templehound

Very nice!.......and I really love the easter island head!

Actually I needed to quote Thomas on a few things , because he said some good things....Thomas, You are quoted! But I will add something in my own words. I really like Your blades!.......and I like the small ricasso, ...maybe compared to the plunge line(which has plenty of empty space for a signature) , the latter is a bit to wide....the handle looks serviceable and thats what will work....all other aspects about the handle are a matter of taste....Thank God we are all different! .....but anyway, ...it is all about the edge !...and this edge looks superb!

Clearly some routine showing up in those bush crafters of You. Seems that they are a good practice for Your skills....even the double line stiched sheath comes great... nice and sober job!

Making single bevel knives like a Yanagi ba is really tricky because of its tendency to bend while it is heat treated , especially when its hardened. Keeping it from bending towards the unbeveled side is more concerning than grinding the hollow on the flat side . So if You have a blade that will bend to the "weaker" side, You should not weaken the side even more due grinding it hollow. So it seems better to grind the hollow after HT, but I know two professional Japanese cutlery makers and they make it contrary. I would grind it after hardening, ....together, reciprocally with the beveled side It strongly depends on the parameters of the blade in length, thickness, mono steel or two layers etc, how Your blade will behave....You have to try that out and prepare to regrind or throw it in the trash can..... this guy does a great job, look at 4:20 ,...maybe this will inspire and help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrphlV9mEa8 Cheers and good luck

Well.....like the somehow round end, cut side , sides are not paralel at all....maybe I should say,the shape leads me to believe that it was forged....but maybe he didnt forge, just cut it out and prepared it and after all it looks like this ....also possible

If You have the carbon bound due heat treating it will show some of that with the sparks and those have their form and color according to alloy..... Unhardened low alloy tool steel does spark but it looks different to me....just my 2 cents without guarantee

The shape of the piece of steel shows that it is forged. The heavy sparking shows that it is already hard...or hard enough to spark like that According to the carbon explosions and their form the spark picture looks to me like a steel with about 0.8% Carbon. Easy to see at 3:26 where he grinds the back of the blade...but due forging it could have some carbon loss that can make a 1%Carbon steel like 1095, look like 8.0% C...the colors in the video of course are also not true ...so if we had better, true colors the aspect of a piece of forged coil spring with obviously more than 0,6C could be added to the guessing .....so it could be 02,...besides this steel you can find in every corner of the world...like Diesel oil. ...and ferric chloride.

...maybe too much difference in heat on the whole blade while forging, ....or too much cold forging which makes lots of tension which can result in such cracks. in aspect that it is a wide blade I guess its both....but Daswulf is right, very little information

Thanks Guys! I gun blue the whole blade then I take a rag and cover the parts that should remain and then sisal polish it lengthwise. Cheers

A very close and old friend came south-east for a visit and stayed a month....it was a great time, like in our younger days. We celebrated it with a folder for him, he made the design and I made the knife. Cold work Tungsteen tool steel for the 8,5 cm long blade, 6Al4V springy hard titanium for the liners, clip and all mechanical parts are high carbon spring steel and some unknown hardwood root for the handle slabs. Cheers

I like dirks as well, if they are nice ...with gem stones and bulky weird butts and handle shapes they can be ugly as hell, but not this one.... This one has nice proportions and a beautiful defined strong blade Plain and functional, and the unspectacular wood fits excellent.....maybe a bit gun blue and steel wool would make it look antique what actually would fit the genre better....but anyway......beautiful!

That was a crafty one, Steve! The knife is in deed well done...for my feeling the blade might be a little bit too wide and the edge still too thick for comfortable multi purpose use, but I like the plain appearance of the knife....definitely good job!

Thanks a lot, Guys! Will, with a piece of tool steel(20x10mm) and a checkering file, I made a stamp.I punched it into a copper stripe, which I formed into a ferrule and soldered it from the inside.

This is my ode to the forest that cleanses the heart and mind better than anything else. I made the 190 mm long blade from German tool steel 1.2552(80WCrV8), copper and Ceylon ironwood on the handle and the sheath, 330 mm overall length. "The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness" (John Muir) Cheers

Wrought iron is in my experience ok on san- mai blades, You only have to consider o few things: wrought iron takes no hardness due the lack of enough carbon. If You bend the blade and the cutting core is too thin according to blade length, it will stay bend. Wrought iron is rusting very fast, only meteorite rusts faster. Wrought iron is full of impurities, sometimes it reacts to hammer and fire different....it may split like opened damascus layers or just fall apart in pieces, for example. Mostly it also can be forged like butter and fire welds easy.....and the more You forge the more the "grain" disappears. IMHO in modern times there is very less benefit in using wrought iron on tools. .....it looks beautiful, it is cheap(uncleaned means less effort so cheaper, or recycled stuff) it is perfect for a wood chisel with a forge welded cutting edge....that seems the benefit nowadays Because of its tensile strength It was used for ancor chains, carriage axis, clamps for holding roof beams together and such purposes. In Germany there is still a lot of wrought iron to find and a lot of knife colleagues having their fun with it. It comes from antique, historical or ancient sources which are still plenty But maybe in Japan the still producing it, this I dont know. Good luck

I agree with arftist, sounds like tendonitis. Dosent matter if it is tennis elbow or some other mechanical issues , everything needs more time, takes longer to heal than You expect. Especially when You're not 20 anymore......the older the dog the slower it heals. I had tendonitis from tighten up the tongs on my left arm and nothing made it better than not tighten up tongs for a year......after getting better I used a wrist bandage for a couple of weeks and now I only forge when it is unavoidable, means straight for the living and no forging and playing in the back yard anymore....forging is something beautiful but we don"t need to blandish it.....if You do it for many years there is a bill Your body certainly has to pay . Get well soon! Cheers

Neither have I......and I never saw it as two layers......beautiful!

Your stock removal line has everything this market demands....in fact looking better than most competitors....and IMHO better choice in steel than all that CPM, high alloyed and stainless stuff....80CrV2 is excellent for the field. ....as tough as 5160 and better edge holding than 1095. They have a nice geometry on the edge and the old school design of finger high and edge low makes them a lot more reasonable than many other products. It seems that You made the kydex sheaths not so wide as You used to do before, thats good , because less wide is easier to carry and attach.....on the back line of the sheaths the rivets could even brought a bit closer to the blade back, near the tip....if I am allowed to say that, .......but thats just in the cosmetic range. developing such a stock removal line is in fact very time consuming and very slow as You said......but You did very well and if I would be in military service or the like, I would chose a "Stormcrow-Bengazi"...... Cheers

My pleasure to be the first to write a comment The combination of clean, static Kydex and Brute de forge blades make Your knives look like wild animals in modern cages, especially those with Asian influence. Cheers and my whole mutual respect, bro

James Stormcrow and C-1ToolSteel, Thanks a lot, Guys!

Thank You very much for the fine comments, Gentlemen! They are much appreciated. The backdrop is not a Durian, it is the fruit of a screwpine (Pandanus odorifer) which grows wild along the whole shore. Durian would be nice as well but there is no wild growing Durian tree I know, means I had to buy them and they are, even in Thailand, quite expensive .... and I would have been tempted to pinch on it a bit because I like them a lot

It took me a decade to figure out how I could bring this knife to life. It should have that ancient, sinister appearance and some slightly bizarre or extreme part or detail we often see on ancient and ethnic weapons around the world. And in spite of all this, it should at the same time be a reasonable, good using knife.That was difficult to design out of the wrist....it had to evolve out. I chosed plain materials like Ceylon ironwood and copper, just the kind of like back then...but with a better steel and heat treatment for the blade which is forged and ground of roller bearings. The tang is riveted on the butt, forming the center of the flower Blade is 90 mm long and overall length is 190 mm. Cheers

After some contacts with stews, roast beef and acid containing vegetables the etch will not matter anymore...whats left that matters is the blade geometry. And this geometry looks just fine....very well done!

Nearly two decades I had advantages through his work. He gave me his friendship, shared wisdom and steel with me. On my request he brought back long forgotten alloys that went out of production . When he created a new steel alloy he always gave me samples to try it out and helped me solve difficult problems with materials as well. When it comes to steel, to me, he is one of the top dogs on the planet. It is my honour and joy to spread his name. http://www.europeanblades.com/interview-achim-wirtz/

The bare minimum...? The bare minimum to make tools, knives, axes, forges, spears and the like is a pair of good trousers. ..like this sophisticated fellow shows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVV4xeWBIxE