templehound

Thanks SlimW, much appreciated!.....take smaller steps in grit size while sanding, saves a lot of time

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the nice comments!

Some orders are challenging, especially when they contain design elements I never really preferred. Like the birds head handle shape that is found on knives and swords over the centuries. But a nice customer ordered a nostalgic German boy scouts knife....in German it is called a "Fahrtenmesser" ....google translates that kind of knife as "wind speed indicator"....you can't expect much from Google translate. But anyway I grew into the topic and with every working step it became much clearer how the resulting knife should look like....at the end I touched down between German Wandervogel Youth movement from 1896 and the Mexican revolution 1910....let's call it vintage-military. I tried to keep it plain and sinister by using only steel and wood and antique patina. Blade is ground from 80CrV2 and I would not say that steel is superior in edge retension and sharpness but it is tough as nails easy to sharpen and very forgiving. The short bolsters and rivets are made of construction steel and ordinary steel nails and handle slabs are Indian almond wood. The lowered riveting was delicate to do by not denting the wood and keeping them all centered and in size equal. The sheath is made out of very hard and dry water buffalo leather which supports the performance and vintage appearance. Cheers

Good day, I've learned one thing: If it gets emotional on my side wait with the comment, post it the next day, sleeping one night over it....which can be in fact extremely difficult to manage. After cooling off 90% of my steamed opinions changed over night . The next day I was really glad I didn't post it.....and I know, controlling temper is sometimes a real challenge.....even for an old dog who is supposed and expected to speak and act wisely.....in my 60 years live experience I met not that many old wise people. Fair enough I should say, that includes me.....I still have my temper but I've learned to react differently. Do not use strong language because people will listen more openly if you don't and you will be more respected, in the end it makes you much stronger and much more convincing. ....by the way I've learned and really understood this just in Thailand, ...the Thais taught me very well. Cursing and/or insulting can here be quite dangerous. People can hate your guts and still smiling at you. Stay humble and safe. I would like getting away from the emotions and get back on the knife, if you don't mind. I really like the grind of your edge that looks sharp and nicely even.The sculpturing of the handle shows also nicely off. what I dare to criticize is your tang....compared to the width of the blade the tang is much too small ! and the fit in the handle looks a bit unfortunate..... the tang is not completely sunk into the handle...what happened?..did you use fast bonding epoxy and got short on time? but all in a nutshell your on a good crossroad to make cool knives! Cheers

Thank You very much for the fine comments, Gentlemen! That I'll better do not out of different reasons....Thanks, Goods! Thanks, Anvil! ....handles very well, kind of ergonomic, Thank You 1forgeur! Unfortunately not...aside from that skull bones tend to be rather too brittle. Thank you JHCC! Of course that would be a option, but I do not like the outcoming results.Looking to epoxy with or with out coloring the epoxy. But there are no good dog treats in Thailand, just some processed plastik meat stuff.So I always give this to my dogs, they love it! Thank You Nogoodwithusernames! I do not polish natural handle materials of different reasons. I just sand it to grit 800-100 and then oil it. Polishing swallows all the colors because of the light reflection.Polished will look deeper but by touching looking not so good anymore. If you only sand and oil it it has much more saturation in the colores and do not look worse by touching. I made an example with a piece of Buffalo horn, I hope it will show what I mean. Left side polished right side only sanded. Thanks Frosty! THanks gewoon! Thank you, Les L

JHCC, my pleasure, Sir! Thanks, Davor! Thank You, Hefty!

Inspired by a comment of Frosty I took the opportunity to post a thread about a knife made of materials from the local environment. A while ago I had to make a plain fixed blade with black textured horn handle slabs. Normally that is a kind of handle material I do not think of certain knives because of the lack of suitable material. Of course there are tons of waterbuffalo horns in Thailand but it is not available on every corner and if it is for sale every knife turns out different because of the strong individuality of the horn material. So different that you had to adapt and to accept the individuality of the resulting knife. But I got lucky and there is one local hardware store on our island that offered several buffalo skulls for sale. The same store sells lawnmover blades and after some research I learned that the blades are most likely produced from SK5. Some spark pictures support the assumption of SK5 aka W108. A simple tool steel that most of us are very familiar with. Thailand has its own steel production so i guess that the blades are not Japanese or Chinese imports. Even after annealing and rehardening they stood perfectly straight, took about 60 HRC's and measuring 2 mm in thickness which is just enough for a small fixed blade....actually I bought two blades, one was longer from a different brand it measured 2,5 mm in width, which is very rare because those blades normally not thicker than 2,0 mm so I bought it too.It was completely covered in rust and the shop owner was slightly confused that I bought it, and he kindly lowered the price. Each blade cost about 9 dollars, 16 inch long and 3,5 inches wide will result in four small fixed blades.The buffalo skull cost about 70 dollars which is comparatively expensive, but I will get out about 4-5 knives of it which makes it acceptable. And of course the hardware store sells steel nails...so the three main materials for a small user were just available.Except the buffalo leather for the sheath is from south Bangkok Samut Prakhan area. ....I had to cheat on that. stay safe cheers

From my experience a friction folder will not satisfy the hunger....it falls under the category 'better than no knife". I am recommending a liner lock. Compared to a slip joint and a lock back a liner lock has the he easiest to understand mechanics with the greatest freedom in design. Here is a video that is compared to many others relatively good, I have to admit I didn't watched it completely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOUW1eESpj4 I do not recommend the heat treatment with a torch from different reasons. The second I think that is not the best method is placing wood blocks under the drill press because its unstable and not precise enough. You can see at 14:25 when he drills the holes for the back spacer, the holes are so big the tubes will fall out by themselfes, pretty unprecise and wobbly. even if a linerlock mechanic is simple, it still still depends on a certain precision to ensure a certain stability to ensure the knife is strong and functional. Carpenters tend to do that but metal workers are educated differently. ....and do not use drill bits for pre construction, because they are tapering to the end. Cheers

Here is the basic process: For light material grind a hard pencil super sharp and thin to keep the scribed lines as narrow as possible. Dark material as horn I take a fresh sharpened steel scriber. There are three main bevels, one is on top of the scale and two are on the inside. To speed up the process I take my belt grinder with variable/adjustable speed. I grind with a very low speed and a medium sharp 240 grit belt and grind the three bevels on the rubber covered contact weel.The bevel which is closest to the tang is difficult because it is very flat. This flat bevel is done safely by sanding by hand. Then I connect the bevels by rounding them up with a sandpaper file. You can do the whole process with sandpaper but with a belt grinder it is faster and the alignment of the bevels are more accurate. The amount of the material which is removed is so small that you really have to watch out not screwing it up.... Work slowly and with patience then it will turn out well, that's it. Cheers

Your rebuild Norway ancient knife is absolutely sweet!....maybe I had left the leafs on the sheath away, but in fire of passion I understand why you did it. all the other stuff you posted is really nice as well!

The software cut me off when I still was not finished writing, here is the continuation ......... we have to look at this generously when the rest of the article is written well. ....of course it's worth a laugh JHCC : I started looking the video from A. Bourdain which is quite a well made one. but when he said Bob Kramer " makes the finest chef knives in the world" I started to feel annoyed....means there is no one making equal good knives? there are always guys who talking about"the best in the world" , "the finest of the world" .... how presumptuous! I know a few knifemakers in Germany they are as good as well....difference is, they never had a well written article about them and their work. There is an army outside there who make world class knives, we don't know about them dosen't mean they do not exist, right? I am pretty sure even Bob Kramer would confirm this....but maybe I look at some statements a bit strict and thin-skinned, but anyways JHCC, thanks for adding the link it makes the thread much more rich in content cheers

Yes the bubble thing...that's the problem with journalists and metalurgy....they write down what you tell them and mixing it all up to crinching non sense Even despite the fact Oppenheimer did a good job he never understood what he was writing about, especially when it comes to steel metalurgy. I am convinced Kramer never talked about bubbles and the irregularities are a such a thing as well. What he actually repeated correctly is that modern produced steels are comparable clean.... so when steel is seen as our earth, in iournalism earth is still a disk... we have to see this generous when the rest of the article is written well.

Larry, you are welcome! Glad you liked it!

I am not sure where to post this, but I am sure Glen will find the right place. I am full time for 30 years now and I learned the profession of a traditional German cutler/Bladesmith by trade. (that's nothing particularly great, in Germany there are still lots of traditional cutlers who learned the profession by trade) but under the influence of this learned knowledge I found confirmation of theory and practice. Here is finally a story of a knife maker who did imho everything perfectly right, according to my learned knowledge and practical experience. The aspects of western and traditional japanese cutlery, the differences between the food and the knives that are used for it, the story about sharpening steels, the alignment of the edge (so often overlooked and done wrong) and much more. It is the first time I had nothing to complain about the subject and that means something. I enjoyed reading every line and last but not least because of the exeptional good writing of the story by Todd Oppenheimer. Cheers https://craftsmanship.net/the-kitchen-bladesmith/

The background are in deed Pandan fruits as Hefty(Jono) already pointed out. It is very close to an old fashioned artificial indefinable sweet taste like vintage chewing gum(not spear mint or the like)...even natural it tastes super artificial, I don't like it. But the smell is really fragrant. Finding a good background for the pictures is mostly not easy, especially for very dark knives like this one. Some of the fruits were already in an very overripe state and I found myself between stench and scent. Larry, Simian, 1forgeur, Les L, Frosty, anvil and Jono, Gentlemen thanks a lot for taking the time commenting on the knife, very much appreciated! Jono, I once took pictures of the process to explain a fellow knifemaker how I do this. Give me a little time to find the pictures again then I will post them here....I won't forget Cheers

When I was a kid I loved to hang around in the Natural History Museum, ...I loved this place! Stuffed with the most beautiful horns, teeth and weapons a ten-year-old could wish for. I liked the Africa section best...all the items had this dark, sinister patina....the black forged spears with the bright edges, the rawhide combat shields covered with leopard skin, the Massai swords....and I dreamed of a puukko that would look like it came from Africa...and today I know what a big influence that had on me and my taste. Here you see a hunting knife with forged blade from O7, copper bolsters and steel pinned Thompson's gazelle horn for the handle slabs and the liners of the sheath. Blade length is 110 mm and it measures 230 overall. I wish you guys a nice weekend Cheers

Here are my honest 50cents You try to keep it simple and grind thin edges that's good.Your intensions of making an effort of good heat treating, that is good as well. But the tips of the blades have lots of room for improvement, they are dull, nearly round and the rear pin of the right knife seems out of the middle. Leaf springs can be turned into knife blades but never make a great knife.They do not take a hardness( maybe 56- 58HRC) which requires such a high tempering. My guess after 2 hours tempering in 400 degrees I wonder if they still have a hardness in the lower 50's hrc. that is tempered much to hot and too long. Decent tough knife performance is on most tool steels is at 60 HRC +/-1 ...more wear resistance is with 63hrc. I would recommend you try to work with old files or blow shares rather than springs with that high ammount of Si... Si reduces impact toughness, wear resistance and forgeability and such a high amount has no benefits for knife blades....car springs and swords need elasticity but knives need toughness which are different things... ....and the pictures coud be done much better, they are simply not good. Photography needs some passion, perspektives, lighting and close up shots as well. But all in a nutshell you are on the right track, keep it simple and keep them coming.... I hope you can handle the well-intentioned criticism. Great logo stamp! Cheers

LarryFanhoe, Les L, Frosty and Iron Dragon: Gentlemen, everyone of you gave me a great individual praise on my work. I thank you humbly for the nice comments! Frosty(), I feel a bit guilty that I forgot to mention that the blade is unetched to NOT show the pattern welding on this particular knife. Imho Inox damascus never has a very pleasing contrast in its appearance, there is only white and grey, and the pattern which is static and sterile in my eye, not very attractive. It would have distracted to much from the actual knife , So everything is intentional. I only took one close up shot in the right angle to give evidence that it is indeed a damascus steel. I chose this steel because it is from a very beloved former mentor of mine, who is a very famous man in the European knife and steel society and it is a superior stainless steel. (Fritz Schneider encouraged me in the early 90's when I was a tattooed long-haired rookie knife maker and never spared with praise and advice and friendship, thank god he is still alive, he must be now in his high 80's). Cheers

...... to finish this folder which I started out of curiosity. How one of my signature folder models would look like if made from materials that are static, not taking any patina and only can be colored in colors which are completely kitsch....well, that is imho, of course....so I didn't take any efforts to color it....left it all "natural" and white. It has a blade made from inox damascus by the living legend Fritz Schneider, he was the first man on the planet who developed stainless damascus. As time goes by I experienced that curiosity sometimes is not enough to keep the flame burning so I abandoned the project countless times and only worked on it occasionally. ....but someday even such projects are finished and consequently my curiosity is completely satisfied. Bolsters are made from unidentified Titanium( Grade 1 or 2?) 6Al4V for the lners and handle slabs made from mother of pearl. I like the resulting knife a lot but there will not be a second one. Cheers

Les, when you need to know certain techniques feel free to let me know. Next time I make something related I will take pictures of the process explain and post it. Thanks for your reply, much appreciated

Les L and Frosty, thanks guys for this motivating words! It would be great, sometimes meet in the evening and have a chat and a cup of tea together.... if we would not being apart on the other side of the globe. In fact there is a bunch of great guys in this forum who giving me a really good quality time whenever we communicate. lots of respect to you fellas!

Gentlemen, I post since 2015. I post on other forums, but not that often and not for such a long time. I agree with Frosty that activities in forums slowed down since a while.Maybe this is an effect of mass media which starts to swallow it all. After such a number of years and conversational exchange that mostly started with your kindness of commenting my work and the nice response I got from you I really feel at home on IFI. As I realized I can say I love this forum and I want this forum to thrive and endure all that mass media hype. So I feel the need keeping this forum on to be vibrant and fresh at least in the knife categories. All the other categories I have to leave with you guys because I am just a blade smith with insufficient skills as a blacksmith. As a matter of fact I started to answer the post since two days and stopped while writing because all points I thought I wanted to say vanished into thin air. I mean, where can I climb on a mountain and shouting out the need for response in the wide open and getting answered?...... it is here on IFI! Believe me, fellas this feels beautiful and feels like home again ! I am once again humbled and charmed by this community, thank You so much!

I don't know, Will....could be different reasons but I am not shure at all. Thanks for your contribution.

Thanks Will! If you had not replied there would be 0 replies....so double thanks for that! Cheers

Slip Joint and Liner Lock, .....they seem like grandfather and grandson to me. I ground both blades from 07.The handle slabs of the locking liner are Indian Almondwood (Terminalia Catappa) and the liners are made from 6Al4V Titanium. The slipjoint sports bronce for the washers and the liners and the wood is unknown. I found the wood about 10 years ago in the jungle and never found any of it again. So there is not so much on stock, which is a shame because it is hard as Ironwood, but with very small pores, it sinks in water and works very easy, I wish I had 100 kgs of it. You guys have a nice weekend. Cheers ...and here comes GrandDad....