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That's super! For a "rat rod" it's quite sleek. Maybe like a Lamborghini "rat rod " We have a hardware locally that has just about everything imaginable. In their commercials and on a sign hanging in the front is the phrase "If we don't have it, you don't need it" 99% of the time I need something oddball, or need something to repurpose, I'll find it there. There's another in Ithica about an hour away that has anything ever manufactured as far as farm and hardware is concerned. Clothing too. Buildings full of stuff. Even some anvils. The guy who owns it is a real piece of work tho.

I know nothing about heat treat, but I heat color a lot of my artwork and it comes right off with minimal polishing or sanding. A chemical treatment such as hot bluing (technically rusting) will hold up quite well. But even a good hot blue will come off with a mildly aggressive polishing wheel. Of course, whether or not it would be acceptable on a utensil cutting food I wouldn't know. Without some form of coating, the metal will indeed rust. IMHO of course

That's a pretty interesting way of looking at it Glenn

You may be on to something Theo......

Cool Theo. I figured you were a bit younger, but when you're my age you'll look twice as good as I do I got nothing against video games, I just hate to see kids sit like zombies in front of them lol. I was never any good at them, I was out in my garage tearing skateboards and bikes apart. You obviously have an excellent handle on balance and inspiration. I guess if I could convince my son he could make Nerf guns out in my shop, I may have half a chance

A dandy pair! Nice stuff

I'm just blown away with the quality of workmanship I've seen since joining here. Thats a wicked nice blade.

Fantastic. Great attention to detail. I'm not any kind of knife guy, but that's one sweet blade right there!

Love the cat tails. Used them in some of my own work. The dragonfly is a great touch too! Its looking good!

Yea, they tend to be kinda nasty if you get yourself with them. I'm by no means an expert on Silat MA systems, but the Harimau or Tiger Claw (something to that effect, it's been awhile) style involves using these as a sort of "retractable" edged weapon that can be used in a reverse grip, or flipped outward, like a tiger would extend his claws for a swiping attack. The finger ring serves as a pivot for the retraction motion and also doubles as an effective limb destruction striking weapon. Again, I'm not an expert and it's been a long time, but MA systems such as Silat, Kali, Eskrima, Arnis use a a lot of limb destruction tactics in their basic teaching. Also, every technique performed with a weapon can be translated into an empty hand version all the while losing none of its effectiveness for the type used.. Since the opponents limb is the closest thing to you, and an immediate threat, neutralizing it not only responds to the threat, but also creates a counter attack at the same time. It's economy in motion, and a big reason why Bruce Lee employed Filipino MA into his Jun Fan system of MA using Jeet Kune Do concepts. It would fall under one of the five methods of attack (Hand and/or foot immobilization) Ive always been very fond of Fillipino and Indonesian MA edged weapons. The Karaumbit is a functional weapon on several levels and can be easily concealed. To be clear, I do NOT advocate carrying or using edged weapons specifically designed for harming people. That's my personal stance anyways. Defending themselves was a very large part of Indoniesan and Fillipino cultures since they were put in dire positions over centuries of attempted and successful conquests by foreign attackers. At this point in time, I have no real interest in learning how to make blades, but if I did, a Barong and Kris would probably be goals I would eventually shoot for. I've had some nice FMA edged weapons over the years. They're unique and are quite lethal in trained hands. They have always fascinated me in their design and function. Great job on it. Don't stick yourself with it again tho! IMHO of course

Seriously, I wish I was doing what you're doing now when I was your age. I first got into metal work doing guns, but I was about 23 at the time. (I'm guessing you're maybe a little younger than that )Before that I was an idiot with a drug problem. It's so refreshing to see young men and women doing something as creative as this. Not knocking your age, you're well ahead of the curve there. If I'm way off on my guess, I apologize in advance Theo. I wish my son had an interest in what I do, but call of duty is far more interesting a prospect, I'm afraid You got some solid talent man. It's great to see. Steve

Beautiful. You do some great work Theo.

Haven't seen one of those in a long time. A staple of Pencek/Harimau Silat weaponry. I always liked the FMA portion of the Jun Fan/Kali stuff I trained in the best. My instructor liked Silat and incorporated a lot of it into our training. I made a Karambit from plexiglas to train with, but I think it's long gone now. It was smaller than yours tho. Very cool indeed.

Great job buzz. The Micarta scales on the drop point are fantastic. Excellent looking knives!

I hear Keurig is coming out with some knife making equipment soon too Really tho, this is quite interesting. I never thought of coffee being used as an etching solution. The blade the OP posted looks fantastic.

I might be able to help you with your finishing problems. Now, I'm not familiar with the etching process you blade guys use on Damascus, but the part involving getting the metal to an acceptable level of surface finish is a different story. The first thing you'll need to do is invest in a buffer, or a suitable grinder that you can use to mount wheels on. I used a Sears Craftsman 10" bench grinder to polish dozens and dozens of guns back in the early-mid 90's. Deals can be found at the pawn shop and CL if you look around. The point is, you want something with a little power behind it. A standard 6" grinder will do the job, but you'll wear it out fast using it for polishing. Ask me how I know.. What you're going to want to do after that, is invest in some non woven abrasive wheels for your new polishing machine. These are more commonly known by the trade name Scotchbrite. Yes, the same stuff you scrub pots and pans with.. There are a number of companies that manufacture and sell them, as well as finding them on eBay once in awhile cheap. I order from a company in Utica NY called Divine Brothers. For smaller diameter discs, (6"-8") they can be purchased from most major tool retailers such as Production Tool, MSC and Grainger. I generally use coarse for prep and blend, medium for finishing before going to a sisal wheel for the major cut and color work. The non woven abrasive wheels will literally cut hours off your bench work and when used correctly, take you from a 120-240 finish to around 600-800 brushed finish that's practically ready for buff out. Im not suggesting that this process completely eliminates the need for hand sanding (it doesn't) but the coarse non woven wheel will take you from zero to sixty in light speed illustratively. Yes, you will have to invest a little in some kind of grinder or true buffer to do the work, but the benefits are very tangible and I think you would be extremely impressed with the results. I took that stainless base I did from literally a 120ish 240 maximum finish to rough buff in under an hour with two grades of non woven abrasive wheels. I just placed an order with Divine for about 30 wheels for my 12" polisher. They were around $160 plus shipping. If you wanna make a trip down here at some point this summer, I can give you a hands on tutorial with them and show you first hand how useful they are. They are manufactured in several finer grades as well. I have some swatches of those here too.. If you decided you wanted some in the future, I would be willing to go in on an order with you to meet their minimum ($150) charge. They are much less expensive buying them this way, and once you use them you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. If you do not already own a buffer or suitable grinder that can be used as one, I would start looking. It will not replace hand sanding for some jobs, but will expand your capabilities and efficiency tenfold. A better quality buffer or grinder will cost a little more, but I'm telling you once you learn the basics about wheel finishing it will open up an entirely new perspective to you. You don't need to spend a fortune on a Baldor machine, just something fairly well built and preferably with a long of a reach as possible(length of the motor shafts). It will be worth every penny you spend on it. We can chat about finishing stones too. I think you may find them to be another useful tool to prep your knives after rough sanding. They're an excellent method for flat work and defined surfaces with edges and steps. Thats another deal in itself tho. Let me know if I can help. Steve

If I lived close to you I would gladly take you up on that most generous offer. Even tho I got some pretty decent hammers. Not no Hofi's or anything like that, but a few "good" ones. At some point I'll make one for myself, just to say I did it. Thats great of you to offer that to a beginner. I've had a few ppl over and showed them the ropes as far as welding goes.

I can tell you one thing for sure. With the advent of the Internet and social media the whole "fad culture" isn't going away any time soon. It will simply be replaced with another fad, whether it be gun smithing, knife making, bikes, bowling whatever. Look at the whole tattoo craze. I had mine long before they were ever trendy or popular. I don't have a single one that I got just because it was the latest trend on Pinterest, FB etc. Sure, I got the obligatory snake wrapped around the sword, and my very first one came out of a flash book at the tattoo shop. Besides that, they're all very original and have meaning. Well, most of them Funny thing, I ended up working with a guy who had the exact same piece of flash art I had, only it was a little bigger. We hit it off instantly and were pretty cool with each other For the ppl making money off it, the "fad craze culture" is a lucrative gold mine. Unfortunately for the guys that were around long before it, they get stuck paying for the latest viral sensation. As was said by others already, a lot of them will throw in the towel after they realize it's a LOT more work than they imagined. The millennial generation wants instant gratification and if they don't get it, they quickly give up and move on to the next viral fad on social media. Hopefully those individuals don't spend too much to figure that out. Hopefully a few good smiths can get a score on lightly used equipment if they did I know Mr Connor isn't fond of links here so I'll refrain from posting one, but for guys looking for metal finishing supplies (mainly buffing, compounds and wheel type abrasives) Divine Brothers (and their sister company Dico) out of Utica, NY are pretty reasonable and can do just about anything you want. There's a $150 minimum, but I've been happy with my purchases from them. I mainly buy sisal and muslin buffs along with non woven abrasives from them for my 12" polisher. Their compound is quite good as well and can be ordered from Dico. I've been using their stuff since the early 2000's. Not associated nor do I ever get anything from them for nothing ( I wish ) but it's worth checking out. Their non woven wheels (think scotchbrite) were very reasonable and much less than other suppliers I had looked at. Nobody local carries wheels for bigger machines and what I've looked at online wasn't any real savings over Divine. Just my experience anyways. Maybe it can serve useful to someone else. Mods, if that isn't allowed please accept my apologies in advance. I won't be triggered or have to run to my safe space if you remove the info from my post I didn't know if that was the type of supplies the OP was referring to. Figured I would throw it out there. IMHO of course

That's really nice man. If the blacksmithing thing doesn't work out you can always be a bouncer (Maybe you already are lol) Great job!

That's a nice little haul. I'm always on the lookout for those type of wrenches. The pawn shop guys save them for me. Got two rather large tubs full of them, might make something out of them at some point. The small ones make great business card holders. Have fun with the new stuff

Thanks. Truthfully, I don't like the way it sits in the frame. My wife told me to leave the brushed finish on it too... Now you've went and created more work for me Im getting stuff together for photos so I can post it on some social media sites. I have never messed with that stuff, but it's the best chance I have for some solid exposure. I just got the go ahead to make the lady that lost her son two more frames. One for her, and another home plate frame so she can give one to each of her granddaughters. I might do some finishing tutorials here if the crew is cool with it. I got a little experience at a that Keep an eye on your mail box

Yeah, I like buying them and fixing them up. Then you know what you got anyways.

No, this didn't follow me home, but I sure wanted it to. Hay Budden, prolly about 36" long. Never seen anything quite like it. Real thin face with long heel. A guy who owns a rather large rigging company has quite a collection of old stuff. He's having his guys build him a display room for some of his select pieces. Im going back there soon, gonna ask the owner if I can get some better pics, just so I can wish I had it

That's awesome. Clean lines.

Thanks bob. I dunno as far as health issues. I wore a respirator for all the polish work and didn't notice any nasty smells or out gassing to speak of. Good question tho. This is only the second thing I've forged from it. I've polished lots of stainless guns and welded a fair share of it (mostly TIG) and never noticed anything particular to speak of. I always wear a respirator when polishing it (or any other metal) tho..