norrin_radd

They have brought back one of my all time favorite shows!

http://abc.go.com/shows/battlebots

Now if we can just get them to bring back Junkyard Wars!

I'd like to participate, but I dont think I could do ya'll justice and be that committed. Nothing worse than a no show, especially if he's supposed to bring the pizza. I hope that ya'll do have it available to non players to follow, I have a feeling it will be epic.

Great thread! I will have to keep this link ready to paste when ever I see someone using just an old mundane slab of track. I have been tripping over a piece of track just about this size in my shop for a couple of weeks planning to make a post anvil, this is definitely some great inspiration. Looks really handy.

That is a beautiful bellows. This one of the many things on my list to make. Got plans to start with a smaller one. Do you know when that series will start? You'll have to let us know when it will be on air.

Role playing games, Dungeons & Dragons etc....

​My first response to "RPG" was also an image of one of the original "Wolverines" taking out the Cuban invaders with a repurposed RPG. That was probably my first introduction to them and it still pops up in my mind. Coincidentally is also about the same time that I started playing the RPG's that you were talking about, that should qualify as old school.

But no coffee stained rule books in my case. For me it was flashlights and an overcrowded tent out in the woods late at night, I started playing when I was in the scouts about 30yrs ago. Usually started out at a table under a tarp. Then would migrate to a tent after lights out. No less than six kids crammed into a 2 man cabin style tent, that would actually cave in if someone tripped over a guy line. After a day of camp activities in the summer heat, it was usually quite odiferous. Only one or two of us were actually half way serious about D&D and most of the time was spent "creating" characters for people that wanted to play. I use the term "creating" loosely, all my characters were awesome, I've never been that luck rolling dice.  Never did any blacksmithing/bladesmithing though, wanted to but just didn't happen, as close as we got was making "swords" out of sticks or switches and beating the crap out of each other. Good times.

Still got my trapper keeper full of my characters and the Basic and Expert rule books and a module or two, and my old pouch with most of my dice.

Flash forward 30 yrs  and my kid basically plays the same kind of games, minus the dice and books, and wants to make swords and armor. So here I am finally. Thanks internet.

This is part 2 the grinding. Not much to it, not near as cool as the forging, but I just wanted to show my whole process.

 IMHO grinding knives is a lot like baseball. Pretty fun when you're out there doing it, but a real snoozer when you're watching someone else do it on tv. No offense to any baseball fans, or knife makers.

Nice score and good job on the restoration.

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I got the idea to do the pineapple twists from Gary Huston's video a while ago. He has alot of good videos.. I tried using the 4" chisel but didn't like it as much as using a handled hot cut. I may have to work on the cutting edge or something..

In my post about that "Salvaged Grilling Fork" I put a link to the vid I did of it and the first 3 1/2 minutes of it is pretty much a close up me attempting a pineaplle twist at about 3x speed. It didn't come out perfect but its better than my last one.

Good job on being involved with your son. Clay is also a good learning tool especially for kids. It works similar to hot steel, better when its cold. Brian Brazeal had some youtube vids on working with clay for practice. Have fun with it.

I did think it was an interesting video once they got into his shop. I only watched it once and the knife making was a little over my head, but I liked the old world feel of the work. And that grinding wheel was pretty cool.

Been watching a lot Grimm lately so I half expected him to "volge" into something

Really good for a first knife, set the bar pretty high off the bat. I like the way you shaped the butt end of it too, would be a cool looking makers mark, kinda tribal-ish.

Hey thanks! Never heard it called that but I like it. Yeah, over the years there has been quite an accumulation of rusty things around here. Makes all my mistakes a little less painful on the pocket book

Last year I made this throwing knife from a hay mower blade.

I did a quick slideshow/video on it. It throws good enough for me.

Had someone ask if I was going to do a vid on how I forged it. So I decided to try to make another one. Also got me to thinking about the couple of other knives that I have made out of these mower blades( karambit, viking/blacksmith ) I intend to try videos of those too, just for grins. 

So if you have 21 minutes to kill watching a newb hammer hot steel, I got ya covered. 

Thanks for the comments guys. I actually have one or two spikes currently, and those already have spoken for projects. I think I have a line on somebody that has some locally though, I just got to get off my tail and get them. Going to see if he might trade for some mower blades.

On a semi related note I just found out that the local ACE hardware is closing its doors this week and everything is 1/2 off. Sad in a way,but by the time I found out it had almost been picked clean. But there was still alot of the various mild steel tidbits left in there bin so I might hit that up for some stuff to have around. At least some more 1/4 round for fork tines!

That fork makes me think of that big slab of ribs that used to roll the Flintstones.

Thanks Jim! 

Might be awhile for the hole grilling set. I need more spikes.

Thanks man. Yeah, I thought the handle was a little short for normal forks, so I made up for it I with longer meaner looking ones.

I was making a flux spoon out of a rr spike. I broke the bowl off trying to shape it. I think I went about the whole process backwards. Anyway thats for another post. I was left with a pretty cool handle so I made a grilling fork out of it for a buddy of mine. Came out pretty cool, now his father in law wants one.

Those are gorgeous. I made the mistake of showing this to my wife, now she wants me to maker her some.

 I'll have to find some that's not so rusty. I know the basic loop is the most secure. I was just wanting something for like a small boot knife type sheath, or something you could grab quick and just tuck in/on your waist band. On one sheath I made I harvested a clip from an old cheap shot shell holder, worked ok. But I wanted to see if I could make one to fit. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Do you think 1/8" is too thin or thick?

thanks for the advice.

Hey, I want to try to make a belt clip to incorporate in a knife sheath. I know that I need some sort of spring steel. I have an over abundance of used large band saw blades from a portable sawmill. They are about 1 1/2 wide maybe, aggressive teeth. If I cut that into the size strips I wanted could I use that? If so what would be the proper way to heat treat and temper to get the spring tension needed? Or any other suggestions?

Thanks

All good video clips. I really like seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Like was mentioned before my thoughts were do people really use that many shovels? But i guess so. If that was in Russia I bet they have all the ak47 tooling in storage somewhere on site.

update: The nut wouldn't come off but it had about 1/16" of vertical play in it. Didn't affect the use of it at all, once you hit it would seat down nicely. So in my infinite wisdom I tried to "fix" it. And i screwed it up. I got it back to being usable but I want to make another one. Black oxide nuts are ok to forge correct?

I should have just left it alone....

In this video (may be the one Dan P. was referring to) there you can see a striker in the background, is that "wind milling" ?

If push comes to shove  and you have a pritchell hole in your anvil, you could try making a workable hardie cutter with a tire iron. If they are cheap and available where you live, they should be something harder than mild steel. You may even be able to use it in a properly sized hole in work bench or vise for example. I know it may sound lame but I've made 2 and they work ok. Good luck and stick with it.