triw

Hey Draper: I did a good one a while back. I was putting the curl in the steam of a leaf I forged when someone came into the shop and started to ask a question. Now I know better than leave hot metal on top of my anvil but thinking it would take a second to answer his question. One thing led to another and with out thinking I leaned on the anvil and sported a nice leaf and curled stem blister on the palm of my right hand for a while. Needless to say I quit hammering for the day cause of the blisters. So one more lesson that I hope someone else can learn from.

race like the bearing race (from a Navel P-3) I made a knife out of.

tick = a slight, sharp, recurring click, tap, or beat, as of a clock. The sound I make when I tap the anvil with my hammer

Great first effort. Thank you for sharing

Welcome Sask

Welcome to Iforgeiron these are a great bunch of smiths

I am courious where you are located also. William

Racer with all that flamable stuff in your garage I would look into a portable forge. I know a spark can smoulder fot a while if it went into the right material. With gas, etc being stored in the garage seems to me you would want to forge in the open.

Oldiron I live in Cottonwood and I was cooking for a re-enactment at Fort Verde. Did demos in dutch Ovens and fed the re-enactors. It was fun.

I use plain water no baking soda. Just curious why do you mix in baking soda?

Very nice work John.

Howdy Ron, What part of Arizona are you from? I hail from the northern area. Welcome William

Beatiful work on blade and scabard. What does the lettering on blade stand for?

lock = as in smithing a hasp for a lock

rook = to cheat; fleece; swindle.

took = while everyone was helping I took his bandsaw so it would not cut off his other foot

Loop as we could tie the leg back on and loop the extra rope around his waist to help keep it on

:o

Teachingclay look under new posts for cable knife I posted a question about your cable. William

I read that Teachingclay was given some elevator cable.

"I got ahold of a bunch ,75 feet or so, of elevator cable tonight. Most of it is cut into short lengths to be trimmed to the desired piece later. Turns out its not solid, according to my friend the elevator repairman, none of it is. It has a jute rope core, which would leave a 1/4 hollow in the center."

My understand is: that mild steel is the core of a Japanese samauri sword. When it is quenced the mild steel srinks differently from the high carbon steel and causes it to curve.

My question is if you took the rope out and replaced it with a 1/4" mild steel rod then forged this into a knife blade how do you think it would react when quenched? Would there be enough mild steel to make a difference?
Any ideas?

Thanks for letting me pick your brains. William

Dave
I agree with everyone else take a break if you must but don't give up! I also feel you will regret it deeply.

Coltpax if I might make a suggestion. Take some steel you know what it is and can research how to work it, how to annel it how to harden it etc. (ie 1095) That way you know what is supost to happen and if it doesn't happen you know you made a mistake. If you start with an "unknown" you wont know if it was something you did or if it was a fault in the metal. I make things out of "junkyard" steel but not knives because I am still learng.
So get a piece of good steel and start from there if you want to make a good knife.
Just my opinion William

feat = as in it is a feat of insanity to forge in 110 degree weather in Arizona

Wish you were in Arizona I would love to have you7 come over and we could try a few things.

rear as in if you sit on it to long nothen gets done in the shop

If you can get the rope out you could replace it with 1/4" rod and have some nice stock to forge. If you left the 1/4" rod long you could use this as a handle to hold while you worked the cabble.