outsider

I personally wouldn't trust my wife next to me with a sledge hammer in her hand :)

went back out to the shop and now what lettering is still legible sure does say Green, thx for the help on this folks! Any more info on this "Green" anvil like dates ect, i'll research it as well but it's easy to ask here since most research on the net usually takes me here anyway....lol

yes i agree that sure does seem to be the same anvil, even the same rust color.... Oh and in MUCH better shape as well!

thx NJ for the help, yeah it's had a rough life indeed but thats ok, i have a nice anvil but i'll work this one out to something useful, the face has like 1/32 say in it if that and the ring is sweet music to mine ears. I have plans for this baby and with a lil help from some friends it should turn out to be something useful, i'll post pix when i git 'er done!

hey ya'll i got this anvil today and wire brushed it up to see who the maker was but not much luck, this baby is in rough shape and weighs in at 87# w/out the heel thats broken off but it's got a great ring to it and the face is in great shape....ok well the face thats not broken off that is. on one side on the anvil there is a "0" on the horn side and an "8" on the heel side, on the other side are some letters but i cannot figure them out. So any ideas, i ran a google search but no luck so far so i figure i'll drop it in ya'll laps and see what ya'll come up with on this, so thx for your help in advance.

nope i got your number in my cell and i'll give you a ring on like Tue. early eve. since you'll be around on wed. it would seem. I can come meet up with you and pick them up or your more than welcome to swing by and check out my meager shop here...LOL either way i'll catch up with you and i appreciate the spikes, i'm about out here. well catch ya later, i gotta get ready for church here.

i guess i answered your thoughts on this in the post to DarkSaber in the last post about it being a vision of function rather than beauty, though a few people that have seen it in person really liked it, so guess it's a vision call there or just purely function and that is the knife i want if i ever skin up any more pig's/hogs

thx for the comments and missed you at the guild meeting last sat., they are not sure about the next meeting date since there is an event planned that date by the city and the next weekend is Thanksgiving so as i hear i'll forward the info to you as well. Anyway the second is more a skinner, i used to be a pig farmer...lol and i wanted that style for skinning from my own experiences but not every knife will be beautiful or even appealing to all but that is more a function knife and still needs to be polished. and heck yeah i could really use some more spikes if you have to spare, whens a good time to ring you so i can meet up with you and pick up a few spikes, would be a big help for me...thx dude Hope to catch you at the next meeting!

WOW...pretty big pix, huh? Well i'm inclined to think that these will have to be adjusted somehow, so sorry if they are excessive but but i dunno what else to do at this point, so adjust if you need, i wond be offended...ok well not to much at least....LOL

ok here's the knives finally, had to do it a different way but here they are all the same till they can get the unfortunate issues here worked out, so while they figure that out here's what i figured out....ok well somebody else did really but what the heck..... So lets see how this goes.....

ahhhh man that makes me sad, one of my first Blacksmith projects was a Viking style flint striker that i saw in one of his posts and he even posted more for my use..well every bodies but to help me out all the same, i hope he knew my appreciation for his help and his inspiration. It is a shame to loose a good and helpful man and my sympathies go out to those he left behind. Mike i hope you made heaven an hour before the devil knew you were gone!

yeah it's a heck of a line, i read that book as a boy and it struck me hard and through my life i have strived to be as versatile as possible in life, though that may well be ADD/ADHD...lol, now days i am working on this Blacksmithing thing here and i have fallen in romantic love with this craft! There was a time when men "HAD" to know so many things just to live a day in life but we have gotten soft and complacent with the world at our fingertips, Blacksmithing is a refreshing change back to reality, almost a spiritual awakening to me and it draws on the vast array of other skills i have developed over these many years. It's good to see another who feels as strongly of that quote!

hey nice knife and good vid too, i liked the music allot! check these guys out they really bring the house down where ever they play, i think you might like them and keep on banging the iron! YouTube - Big Band Voodo Daddy - You & Me & The Bottle Makes 3 Tonight

OK here we go again, with any luck they will post today and if not i'll keep trying, i'm stubborn like that... well no luck again my friends, i'll try again tomorrow

haahaa....ahhh yeah i'll give you a ring on that on that today

well lets try this agian, seems the pic didnt post so i'll try it here

Well here are my first three RR spike knives, i have only tried to harden the Bowie style one and i did it in water and it twisted......i didnt normalize it first so into the fire it goes for 3x normalization then i'll try warm water and see how that goes and if that does not work then it's off to veggie oil. Now they are said to be high carbon but hot high enough for a good knife blade, so i assume that water will do the best job....done right that is...lol So anyway here's the pic of them, one is polished but not fully, the next is a lil polished and the third is now being normalized so no polish yet. I really lucked out here because all three turned out just the way i wanted on the forge and needed very little belt sander work, that made me very happy, i like being able to get it really close with hammer and anvil rather that hours on the grinder and belt sander. So now to figure the hardening out and i can work on making so cool knives but this is a learning exercise for me since i am still quiet the beginner blacksmith. So any comments, suggestions or constructive criticisms are welcome as always!

Wow very nice dude, great job!

great job on the hawk, i like the tacks and the burn finish looks great, i'll have to look into getting the tacks for my next hawk, it really accents the piece.

OK so i have a question about this and it's so basic it prolly dose not even belong here but i have read this whole topic and the work is amazing so i have to ask. so now i'm a beginner at this with like a cpl weeks of actually doing any kind of blacksmithing work and i see the touching "C" scroll jigs but what i do not think i understand is how the jig works, do you heat and bend as you feed into the center of the jig or is there some other way, i'm sure ya'll are shaking your heads at this but i ask to learn since i have not had any training at this work so far but i am working on that but not till Jan. thx

ok here it is finished and ready to send to the customer, i have thrown this baby a few dozen times...for QA of course.......and even with the spike she does really well especially since i have never thrown a tomahawk before, this has made me look good! it's got a decent edge but i dont expect miracles but for what it's for it' just fine and the customer is really happy, almost brings a tear to my eye!

cool deal but be very careful about anything on the RR trax they are real tight about that stuff and they have a habit of prosecuting for even taking loose RR spikes, theres even a thread on the topic here, so be careful it's not worth the trouble, things have become repressive n this country with so many laws you cant get through the day with out breaking at least a few and the RR companies are taing full advantage of those laws! so when your done post the pix of it , would love to see the finished product!

cool deal Mike, thx for posting more styles, this is great practice for for somebody as new to thins as myself and has good skills to refine, the first one was just a goof to start but it started to turn out that i figured what the heck and did the other side to completion, the only reason i didnt spend more time getting it to the point i wanted was because the wife made friend chicken and thats something of an event in my house, one that i will drop anything for....lol i'll post more of these as i get to them so that others that are starting can see that even a beginner as myself can do this kinda work and what a great learning tool this is. thx again Mike for posting this thread, it has been a great learning experience as well as a great confidence builder.

ok then, looks like you and i are neck and neck here on our set-up's! i'm still using the charcoal fueled kitty litter forge but i did get an old propane tank and will make that into a gas forge and have an old stainless steel dbl sink for a charcoal forge but due to space ect i'll get the gas first since it just makes more sense for me in my situation as for hammers i just got a cross peen today and dressed it and threw some fresh grill paint on it so tomorrow it goes to work looking all kinds a purty! i had a small cross peen and a 4lbs maul till today and got work done with it though i didnt loose my "head" with any of them...haahaahaa so check out my tomahawk, it's made from a rail road spike and just needs a lil more touch up to be finished so the guy it's for can come pick it up. what is yours made from, looks like a big bolt? Well dude i hope your luck changes and it will and keep on posting what you make, it's cool to see others in the early stages (beginning) of this and what they are putting out. catch ya later.

nice knife and i like the color, very tactical look to it. my question is where did you get the shark skin from, that is great material for knives and such since it grips well even with sweaty hands, this was used allot in Florida where we had an abundance of sharks, they taste really goo to as steaks on the grill with shrimp.....but thats another story for a different forum........:D