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Vishal Dave Canterbury of The Pathfinder School has videos on YouTube about what type of spear point to use. Nice thing about a Leaf point spear is you have a knife as well. I would not make one that weighed more than fixed blade knife.

Dcraven, Toaster Oven, go to the good will and get you 2 or 3. Then go to Walmart and get an equal number of High Heat Oven Thermometers. You can then set them all up and then record what oven does what termp. Much easier then using the torch or stove.

M31, did you get this shipped or did you pick it up? If you picked it up I would suggest seeing if they will take it back. What Zip code do you live it? Harbor Freight sells the same ASO and you can get the 20% coupon from Facebook. Still an ASO but you save a few bucks. I use a section of large gauge railroad rail. The chunk I use is around 18 inches and 60/odd pounds.

Where are you folks getting your pivot bolts and such? thanks

Now all you need is a REALLY big pig that needs a sticking!

Looks great, is that TIG or MIG? What did you use to cut the track, that stuff is hard!

steve, is the knife chat part of the knife lessons?

dcraven, What kind of steel is the plate your hardy is made of and how thick is it?

How well did it harden/hold an edge. Nice knife.

I got a sawmill blade, maybe 36" or so, and did the can it harden test. I hardened it two times and slapped it against my vise. It broke like glass. It sounded a lot like glass snapping off.

I agree, the reason I used these is I got 36 rectangles of steel for $4.00 and if nothing else they would make good things to put in to pattern welds. Each blade is 1.5" by 4" so I figured they are good for small things like this. I also have some 5160 that I am working on now in to a camp knife. Soon as I get a good local source higher carbon steel I will use that. I have been devloping contacts at pawn and second hand stores for old files and such.

I would suggest that anyone with 54 min that they can spare watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXbLyVpWsVM. This guy makes a replica of a famous viking sword and unless I missed something all they used was a stump anvil. From what I saw it was a 4"x4" or 6"x6" block with a spike embedded in a stump. There is another show I saw where they showed a historical viking village in Iceland or Greenland where the village smith used an "anvil stone". I think the moral of the story is what Thomas said, get some weight and mass under your work and go! The saga says that Skallagrímur couldn't find an anvil stone to suit him, so he rowed out into Borgarfjörður one evening in his boat. He dove to the bottom and brought up a suitable boulder for his anvil stone. The anvil stone, with its hammer marks, still stands at Rauðanes (left), but it has been moved away from the shore. Ruins (right), which are the probable site of Skallagrím's smithy, are located closer to the shore. http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/bog_iron.htm

Always wanted some small knives for wood carving. What do you think? The guys at the forge meeting say the rotary drum blades are normally 1045.

I re-hardened the blade with oil, as recommended, and that did the trick. I the handle is oak flooring and linseed oil. The small chunk is the rest of the 6" chisel that the blade came from.

My father knew a Jesuit Priest that did a good bit of work in Haïti and one of the things that he did one year was had 100's of spalings planted. Came back from a trip off island and found out that the saplings were cut down for charcoal. This was in the late 80s early 90s.

That looked like West Africa and the stoves that they were making are very useful in a place with out a lot of trees for charcoal. I have read that people like UNESCO are teaching people to make retorts to turn what are really clippings, leaves and grass in to a kind of charcoal called biochar. Its got Bio in the name since every thing with Bio is better for the environment. These guys who take what they can get and make stuff are really my heroes. I have about 2 foot of rail of the same weight and it works like a dream for light stuff. Give him an anvil or even an ASO and I bet he could build a battle ship!

Old N Rusty, How much you need for your Anvil? I think that the airlines would have a fit if you tried to check a 100, small and steel package. Leon, I use rail road track and that works well. I would dress the weight on a narrow end and use it. It should work for now. Also get a hardwood tree stump. You can use that for spoons, bowls and pans.

Frosty, The bow is on the flat of the blade and Metalmangeler seems to have had the same issue. The spine is so thin that when I quenched the blade I caused the bow. If you have ever seen anyone play a saw for music that is what I am looking at by to a much lesser extent.

Hello All, Yesterday I decided to start work on a knife as a gift to the guy at the pawn shop that gives me killer deals on old chisels and files. I have the 6" ruler for scale and the left over of the donor chisel. The chisel started 6" long and about 1/2 an inch thick. The spine of the blade is now about 1/8 of an inch thick. after normalizing it I did a water quench and the blade developed a slight bow in it. Would I do better with an oil quench? Thanks for all the info that IFI has provided. nite.

I agree 100% about open and well ventilated space. I was outside on about 10 from the back porch so some gasses must have been blown under there. I felt the way I felt when I used to smoke 1-2 packs a day.

This is part something to do and part me wanting to be able to say if need be I can do this. I saw a thing on the news in the late 90's about a man in his 60's that makes knives and I thought that I want to know how to do that.

I am pleased to report that I feel much like my old self today. I was a bit short of breath yesterday but that seemed to pass as the day went on. I am not going to use that coal untill I have a higher fire pot and a good way of venting the smoke away from me.

I had a guy at the big flea market in Ardmore Tn tell me "you can use an Oak tree for an anvil as long as your steel is hot enough and you work fast!" I think your setup is at least better than an Oak tree so that is something.

swedefiddle, Since I have only been exposed to it one time, do you think it is worth going to the Dr over right now?