CrookedPath

Ouch.  I feel your pain, brother.

Thanks all.  The folks on this board, and FABA have been great resources.  Steve:  The black spacers are from vulcanized fiber from a popular knifemaking site.

All that handle needs is a black wash.  You just thin some waterbased paint, and brush it lightly over the work.  It will gather more in the recesses and give a nice contrast.  This little space dude has been blackwashed.  Before the process he looked alot like your knife handle.  Knife looks great by the way.  I wouldnt be surprised if that is the forst 3D printed knife handle ever.

     I've been reading these boards and asking questions for a few months now, and I finally decided it was time to post some pics of my work.  This blade is inspired by the brokeback seax.  The runes are my own slightly educated guess at spelling Longtooth.  They are from the Anglo-Saxon Rune Alphabet, as apposed to the more traditional Elder Futhark.

     Overall Length 14 1/2 in.  Blade Length 9 1/2in.  Starts at 3/16 in thick and tapers until it's pointy.

      The blade itself was forged from 1095 tool steel, normalized, then heated to non-magnetic and quenched in canola.  Two 2hr cycles at about 415F (enough to get it to a dark straw color), and then the spine was tempered to a purple/blue 3 times using a butane torch.  The handles I've been told are maple,  they were given to me by a friend of a friend, and he couldnt really remember what it was.  It's good and hard, and I like the look of it, so that is good enough for me.  I filed the blade bright before H/T and then left the forge marks on the finished product.  I hand sanded the blade lightly with 400 grit paper to give it just a little shine.  I am very proud of it, and feel it is the first blade I have done that is worth showing off a little.  Comments and questions welcome, I'd like to know what you all think.

I thought so, thanks for the confirmartion.

I havent seen the thing in person.  The guy wants $440 for a 220lb.  I've never heard of a Buffalo, but what do I know.  It looks alot like an ASO I bought with made in china on the side.

Another tip i haven't seen mentioned here, is to make sure you brush off the scale before you begin hammering.  All those little black flakes that appear on the blade right after you take it out of the fire is called scale.  If they get between your anvil and your work they will leave an impression.  Some scale is unavoidable, especially in a coal forge, but you can reduce it by wire brushing both sides of the work right after you take it out of the fire.  The quest for less hammer marks on my blades is one I am currently on, too.  You will get there, just dont give up.

I'm curious as to the temper of the fillet.  Tell me how you went about it.  It's my understanding that you want a little more flexibility in the blade.  They look great, love the antler, and overall shape.

That is a good manual Jacob, thanks.  @Swedefiddle, What's the purpose of the chalk?

Great advice! I did not at all buy a "file card". None of the videos I watched mentioned it.  I could feel it skate a few times, and I thought I wasn't applying enough pressure for the teeth to cut.  I bet this is my problem. Guess I'll be making another trip to the hardware store.

For the last year I have been using a 1x30 belt sander in order to get the forge marks off my knives, but I have not found it to be a very good use of the little bugger.  I have noticed that most folks seem to use hand files, so I went down to the Department store, and got myself some files.  The 10 inch Double Cut does okay, but it's the 12 inch single bastard that seems to work the best.  Except every so often some kind of depris gets caught in the file teeth and causes me to put a big scratch into the work.  I'll be watching some "How-To" videos later to look for clues, but has anyone here had that problem?  Am I using the wrong kind of files?  Mine are Nicholson(which I thought to be a good brand) one's a 12 inch Bastard Mill, the other a 10 inch double cut.  Thanks.

Reminds me of a Langseax, but that may just be because I am working on one now.  Looks good.

There we go, figured out the picture thing.

@Thomas      I quench in Preheated Canola.  I try to get the edge to a non magentic state, while keeping the spine from getting too hot.  I always test the edge with a file to make sure it's hardened.  Grain at the break seems pretty fine.  I'll try to post a picture of the grain if I can firgure out how.  I dont have any thermometers for measuring exact temps.  I try to do without such things if I can, but I am not at all above being convinced I need to start using one.

Sounds like I need to start using an oven for the edge temp hardness, and then switch to the torch to further soften up the spine.  Will bringing the spine up to Blue/Purple 3 times be enough? 

I am not ready to change blade steels yet, I've been working with the 1095 for about a year now, and have made maybe 20 blades.  Will 1065 really hold enough of an edge to go through the 2x4 and still shave with?  I admit I dont know much about the qualities of other steels.

       First time posting here.  This is a great site and good resource.  I had some questions about differential tempering.  I see alot of people on this site talking about heating their steel in an oven at certain temps (dependant on what kind of steel it is) in order to temper them.  Twice at 2 hours at a time at whatever temp is appropriate for their steel, seems to be standard.  This should make the entire blade one temp. and thus not be differential tempered. 

       At home Ive been tempering with a butane torch, running the colors from the spine to the edge.  I'll do this twice, generally, and so far the results have been good.  My edge retention is passable, I've been able to chop through a 2x4 and still shave some hairs off my arm, but I haven't been able to bend a knife more than about 30 degrees in my post vice, without it snapping.  I try to get the edge to be medium/dark straw, with the spine as blue as I can.  All this is with 1095 i've been getting from Jantz.

     How can I do this better?  When other people use the oven temper method, is there another step I am missing that they will do in order to achieve a differential temper?  Is a differential temper really all that important or am I waisting my time?  Thanks in advance.