capnroo

Wanderer -no handle. He says that he just held it very carefully lol. Dodge -if he can remember to bring it to work tomorrow, I'll take another pic or 2. Sorry that I didn't take more.

No pics, but I saw a guy hauling a boat down the road that had a tree growing through it... about 3"diameter tree! Lol. I was thinking ... what the world ...

FROSTY! LMAO! THANKS FOR THE WORRY LOL! the leather glove was me checking the sharpness lol. The brush handle came about to its current predicament from me using a (very dull) hatchet to make it short enough to rake ashes from my forge lol. Steve, the last 2 pics are the knife/dagger as sold. My future work will have a lot more time into it. Look closely lol. Jmc - my anvil is still the one I made in the anvil section post about homemade anvils. It's flat, so it's definitely good for knives lol. I'll post some forge pics tomorrow if I can for you, but I'll go ahead and say I'm using a homemade coal forge and it took AWHILE to get the whole thing to critical temp... either a design change to my existing forge, or a gas forge is in order. The cutting edge ended up being about 10 inches and my hot spot is only bout 6inch diameter ... where in Alabama are you from??? And ha -I got an order for a bushcraft style blade at the same "finish requirements " as this one, cause the guy that bought it went home, skinned a hog his neighbor killed with it, and it was still arm shaving sharp! Maybe I got lucky with my edge grind???

I made it from a worn out bastard file. its not pretty and doesnt have a handle, but it's pretty dang sharp! annealed the file in sand, forged the point into it, rough ground it with 80grit belt sander, then moved to a worn out 400grit belt. got it to critical temp and quenched in oil. used a handheld propane torch to temper the middle to a straw color, then back to the 400grit belt for final grind (was working with limited time, so i left the filemarks on it). Sold for $15 as is with no handle to a guy at work when i showed him how easy it cut through the glove lol. had fun making it and learned alot! comments always welcome

I have never liked gut hooks myself. I prefer my great grampas old timer sheath knife that was handed down to me. Keep it sharp and I barely have to use any force to skin with. I even use it to pop the joints out quickly and neatly. Other people using bonesaws and guthook knives are amazed when I'm done skinning before them. Thanks, big pawpaw. :)

I'm in the u.s. too. But this is like triangular with rounded 'angles ', and pretty meaty. I got a section to near-white hot, high yellow, and beat it with a 3lb hammer for bout 30 minutes. It really didn't want to move, even after bout 5-6 heats... I'll come back to it another day. The particular tractor it was off of was an 80's tw-25 Ford. It's a beast.

Thanks

My Grampa is getting out of the hospital today (hopefully), so last night I decided to make a 'knife' for him. Made it from a chisel I used for years, hammered to shape and edge done with belt sander. 80grit first, then wore out 200grit belt. quenched in a mixture of 1/4 marvel mystery oil, and 3/4 WD-40. its all i had besides water lol. anyhow, enjoy. comments welcome!

Check with harbor freight, or MSC(I think that's right). They should be fairly inexpensive. Or maybe MC mastercarr?

Awesome. Thanks for the input, Charles. Might even make a hotcut out of it too. :)

Just looked up 1045. Says its .43-.5% carbon and hardenable. Decent for making punches?

So that's a mid carbon rating? I'm new to steel ratings ...

I was Just kidding . Books are good, but it's really nice to have someone show the proper way and practice from there. Beers are good afterwards, though. :)

Beer always helps... about 3 beers after you've been pounding for awhile, and you'll have a DUH! IDEA, and go right back to it. :-)

This is a newer style. Probably really malleable. Didn't get a chance to work on the forge this weekend, but Im gonna play with the material and see...