John in Oly, WA

Would be an exercise to bring sweat to the brow. Though the rune shapes are pleasant to look at.

Well, I guess I meant the Elder Futhark or Anglo-Saxon futhorc. It kind of gets all mixed up - Latin, Roman, Old English, Ogham, Futhark.

Welcome to the forum. A lot of great people with a LOT of great info and experience. IronWolf - those aren't "junk' piles, they're material resource stockpiles! Be insane to NOT have those all around your shop. LOL

"I was really pleased that the end product matched my initial drawings" - That alone is quite a feat. Mine never quite do. I agree with the comments on symmetry. While near perfect symmetry can be a technical achievement, IMO it's not as interesting as asymmetry, or "dynamic symmetry" (asymmetry with balance).

That's a beauty. As for dating it - first sweet talk it, put it up on a pedestal, make sure it has a nice ring, warm it up with some hot metal, then hammer... I'll let you figure out the rest. LOL

My son just started making small pendants with Celtic rune symbols on them. An 1-1/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" thick or so piece of whatever kind of steel, slightly rounded top and bottom like a small dog tag. Hammer a rune symbol on it, punch a small hole at the top for a chain jump ring. Hammer marks or texture all around it. I'd think something like that might be popular at an SCA event. Make it from a piece of an old file and a quick heat treat, it can double as a fire striker.

Nice! You got squishing happening!

Welcome and thanks for your service! Stick around here, people will be happy to get you started in the right direction. Working at a forge and anvil can be very therapeutic - as JHCC says it gets you out of your head and into a great "hands on" space. I don't know if Randell's word of advice is all that helpful - that "anvil-lust" takes hold almost immediately and you find yourself scouring everything and everywhere for anvils, hammers, tongs, tweaking your forge for maximum heat efficiency, etc. The addiction is consuming, but incredibly fun. Least for me it is. (Just joking 'round Randell ) But do be careful, it could become an obsession - well some people might use that word - I wouldn't. LOL

Nice looking knife. The birch bark handle is very interesting. I watched the historical? video that was posted on IFI of the family making knives in Finland. I can't find where the video is on the forum now. They used birch bark also. I imagine it has a slip resistant grip?

Very nice work! As is your usual. Nice to see the pics of them in situ.

Nice bit of history. Thanks! And the fourth pic in, my eyes go immediately to the shop sign at the bottom of the pic - "Pork Pies". Love those meat pies!

Or a thoat's throat

I was just asking because you mentioned you had a problem with height. I've seen presses with the cylinder below and the work piece moved up to the stationary top die plate. That made the press not so tall. No problem with the verbs. I think "ing" makes it sound like it is happening now. "ed" for regular verbs sounds like it already happened.

Oh, well if you have the facilities next door, that's even better - never mind working outside the shop. From Gig Harbor, well, Longview is just a nice Sunday drive through the country side, if you need any tools from the swap meet to add to your collection. Frosty, I'll have to take a closer look at the top of the capitol - I work just across the street.

Nice look to those blades. I can picture them in action on Barsoom.

Looking good! Is the cylinder going to be below or above?

Probably won't be doing anything under 3/8" thickness, but I'll be wary of the possible problems and test with scrap first and see how it goes. I don't see myself sanding guitar faces and backs, but if I get to anything thin I'll think about the vacuum table mod. Thanks guys!

Thanks for the heads up JHCC. Sounds like practicing before pushing through anything of value would be a good idea. Maybe some kind of featherboards mounted at the entry to the drum to keep the work from lifting.

Hi Ohio, welcome to the forum. Don't let lack of a metalworking area in the shop stop you. Just set up a cover and forge just outside the shop. And don't forget the NWBA swap meet and hammer-in last weekend of October.

That cylinder should do the job - coupled with the right motor, pump and valve. Very similar to the cylinder on my press.

It's a pretty crude thickness sander Frosty. The knob on the threaded stock in the middle front elevates the back end of the bed. Far end of the bed is mounted on pivots. And I'll just use a push stick to feed the stock through. I thought about using the treadmill rollers and belt for a conveyor feed, and then have the pushbutton tread tilt motor to adjust the thickness. That'd be uptown stylin', but my kids thought I was crazy trying to work that into it.

What a great idea! Looks like you have one happy camper...er, blacksmith there. Is that an Armitage "Knot"hole anvil, or a "pine"dinghaus? or maybe a "Fir"sher?

If you clean all that up, you could sell off what you won't use or need and recoup maybe all of your investment into it - make the wife happy and have a nice set up for blacksmithing. Win-win situation.

Looks to be in great shape. I agree with the group - you got a d(st)eal. Just take a wire wheel to it - if you feel inclined, or just start hammering hot steel on it and it'll shine right up. Just don't grind or sand the face.

I like how the second "Z" turns into the next "N" in the 360 NAZZ square. The pixelization is kind of crazy, but I understand it. In the right sword the two pixel jump on the second and fourth stack, I'd move over and have just a one pixel jump, just to straighten the sword up. If you were trying to make that sword look curved, then forget what I just said and put more two pixel jumps in and really curve it. Put enough curve in to make it look obviously intentional. Might even make the two swords and the hammer larger in comparison to the anvil. Another way to embrace the nerd might be to take out the pixelization, smooth it up and put some science-like effects into the logo - periodic table elements, alloy formulas. Take all the element blocks from the periodic table that are used in steel and blacksmithing and form them into a pixel-effect anvil. But all this is just my opinion. Carry on!