S.Hollowood

Glad to see another BGOP member, on the forum! I was beginning to think i was the only one.

It is important to remember that brass brushing is done at a black heat, generally anywhere 400-800, not even beginning to glow. Generally if you are good with the brass brush you won't need to wire brush either. If you really want to preserve a brass brush finish, instead of warming back up for the typical wax, try a clear enamel made for metals. I use it on anything which will not be in contact with food, but may need protection. I.E. candy canes, hooks, leaves, marlinspikes, and anything else.

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ME

So in my efforts in learning to knife making, and other such blacksmith activities, i have met quite a few different masters and mentors of blacksmithing in my area, whom i could spend hours just watching work, much less apprentice with. My question is this, is there a master or teacher in the area who is looking for an apprentice or student to teach? Maybe we should start a forum for connecting teachers to students?

So i have been knife smithing for a while now, and am beginning to think about moving onto larger projects. I have quite a ways to go with my knives before i am ready for sword smithing, but i want to begin thinking about a project, maybe designing and laying out the ideas. So i thought i would come here and see what smiths here had to say. What designs would you recommend for someone who will be making the transition from relatively small knives 4-7" into the world of swords. I do have copies of the master bladesmith, and the complete bladesmith, but as always books can only teach so much. Thanks for your time, advice and anything else you might have to say.

Very cool, i wish i could just spend a day in the shop learning about all the different tools i see on the walls. Can you imagine the wealth of information in the various tools hidden away in that shop? Much less the information in actual technique and armoring?

I mean in the second video, the wheel rim was pretty cool to watch, and surprisingly fast. It was the second video where i could not figure out what they were making.

What the heck did they make!? they don't show a finished product, and i can't figure out what would possibly made from something that thick.

After a challenge from a friend, and a particularly rough week dealing with a family loss, i got to the smithy. I found out that for me, forging, just about anything helps keep my head clear and keep me moving ahead. Anyways the challenge issued by a friend was to forge up a kerambit. This posed a bit of a conundrum to me, having never cared for heavily curved knives, or finger holes this was a new design to me. The process i ended up using was using a bar of 1070 1" wide i worked out the blade first. A little bit of trimming with a modern cut off wheel, followed up by refining the shape and curve with the hammer, and a final sanding. Then measuring out where i wanted the hole, i center punched it, then began using the punches we have at the guild. After getting the hole to size i began working on the curve of the handle, placing the knife on edge on the horn, and hammering both directly down, and off the horn to get the curve. My question to everyone else here, is which way would you work the curves assuming basic tools are had. I will attach my results for reference. Though the handle is not done, it needs more curve and more definition.

Possibly cable damascus?

I am sure many of you will share my situation so i hope this may pertain and be more useful to all of you as opposed to just me. Anyways i currently do not own, an anvil or a forge, how ever there is a local guild in my area, of which i am a paying member. So i spend much of my time commuting to the guild, with various tools, stock, and projects in various states of completion. Sometimes making a few trips from the car to the forge because of all the different items i may bring, i would normally use one of my shoulder bags, but they don't hold up well the edges of the flat stock, nor do they hold hammers and tongs all that well. I have been looking at old mail bags as a solution for this, but i wanted to see what if anything anyone else uses.