Ratel10mm

Nope, but grab it at that price! :D

Yeah, I'm watching it. Odd thing is, it doesn't have a Pritchel hole. Maybe an old one?

Get him to join www.britishblades & put it up asking for opinions, as you're not an expert. It's clearly not a Katana imo, since I've never seen one with visible forge welds like that. However, he may have got lucky with what it actually is? And if it is decent steel & HT'd, I'd say he has got a bargain since I doubt any of us could produce that for the price he's paid. :D

That's great news Dan. Hope your wife recovers fully.

Good grief! That's just down the road from where I used to live! Wish I'd kown that back then. I don't have one of your machines, but I have seen them or similar & was very impressed.

ROFL!!! Mate, you're so right! :D:D

Not letting you know!! Who told you about Get Hammered then??!! Anyway, I thought you were into cutlery more than smithing? Either way, it's good to have you here mate. So, how did you find this place, since I selfishly forgot to send you a link? (sorry!) Definitely up for a barbie. We're thinking we need to do something along those lines ourselves. Will be in touch.

Hi Carl, I was wondering when you'd find this place! :D

A good piece of advice I received when I was burning small, thin items was to lay it on top of the fire, not in it. That way, you can keep a good eye on it, and it'll heat up more slowly, thus giving you some breathing space. It works well for me. :)

Hi Ruthven. Welcome to IFI. I have a mate who does iron age forging demos in the U.K. It looks pretty cool to see what can be done with just a hole in the ground & a lump of metal for an anvil. I look forward to seeing soe of your stuff.

My thoughts are with you. It is truly the scariest possible thing to imagine being without your wife. Good luck!!!

Hi Ray, & welcome to IFI. :)

Welcome P&P. :)

WOW!!!!! That's superb!

Hi Cardo! Nice to see you here mate. You'll probably spot one or two more familiar names as well. ;)

I understand that the PDF in question has now been printed as a book, so the free PDF versions have all been removed from the web. Apparently the book has a bit of new research stuff not in the PDF, but like many of these specialist books, it costs a small fortune.

Zac, if you want to learn bladesmithing, then in the U.K. the best thing to do is join British Blades they have quite a few hammer-ins & other stuff going now, and new people are always made welcome as long as they aren't idiots. I go by the same name there as here. (Glenn, I hope it's okay to post that link?) Not a problem, glad you did Also Zac, I remember a blacksmith's shop visible from the M4 at Slough (well, the sign is anyway). I confess I never made the opportunity to visit them, but they're the only smith I know of in your immediate area. Or have you been & found they're fabricators, not blacksmiths? There is an artist smith the other side of Henley. Whether they'd be willing to let you do anything, I don't know. There is also a list on BABA's website of smiths willing to teach or apprentice. Make sure you look it up as there's quite possibly someone that you could get to.

Yep, I have every intention of being there - am negotiating with employer. :)

That is scary! But looks like it works well! :D

Matt Russell (no relation) Gold Coast Hobbiest now, would like to become full time.

They can be got new from India, but not having used one myself I cannot vouch for the design. There's a chap on BB who imports them to the U.K. If you like I could ask if he'd be willing to impart his contact info?

It's a long time since I last tried this, and I'm afraid all my notes & the piece that I did this on are still in a container; but iirc I used a ball peen hammer at intervals along the leaf edge to move some of the edge out in a semi-circular shape. Repeat at the right sort of distances & you get the effect I think you want. This was for a water plant leaf though, so not sure how it would work for, say, a Maple type leaf.

Welcome to IFI. :)

That was me. I've seen it done on a couple of hamers, & apparently it's a fairly common solution. Heavy leather is used, not book-binder's stuff. As I understand it the idea is that with the spring wrapped, if it fails the pieces aren't going to pick up any momentum in order to punch their way through & should therefore be contained within the wrapping. However this is what I've been told, so I can't take any responsibility for the experiences of others.

I'm in the refrigeration & air conditioning industry. I can commision it, fix it, and to an extent design it. I know a bit about blade smithing. A bit about blacksmithing. I did a general engineering course rather than A levels, so know / knew a fair bit about manufacturing processes, machine tools, electronics, robotics, materials, etc. etc.