J Anderson R

Looks great Kevin, alot better than my first pattern weld. Careful though, its addicting

nice looking knife, got a nice temper line too, great job. Great work on your handle laminating

Be glad it wasnt red hot metal, youd be begging for a bee sting

About 1.5 hours two draw out the steel ( all by hand and 5 lb hammer ), another hour to forge the blade, an hour of grinding, and 6 days of heat treatment with overnight freezes between. Thats not counting the guard, pommel, and handle. Im no professianal so Im not as quick as some.

Thanks, 6 quenches was alot, but I had heard of people doing as many as 4 quenches and I just wanted to see what happened. So far I havent seen any vast improvement over my triple quenched blade, but it didnt hurt anything either. I followed Eds method of forging and doubled his heat treatments for my experiment. No coincidence it looks "Fowler-esk", I realy like his style. I should also mention I did do a temper cycle after the third quench to relieve the stresses a little befor I went on. With this knife Im going to focus on the cutting and edge durability, then Im going to do another one for destruct tests because this one is getting a new home, people didnt like they idea of me destroying her, even in the name of science

I started using 9 oz shoulder leather for sheaths and it works pretty well. Thick enough to be rugged and still thin enough to add an overlay and not make it look chubby

Thats a great first knife, make sure you use the heck out of it, you'll learn alot.

I actualy decided I like it the way it is, you cant realy see from the pic but the leather spacer is shaped (on the bottom side) to give a comfortable transition between the bone and guard so no extra shaping is realy neccesary. I always want to change a blade after Im done with it, but I never do, I'll just forge a new one. Its what keeps me going lol

Thanks guys, the guard looks a bit bulky, so Im going to try to grind a finger relief into it to add some curve and take some of the bulkyness away. It should make the knife flow better from front to back

Looks great Mike

Heres a new hunter Ive been working on, finaly finished. Blade was stretched from 1" John Deere L&D shaft (5160) and given several flash normalizing cycles during forging and 3 full normalizing cycles after befor annealing. The guard and pommel are some beautiful antique wrought iron from an 1800's wagon wheel rim, and the handle is dyed elk antler and stacked leather. Shes a hand full, but has a great grip and palm swell. I did an experiment, forged thick, and edge quenched this blade 6 times with freeze cycles between hardenings. I didnt take pictures but the visual transformation of the steel between the first and last quench was amazing. After the 3rd quench she had the grainy "wootzy" pattern we all know and love, but by the 6th quench, freeze and end tempering the steel looked incredible, barely any visible grain but almost a crystaline appearance. Im goin to do some testing and see if it helped the performance. Il repolish and etch later and see if I cant get some good pics of the temper lines. Shes razor sharp and ready for work. Glad to hear what you think! OAL 11.25" Blade-6" Satin finished for now

I never new I needed one until now, but that little bugger would have saved me alot of headaches, I must find one!

That is cool! Wheres the motor:confused:?

Thanks for the tip, Il be sure to contact him.

Un fortunately he was VERY hard of hearing and most of the talking was done with his son, but he did pipe up and said " Ive drawn out ALOT of ties with this " and I believe him. Im sending him pictures when its up and runnin again

A very nice fellow. He ran a blacksmith shop in the 30s and 40s and this, as well as its big brother, were the main workhorses of the shop. I think he was just glad to see it going to someone that would give it new life. I dont mean to boast about the price paid, but it sure is nice when the fates through you a bone!:D

On the inside of the anvil it has a stamp that says " NO 185 ", other then that they only markings are the companys mark= Mayer Bros Mankato Minn. Its kind of funny, Mankato is only 40 miles from my house and Ive never seen one of these before.

I think I posted in the wrong spot, if a moderator would be so kind as to move this tread over to power hammers, Id realy appriciate it

Hey everybody. Just wanted to show some pics of my latest project. An old blacksmith called me and sold me this very early Mayer Bros. Trip hammer for $125!! I need to ad a motor, belts and take the clutch apart to get the rust out but everything turns freely ( except the clutch seems to be stuck:confused:). If anybody sees anything thats missing (other than the motor) please let me know. Thanks for looking, Ive never seen one like this and any advice or general info on the machine would be appriciated. Cant wait to get her runnin:D

thats definately got the skinner swoop, your coming along nicely.

Outstanding Robert! Great carving and a beautiful blade as well

Ive found with some cable damascus that the hardened portion of the blade has very little contrast and the unhardened parts pattern looks sharp and crisp. Ive never tried chain damascus but it might be the same scenerio

Ive personally found that a metal stand is much better, a wooden stand will absorb the energy of the hammer blow, a metal stand keeps the energy in the work. Heres what my current stand looks like, its just thick angle iron with a 3/4" plate of A572 steel on top under the anvil.

regular wood ash works well if its preheated I find, if not, go down to your local greenhouse and see if you can get some Vermiculite, stuff works awesome

It would be well worth the time and money to invest in some bladesmithing books, Wayne Godderds " $50 Dollar Knife Shop" will take you step by step through forging a coil spring into a finished blade, and you can usualy pick up the book for around 10 dollars through Amazon.com. Its good info and worth the read