billyO

Nice ram's head, John. It looks comfortable in the hand. It actually looks more comfortable than the ram's head I forged for my Dodge's stick shift.

You can get just as nice nicks with a very small radius. Depending on the size of stock you're typically using, I'd round off the edges in a taper from ~m 0.5cm radius at the horn edge down to close to square at the heel, but without any sharp corners. You can put the almost square portion somewhere between the feet of the anvil for the most stability if needed. But again, depending on the size of stock you're using a 107kg anvil will be a huge increase in stability over your 85kg. If you really need/want a sharp corner for any reason, you can fix that with a square chisel. as always peace and love billyO

Hello all. I can't take credit for these, they came out of Darryl Nelson's forge a number of years ago, but I just got these re-installed in my new stone chimney and thought they could be used as inspiration to someone someday. as always peace and love billyO

Looks good, PVF. Did you use a swedge block for final shaping?

If you're looking for opinions, I'd keep working on it for practice in grinding, putting on the WA handle and then using it to test your heat treating. I've got a little blade that I did my first twist pattern on and didn't do a good enough job keeping the twists from giving me cold shuts. It sat on my desk for a couple of years. I decided to use it to practice my sheath making and started using it hard this past summer during my remodel, cutting everything from insulation to sheetrock, and aside from the cold shut in the blade, it's turned out to be what I consider the perfect knife for this job, and it's become my EDC knife. as always peace and love billyO

I use a piece of 3" dia black ABS with a threaded top that I also use to dunk my blades in. So far 3+ years without any leaking. Also, you should be able to buy ferric chloride to avoid having to do the work changing it yourself. I got mine from Radio Shack when they still had box stores, and it's sold as PCB etchant.

My thoughts exactly. Great looking knife. I've been wanting to do an integral bolster for a while now. I just seem to forget that while forging. Keep up the good work as always peace and love billyO

As mentioned above, practice is the key. Also, this question may be more appropriate in the Bladesmithing section of this forum. If possible, join your local blacksmithing organization, although it's probably the NWBA and those events can be tough to get to for a 14 y/o. Most importantly, have fun and don't get discouraged. If you keep at it, you'll be way ahead of me before you get to get to 1/2 my age. as always peace and love billyO

Hmmmm....that's an idea worth pursuing

One suggestion/modification I'd make, though is, when you are separating the coils after turning/twisting them, don't just pull the end out like I've seen before and it looks like you did. You need to use a screwdriver or something like that to separate the twists so that you have even spacing all around the corkscrew so that it follows the same hole. By having larger spacing at the end than at the top, you will tear up the cork. I can't take credit for coming up with that though, I learned it from Mark Aspery at one of our weekend functions when he demonstrated "Forging a helical actuator for removing semi-permanent check valves in an enclosed fluidine system" as always peace and love billyO

Nobody else mentioned this, and it may be a moot point, but it's my understanding that the RR owns everything within a certain distance around the tracks. I'd be surprised if anyone hassled you about that though, and if they did, I bet you could hand it back with a sneer and say something like, "Fine, you can have this piece of junk back" then and they'd let you go. as always peace and love billyO

Sweet looking knife

Thanks sfeile!

To quote my quote I submitted in the thread about quotes: Ask 10 blacksmiths how to do something and you'll get 12 different answers.

Thanks John.

Holy cow! You must be a runner to have enough lung capacity for this. I'd like to see someone do this some day? What was the diameter of your pipe?

Thanks all. A hunter/utility/EDC is what most folks have recommended. Are there any good references you could point me to discussing different profiles for different uses?

Hello all. Just wondering what to call this blade I recently finished. Thanks

Hey John. Do you get yours at Clay Arts or is there a place in Oly to get them? Hope to see you at Swaptoberfest (I should have some stabilized spalted maple burl for sale there....)

Nice looking knife, but I really like the 1/2 elk skull on the sheath. I need to get away from my go to sheath style and start learning how to carve leather. You may have just motivated me.

Sweet! Welcome to the pattern welded addiction....

As a physical therapist for the past 22+ years, I'd say talk to your PT about not only your pain issues, but also what you want to get back to doing. If, after you say blacksmithing, your PT rolls their eyes and says you won't be able to, get another PT. If there aren't any tears in the muscles/tendons (what the rotator cuff actually is) then you may only have to modify how you stand at the anvil or swing your hammer. The problem with relying on general practitioner MDs is that typically, they only have 1 hour of musculoskeletal anatomy in school and no coursework in biomechanics. The problem with many orthopedic surgeons is that all they consider is surgery. I'm sure you've heard the saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." A good PT will have a thorough understanding of biomechanics, and movement and how to adapt and change your movement patterns to reduce inflammation, which is usually the cause of pain. You may have to modify your hammering, and it's possible your days as a striker may be limited. I'd try 3-4 different PTs before even considering shoulder replacement. Those have a horrible success rate, and I've known surgeons who consider a 50% recovery a successful replacement surgery. After re-reading the above, I'm not sure how much stock I'd put in this doctor. It would most certainly would matter if there was a tear. If there's a complete tear, you've lost one of the 4 muscles that holds the head of the humerus in the glenoid, and that would matter. I'd also suggest start icing the shoulder for 30 min a few times a day. Advil is an anti-inflammatory and ice is a great anti-inflammatory. Also, Advil is only one of a few different NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatorie Drugs), and not all of them work for everyone (Cortisone is a steroid, a much more powerful anti-inflammatory). Advil is ibuprofen and that doesn't work for me. What works for me is Aleve, which is naproxen sodium, a different chemical. Another NSAID option is Aspirin, which works for some folks.

I realize I'm late to the game on this thread, but folks who do pattern welded blades have been using instant coffee to stain the carbon steel after etching for years, especially with kitchen knives. It is NOT a durable finish, however and will rub off in time if care isn't taken. The nice thing is that you can just soak the knife again when you want a greater contrast. It's my understanding, however that the cheaper the coffee the better. I suppose this is possible, but the suggested tempering method for a 1080 steel for a kitchen knife is 400-450deg for two 2 hour tempering cycles. And after putting all that work into forging, grinding and heat-treating a blade, why would you want to risk a faulty tempering?

Looks great. Don't limit yourself too much. You can also do a twist pattern, and there are many variations on the ladder pattern. I've ground x's, checkered patterns, ladder grooves that only go up half the width of the blade, and you can combine the patterns. In fact, you may have just inspired me to do a widely spaced ladder pattern with raindrop holes drilled between the grooves....hmmmm...

I think most of us here would agree 100%. Keep up the good work.