about a week ago. I liked the little one I gave away, so I made a few more like it.

A bathroom vent fan works great and is very quiet (mine was at least). I built a wooden housing for mine and put a dimmer switch on it and it actually looked pretty nice. Used it for a year until I got a hand crank blower.

Powers Thunderforge?

I named mine Berry Family Forge, Berry being my last name. I'm hoping that when my boys are old enough they'll take an interest and we can make a family business of it. And I agree that Powers Forge sounds perfect. If you're keen on using thunder, I like the sound of Thunder Hammer Forge.

I've never payed more than $60 for a post vise and I have 6 of them. I've got all of them except for one at flea markets.

Looks nice! You gunna put a proper handle on it or leave it as is?

I like it a lot. I'd like to see one with the whole tang done that way for the handle!

Leaf springs and lawnmower blades. I was given a stack of 25 lawnmower blades, so I figured I'd put them to use.

I'm a really big fan of post apocalyptic movies or tv shows. I've been making my knives using scrounged materials, trying to make them look like they came out of Mad Max, Book of Eli, or Fallout. None of these are meant to be pretty, I've left them a little rough on purpose for effect. Anyway, here they are. This first one's a big heavy machete, made for chopping zombie bits. Distressed diamond plate bolster and the scales are an old Kenny Rogers record. The handle on this one is plywood, construction paper, and elkhorn. I'd never used plywood on a knife before, but with this style, I thought it worked. This one's my favorite, so I decided to keep it for myself. The scales are elkhorn, with a diamondplate rear bolster and copper wire wrap on the front. The blade's 1/4" thick and heavy. I love it, though. Not exactly a pair, but they look pretty similar. Hickory scales. This one started out as a lawnmower blade, if the star on the end didn't give that away. And the last one, not post apocalyptic-themed at all, just a little knife made as a gift to a friend. Pink and purple micarta with brass pins.

Every one of them look awesome, but I especially love that wakizashi.

What kind of battery powered drill do you have? I justmade 3 knives using my Bostitch, just because I didn't feel like walking down to the other shop for the drill press. It's not hard to drill through, just make sure you have sharp bits and do your drilling before hardening your blade.

When you get your stamp made, ask for a little more length. I got mine back and it was about 4" long. Doesn't feel great on your hand when you're hot-stamping.

Before you send back your blower, tell us what kind it is and somebody around here can probably tell you how to fix it.

I use some similar to THESE that I made, though mine are way uglier.

A knife I was working on once slipped out of my tongs at a bright red and hit me right in the cheek. I had a perfect knife shape on the side of my face for about a month. Pretty lucky that it went away completely without scarring.

Millers Falls made drills and planes, but they also had a cast iron anvil/vise combo that they made. Sometimes people lose the half of the jaws that open and try selling them as anvils. If that's what you're looking at, look elsewhere.

I'd try grinding the down crack, since you said it doesn't go all the way through, see how far it goes.

I found a 600lb fisher that looked like it'd never been struck with a hammer for $1500 that was a short distance from me. I had just gotten my tax return, too, but we had more important things we needed to spend our money on at the time. I really would have loved to have it, though. That was about a year ago.