chichi

Thanks for the beautiful examples. I think the book that shows the steps is in German language and the author may be Coleman. The author's name is a wild guess.

Further comments appreciated.

Can someone refer me to a chart of the steps necessary to forge letters of the alphabet. I have seen this in a BS book ,but cannot remember the book title.

Even better if there is something on the internet.

Thanks

Very beautiful work.  How much of the parts building do you think  was done by CNC? It is still a great accomplishment using CNC if Jesse learned how to do the programming necessary. He has the money to buy all of the tools needed.

I have made a lot of Damascus (20 yrs. ago) and recently scratch built a semi auto pistol (.22lr) of my own design. Mine was made primarily with hand tools (barrel and mag were commercially made) and is uglyxxxxx I used steel but could have made it from Damascus. I am not a master nor a prodigy(not that anyone accused me  of such). It takes time and being stubborn helps.

Similar to wpearsons comment above-

put a small tenon on the end of say a 1/2 in. bar. Flatten and spread a 1 in section next to the tenon and punch a square or round hole in the flattened section. This will be the guide.. Put a hole in the upright and brad the punched guide in place. My sizes may not be right but I am sure you get the idea. The upright will have a nice swell where the tenon is inserted.

Good luck!!

Halbrust,

If you are fairly new to the sport and using charcoal, you may not be getting a good heat. At what color do you remove the steel and how much time between heats? I bet there are guys who have good coal forges that could make that much progress in 30 min. Dont be discouraged, I think it took me nearly a day to make my first set of tongs.

I was never impressed with the heat output of charcoal (but you have to use what is available).I base this on observation because I use coal or coke and have never worked with charcoal. More heat will speed up the process even if you dont have great hammer control.

Good luck.

Your poker and hooks look pretty good. Especially for a beginner.

Nobody is instantly great. keep at it and you will make great improvement.

I am glad others have responded. .

BTW,

Making a functional auto knife is not really that hard if you start with stock that is all the same thickness to begin. I have made them using three different machanisms. They were not finely finished but the blade would always snap out. I found that getting the blade to snap out and minimizing the side play was where the skill came in.I did not use any smithing in these knives  other than forging the blades. The appeal of this video was that the entire knife mechanism was forged.

Thanks for watching

Frosty,

Thanks for your comment. I really appreciated the maker's skills. He made a beautiful functional knife and the mechanism added to the appeal. The tally is now two member responses. .

Rock,

I am surprised this video generated so few responses-just you.Do you think the fact it was not in English turned people off?

I thought this guys work was inspiring and the lack of narration was a minor distraction??

ChiChi

I posted a video in the folder section of a German knifemaker who forges most of the parts for a very elegant auto folder that he makes. I dont understand German but I have a guess there are few of these craftsmen left doing this work which is why the video was made.

There does not seem to be much traffic on the folding knife section so I am posting here hoping others will enjoy. Your comments are appreciated.

There does not seem to be much traffic in the section for Alaska groups either.  With your reasoning perhaps we should post this there to boost it?  Cross posting in multiple topics is considered spamming, please do not do it again.  I am relocating this post to the other one, subjects are organized for easy location by readers,  not on where you think more people may or may not notice it better.

Rock,

I agree with most of what you said but I dont believe there is a plunger in the scale.Since I posted, I searched and found references to a "pen release" mechanism. There is a small pen blade next to the main blade. When the pen blade is depressed it trips the sear.That would normmally mean that the locking bar is raised out of the notch. In the video, the maker seems to be demonstrating that the short ramped tab on the locking bar is pused to the side out of the notch in the blade which allows the blade to disengage from the locking bar. It is a suble difference from a scale plunger but I would sure like to forge these parts once I get a little better understanding. I have made plunger style knives in the past but they rely on a hole in the blade near the pivot. This design does not.

Thanks for inserting the video above and your comments!

There is a great video of a German knifemaker on YOUTUBE. He forges a switchblade knife that has two blades and a corkscrew. Around the 6:00 mark (IIRC) he explains how the mechanism works. It appears that the locking bar is forced out of the knife locking notch by?? There does not seem to be a button. There is some sort of mechanism sticking out of the scale which I believe is the blade lock. Can someone explain this mechanism. I dont know how to add a link but the video title is"Doku Der Letzte seines Standes Der Messerschmied".

I have tried welding spiral ribbons but had little success.I really concentrated on the "jump weld" as the sole method for welding the ribbon. It appears in this video that the smith jumped the barrel enough to push the seam into a perpendicular plane to the barrel's bore and then just welded the seam by pulling the metal together from both sides of the seam while rotating the ribbon very much like it is done on longitudinal welding of a skelp. Is that what you see?

Very nice!

I have made a few leg hold traps for fun. I do not use them either. They are not too difficult to make. Get some hay rake tines and forge to desired shape. The rest of the trap can be mild steel.

Good luck.

very nice Frank.

Super Sweet!

I would also say brazing.

Outstanding results and effort. With your enthusiasm, you will be a legend before you are done!

I have forged a trap or two. I will take some pic's if I can find it. Not too tough but takes time to do the first one.

The latch in the picture looks like a hasp with a hook. The ones that I have seen (probably not what you want) have a "U" shaped hasp screwed to the frame. The door had a hinged piece of flat stock that had a slot that fit over the "U" shaped hasp. There was another piece that was riveted to the flat stock that had a hook on the end. It would drop into the U piece thereby locking everything in place. That set up is straightforward and fairly intiuitive  how it is made.

I hope you can find another picture to clarify what you need. BTW, nice wagon. Is that also called a Gypsy wagon?

But what about the thumb??

I thought the old boy was pretty good but then I noticed his thumb was not on top. No way he will last at this trade!

Can it clean fish?

I would still like an answer to what is the technique Brian uses to move metal as efficiently as he doe. On page 3 I posted"

The key seemed to be that a small section of the iron is pinched on anvils edge to get efficient movement of metal versus full flat hammer blows on the anvil flat face. I guess the rounding hammer is also key because it concentrates the force in a smaller area than traditional flat hammer.

Do I have it right?

Is this a correct description of the method?  As for tong reins, it is a free country.