Ian

Fredly, my current teacher reckons that you need as reducing a fire as you can possibly get (that is to say a fire with NO oxgen in the spot where your steel is reaching the 'wash' or welding temperature) so that there is virtually no scale build up on the steel. A good way to help with this is to line your fire with a paste made from coal fines and water. It will slowly burn throughout the fires life doing wonders for eating all the extra oxygen in the fire.
The knowledge that you should work to the steel with the lowest melting point of all the pieces your trying to get to stick.
A good fluxing agent to ensure that there are no extra contaminants in the weld.
A lot is just down to time and experience, Glenn has been at it for over thirty years, I'm looking at around two, he can forge weld better than I can as a result! LOL
Keep plugging away, experience is the best teacher

eh? Me?
Well, yes I could quite probably have made a 'pattern welded' blade, maybe even a bit of 'mosaic damascus', but I had a bit of time waiting for somthing else to get warm (and that was what I was actually supposed to be doing) so I was playing around and this was the result. Next time I make a knife Richard I'll make somthing a bit more interesting. :D

Welcome Joe,
this is a massive resource to anyone interested in the blacksmiths art. Make good use of it.

Yes Victor,
I just used quartz/silica sand as a flux, the Smithy I'm working in had a big tub full of used (black) foundry sand to hand :D

A cable pattern welded (damascus) knife. This was made from a piece of roughly 50mm (inch 1/2) steel rope. Forged down to shape then surface was linished to current state, only needed a little sanding. Still to have heat treatment and final edge ground. It's a vegetable knife around 25 cm (eight inches?) long.
By the way it's my first ever knife.

Bugger of the lot of youse!!!!! LOL, My congratulations to the convicts, sorry, the colonists on they're not entirely unexpected victory.
By the way before you bury me I'll let you in on a secret....

I put a fiver on the Aussies to win months ago

:D

Strine does raise some excellent points.

I understand editing was mainly meant to allow a user to correct a glowing spelling mistake, or some such typographical error. Without that we will all have to type a tad more carefully in future. It shows a lack of faith in the users that we all suffer for the actions of one.

What concerns me more is the rather Draconian statement that we must not question the admin. Why should we not? You administrate the site Sir's but WE give it life, we contribute and use it, without us it becomes stagnant, worth nothing, perhaps you should remember that. Your statement came across to me at least as inexcusably arrogant and if it had been aimed at myself I wouldn't appreciate it or its sentiment in the least.

Lastly the right of the user to his/her own intellectual property is also a concern, Glenn and myself have discussed this privately, I personally consider my reports are my copyright that Glenn can use with my permission but for everyone else it's worth reminding you that Iforgeiron.com has a blanket statement that essentially gives ALL copyright to any material posted to the site to the sites owner. This is to protect both the site and yourself from 'others' stealing and using material, but it does mean that unless you come to an arrangement with the operators of the site your contribution is the sites property.
I openly admit I may be mistaken here but 'all rights reserved' seems to be pretty clear in the page I looked at.

I'm not trying to cause a fight with anyone but I'd like to think that I'm backing a forum that is open to discussion with its members and that respects them and the contribution they make to the site. Telling someone essentially to 'shut up and mind your place' is not indicative of that kind of forum.

I wish everyone the best for Christmas and the New Year, I'm busy as a bee forging in Glen Moon's workshop helping get a commission done before Santa comes to pick it up, so it may be a bit before I'm back. Hopefully the festive season will freshen the air in here.

Very, VERY nice :D

Mooch,
I never meant to imply that the Karambit was 'evil', I only meant to say that as an edged weapon it's design as you rightly pointed out, leaves little room to claim you use it to peel spuds (potatoes). I have spoken and trained with a few guys over the years who were aware of and in one case proficient with, the use of the Kerambit. From a SD point of view they hated the things, from an offensive pov they held them in high regard. No weapon is 'evil' its the user.

Really?
I thought American Law Enforcement had taken a particular dislike to the Indonesian Kerambit. Mainly due to it's design. It's potentially an extremely difficult weapon to disarm and in the right hands is a truly lethal edged weapon, even among knives.

I'm not sure Mooch, but I think the Karambit is illeagal in most of the United States, sure it is in the UK (any knife over 3 inches is illeagal to carry there) I know theres lots of pictures of them online, a simple google search will sort that. As to their manufacture I'd check the legal issue first before trying...

Get well soon Buddy, my best wishes for a rapid recovery

Nice one!
Salutations and congratulations, cigars all round mate!

Pommie Freeloader..... you know I don't mind the Pommie bit anymore, I cant fight 23 million Australians everytime one of them goes "Oiy Pom!" But I have to say that bar for the one occassion where I burnt the midnight oil on a few pieces I always TRIED to remember to clean out the fire mate...

So there!!

unable to be viewed and unable to be uploaded as well Glenn, as soon as video was an option for the gallery people tried, not always with success sadly. Because of the size issue I've linked to the video's as opposed to using the gallery, I'll wait till it's 'tweaked' before trying again.

Latvius,
your welcome This is kind of why I wanted feedback, video is in my opinion the way to go with Blueprints and I know that Glenn is working on this, I thought I'd post these to give people an idea of what 'may' be available on here down the line a bit.
If you like those then this is the latest one:

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 9

Thanks, truth be told so do I, or round nosed tongs. Just wanted to show it can be done just with the hammer if you dont have a lot of tools

Hi all,
I'd like you to have a look at these please and tell me what you guys think of them. I shot them in Dale Russell's (Chopper) workshop a month or so ago to try the video function out on my camera more than anything else. It's a leaf keyring.

When Glenn's done some stuff I'll be posting some other video's here directly, other Smiths at work etc.

Enjoy Ian

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 8

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 7

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 6

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 5

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 4

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 3

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 2

YouTube - Journeyman Smith Demo 1

Yeah, me too!
Where else can you find so many folks willing to offer their time and knowledge to help people with a genuine interest in this wonderful craft? Welcome to the site Aristotle
p.s. love your books

The other thing you might try is taking your handles straight from the tree and leaving the bark on them, I know this might sound rather strange but a swedish smith I met called Kaj Adler did that with all his hammers and handled striking tools. I tried them and believe me, your hands can be dripping wet but you won't slip a fraction on the handle. Failing that then how about using some of that towelling tape that people use on tennis rackets? Roughing the wood and linseed oil also seem to be very good ideas and perhaps a little more traditional looking.

Yup,
if you look in the blueprints section of the main page you'll find several cheap and cheerfull "how to" guides for making a forge.

Yes I have, met him at the Hot Iron Muster at Logan Village, really nice bloke. Showed me the leaves he does as well, very similar to one of the type I do, lot of work with a fairly sharp straight peen to get the texture. I liked them a lot. Also liked the collection of tools he had photo's of, real tool junkie :D

Aha!
Thanks Brian, I could see those being a good little demo seller:D I've made leaves for keyrings or pendants, a little bigger than the horse shoe nail spoon but not much slower to make while someone watches.

Mick,
what are these spoons for? From the pictures they look like doll's furniture... charms or pendants maybe? Keyfobs? I like the idea don't get me wrong at all, just wondered what you told the folks they could use them for.
:D

Straight, despite being English (who traditionally use a ball pein or Engineers hammer) I learned what I know so far using european style hammers.