Jspool

Excellent stuff

Heres my anvil on the roller stand it came on.  Its balanced so that its quite easy to tilt up and roll wherever I want it.

It doesn't seem to have a negative effect on its rebound or noise.

Hey Mike,

Any chance we can see a video of this thing hammering on some steel?

Nice lines. Great steel. The relatively small blades of folders requires damascus patterns that are, well, smaller.  This is a great example of that.

Pretty cool kiddo. You really have no concept of what you can't do!

Did you work in a way to create a detent to keep it open?

Dodo,

I too am tooling up to move into maling some folders. I'm leaning toward framelocks.

To have something to aspire to, I picked up a Rick Hinderer  MP-1.  Great fit and finish.

Interestingly enough, it flips open very well and doesn't utilize bearings. Just teflon washers.

Now I'm rethinking whether I really want to use bearings in mine. 

If you are using bearings, are you inserting a ready made race into the liners, or spinning the race in with a drill and extra bearing?

Thats a beautiful blade. Great execution on the fabrication and finish of the handle.  I like your lathe, even if it is hand held!

On 7/5/2017 at 8:57 AM, John in Oly, WA said:

I always tried to do everything right the first time. Took me a lot of years to realize that the only way to learn is to make mistakes. Now I look at mistakes as a positive opportunity.

I must be learning like crazy!

Really nice work.  Thanks for posting the second set of pics.

I'm real interested on seeing how this plays out. I can't imagine that so fine a wire wouldn't get burnt beyond usability during the welding process.  The guitar strings that are steel are so fine that they make the individual strand of 1" 6x19 cable look fat.  I would suggest winding them real tight once they are just red hot, prior to bringing them to welding temp.

Great daggers JPH! Love the handles. Love the damascus. Love the grinds. Love the sheaths!

Thats a very attractive knive.  Great job.

Beautiful work Daniel

Little Manmays,

That's a nice looking spike knife you made there.  Spikes are great for practice, and provide a good platform for developing shapes and design as you have a common, limited, chunk of steel each time you begin.  I stopped making anything out of rr spikes when I finally made something I really liked, but it wouldn't hold an edge.  Think about using some old car spring (52100) or another high carbon steel next time, and ask your brother to teach you how to properly heat treat it.  The root of any knife is its edge, and it's ability to hold it, next is toughness and the ability to hold up under the task it's designed for, and last (but not least) is its ergonomics and lines.  As HoJ said don't sweat the the mistakes. Knife making is a process of recovery!

Looks very nice. Clean lines, great finish, and functional to boot.  It's good that you are wary of the buffer. Keep the blade on the lower quadrant, wear a heavy leather apron, and don't be distracted in the slightest way. Make sure the buffer is not bench mounted and the blade has a clear path to the floor in the event it gets thrown. You don't want it bouncing off of your workbench!

You can also get a curved plunge line with a flat grind on the platen by lifting the handle end when you draw the blade across for the grind.

Unfortunately this takes consistant talent to pull it off well which is why it has eluded me.

Here you go

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qTdubvo2ZMg

Well. Thats not a hawk that I would ever get tired of looking at.  Sure would like to feel its heft and balance. Looks absolutely awesome!

Nice job overall.  The blade sweeps smoothly, and the damascus is well done. I couldn't spot the inclusions that you mentioned on my computer.

A couple of suggestions I would make that wouldn't require much for you to consider incorporating on your next blade are:

1) Don't bring your ricasso all the way down to the edge.  Let there be a step there so there is room for the blade to be ground down over the years as it gets sharpened.

2) Don't skimp on the time you spend on the guard and install it before it is finished.  Look at the guard from all angles and make sure it is pleasingly shaped, eliminating all flow elbows, and cleaning up all radiuses prior to calling it done, even if it takes an additional day. Doing so will add a lot to the finished product.

3) Great job on the handle, however as far as I can tell from the pictures, it appears a little high (above the spine) and perhaps if you had brought the ricasso up, the front of the handle could have been brought up just a bit to make it look less fat and more graceful.  I have big paws so I like big handles! I couldn't see clearly what the relationship is between the sides of the handle and the guard (flush or set back) so I won't comment on that.

Keep up the good work.

Great work, and the blade is some nice scrap

WolfJohn,

I love what you have done with the damascus patterning on the Bowie.  Was that compressed on the bias to a square bar, cut into four sections,   stacked two  high and two wide, drawn to a bar and ladder grooves applied?  Great pattern. I will miss seeing more examples of your work.  They always gave me something to aspire to.

Jonathan

Ditto on being able to weld the stainless. I havent been successful at that yet. Nice looking blade.

Ha! I understand completely.  I have yet to complete a blade that wasn't in some way a process of recovery!

The bowie certainly captures the rustic frontier look. I like it, although I would recommend bringing the clip a bit further back.

Nice work!

On July 15, 2016 at 10:02 AM, John in Oly, WA said:

The sheath looks pretty darn good to me.

Oh boy!  Add one more big thing to learn in this endeavor I've started myself on. But hey! There has to be some more cool tools to acquire or make in the process, huh?!

Let's see:
arc welding, hydraulics, die making and forge press operation, refractory and forge building, gas burners, metallurgy, heat treating, tempering, annealing, hammering and metal shaping techniques, forge welding, and leatherworking. Check.

I must be missing something or 12 in this list.

engraving scrollwork, woodworking, machining

59 minutes ago, Redneck carp's-tongue said:

Wow! That is one of the most beautiful blades I have seen on this site.

I wonder, what wood is the handle made of?

The handle isn't wood. It is Sambar stag from India