mrnewberry

That's one cool sword!

Sweet stand!

Looks far better than most firsts!

Thanks Gene!

I got a new picture from Chuck Ward and some Leather for the blade so I figured you guys might want to check it out. And here is with the sheath that Butch Hagedorn made for it:

I did not know he was a skilled wood cutter as well.

Looks like you have it well planned out!

That was a great series of pictures! Looks like fun!

Thanks! If you want to know a bit more about the inlaying process here is an article from the man I learned from, Joe Keeslar: Part one http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlaypartone/ Part two http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlayparttwo/

I just finished this one up last week. It has a blade of 5160 and a curly maple handle with silver wire inlays of eight point stars. The fittings are German silver.

Looking good!

I wouldn't mind having a sea robin. Seeing as how I have a stuffed one on the wall in my shop it would probably be appropriate.

When are you in Little Rock? There is a group of Bladesmiths that meet the last Thursday of each month. The Arkansas Custom Knife Show is also in Feb. 12-13. Plus, there is a free museum the Historic Arkansas Museum which has a great knife exhibit. I don't live in Little Rock, but I will be up there for the show (as I have a table) and the Bladesmiths meet up.

I just picked up a new rounding hammer made by Bob Patrick. He is a talented blacksmith and my go to guy for tongs. A nice hammer for one of the cheapest prices I have found for a hammer not made in a factory.

Very nice!

I need to get on some better Christmas lists.

Here is a quick picture of the first of the two knives to be finished. I made it to be competition cutter sized (10'' blade 15'' overall) so that I could practice cutting things. I also gave it a scotch-bright belt finish so I can clean it up quickly after the abuse I plan on giving it.

I just spent a week in Old Washington at the ABS Handles and Guards class. This session was taught by Joe Keeslar who literally wrote the book on Handles and Guards. I would also like to mention that he is an excellent teacher. Before the course I emailed Mr. Keeslar and he said to bring one full tang knife blade and one narrow tang knife blade completely finished except for the handles. The completed part is important unless you want to miss out on valuable learning time finishing blades. He also said to bring any materials that I would like to bring if I had anything specific in mind. Although, they provide materials for the knives. The first thing that we went over in the class was full tang knife construction. The demonstration knife was one of Joe Keeslar's Brute De Forge knives. His methods involve no glue and a lot of peening. I enjoyed doing things a bit differently that I normally do so it was fun. For my full tang knife I made a chopper with a 10'' blade and 15'' overall so I can practice cutting things. It ended up with bolsters (which were covered in the class) and curly maple handles. Next we covered silver wire inlay. Which I of course wanted to learn so I decided to put some on my chopper. I went with the demonstration pattern Joe used as it gave me the chance to use pins and have lines crossing over each other etc. After covering the finishing of a maple handle we moved on to the narrow tangs. Mr. Keeslar favors soldered guards so that is how we did it. I would suspect that if you took the class from someone who presses their guards that would be what you would learn. Here is Joe Keeslar soldering a guard: Other topics that were covered included: Pin usage in keeping spacers lined up with handles, laying out a leather sheath, butt cap construction, and by popular request the forging of a Brute De Forge knife: By the way, the man swings a BIG hammer! Overall I really enjoyed the course. You really had to move to try and get close to finishing two knives in the five days. But, a lot of learning was done. I didn't get any pictures of the second knife which is about 3/4 of the way finished. And, I still need to make some pictures of the nearly complete chopper now that it has wire inlay and has been stained.

Pretty much if your name is Tom and you live in N.W.A. you are required to make knives.

Depending on what you heard about the Tom it may also have been Tom Upton. Tom Upton lives in Rogers and is the former President of B.O.A. and he also makes knives. Then we also have Tom Krien who makes knives out in Gentry. He is a very talented stock removal knife maker.

I am in Lowell out by Beaver Lake.

Maringer is making some knives now, but he primarily does stock removal. And he is really doing more coining and button making these days. I recently took advantage of the ABS school and I will be going back for their handles and guards class in a little over a week. For blacksmithing I would suggest joining up with B.O.A. (Blacksmiths Organization of Arkansas) they have monthly meetings around the area.

Good to see another N.W. Arkansan.

That's a big one!