Mbmul175

 That was only 15-20 minutes after lighting it.

The inside glowed high orange/yellow , im not sure how hot that is though, im not plannjng on opening it up again 

I believe it to be asbestos, not 100% sure though, none of it is exposed so its all good.

I finally got a real forge working, its the same franken-T-burner as before, i got the body at an auction for 20USD, it has some opaque glass like refractory that is in direct contact eith the flames, aroun that there is an 2 inch layer if asbestos (not sure how healthy it would be to work with ), and then fire bricks. It works amazingly well, ive only run it for 10 minutes so far, but it gets really hot.  

The ohiti was taken right after lighting it for the first time,  later the entire inside was glowing red 

I found it on armourarchive, i just changed the cross a bit 

Red raven blacksmithing is the name.

Thanks, its secured with metal epoxy. its profiled to fit the right hand.

There she is, finially finished ( its been finished for a while but i couldnt pust cause we had no wifi). I decided to leave the hook idea because there was no way to make it work and look good, so i drew out the tang and did a hidden tang . What do you think ?

Yes, that would ruin a hunting trip ,now wouldn't it ? I will keep posting photos at it progresses

I am going to make the handle with slabs, it will have a guard as well. I want to keep the spike and forge it into a hook for slitting open the belly without damaging the organs. 

the spike I referred to is the part to the left of my hand , it was the original handle for the rasp. That handle is the part in my hand , or is that a tang ?

Thanks thomas,

I gave that book a look, it is really interesting, mine is a lot like the one on pl 14,  only more intricate. Mine has 6 stomach plates and 14 lung/kidney plates , but otherwise its the same .

Thanks again ,

Michael.

Thanks, it is a hacking and chopping shape, but I'm gonna use it for hunting, to slit throats, debowel and skin animals.

I'm going to give it an African mahogany handle and a leather sheath that will attatch to my belt at the lower back.

Basically what I'm saying is that it will chop (bone) butnothing heavy duty like chopping down trees.

Thanks for the reply,

Michael.

What so you guys think ?  this is my first successful blade. I made it from a ferrier's rasp, its a mix between a panga machete and a khopesch. The blade is 29cm long, with an 11cm grip/tang ( I'm not sure what to call it in this case ) and the spike at the end is 7 cm long ( that was the RASP's handle). I'm thinking of keeling the spike and giving it a bit of a curve. Its name is shark skin, due to the very rough texture of the rasp.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep an eye out for it. 

In summer we get up to 55°c, so I wanted to keep it breathable so I don't die before a fight.

Nope, as usual I googled 100's of photos, looked at the resembelances and the differences to figure out how it works and then I made a set of plates according to my own ideas.

I just did a raw dennim padded hood with a donut pillow on top . the helmet still needs a leather harness on the inside tho.

Thanks a lot , I am quite proud of it, I am working on a wisby coat of plates to go with it, but hand stitching the fabric is tedious work .

"Awesome choice" , didnt have much of a choice.

I already made a padded liner for it , and I'm planning to put it to good use. It shall gather blood and dents, not dust.

One guy saw it on my Facebook page ( red raven blacksmithing ) and asked if I'd be willing to make him some new splints for his armour, so I'm very happy .

Thanks for the replies.

Its based upon n a design that i got off the internet, but l modified it to have a slightlu longer face and wider top. 

Its regular mild steel but its 1.6mm, that's a bit thicker than 16gague. It weigs 5.2 Kg and would probably break my neck one day. All of the rivets are hand made (also a first) so they are not the best, but i like that its not perfect.

What do you guys think ?

This is my first attempt at making armour of any type. Its a greathealm made to historically accurate specs. 

Yeah i only recently made the connection between hawk and tomahawk, the handle is too short to really be able to throw it, so its no hawk.

Michael.

Well it chops like its no ones business, so I'm happy with it.

But I have to say that to thing looks pretty handy.

Thanks

Michael.

The edge is convex, I finish it with files and sandpaper.

I did research about what a hawk is , this is not that. It is about 2.5lb, I'll just call it a handy tool for turning big things into smaller things .

 what do you guys think ? What is this called? I saw something similar and it was a hawk, but i dont know exactly what that is. Its an axe/hammer/crowbar, the handle is hand carved oak.

Note. it seems the black background hides some of the features

Thanks again frosty.

You didn come across too harsh, I understand why you said what you said, and I'll respect that.

That's the thing that gets me mad tho, all the YouTubers and guys on pintrest saying they have the best tips for forge building, even tho 98% of them work, the other 2% are bombs. I don't care if I have to sit for a week with callipers and a file in order to make something as it needs to be. I tend to fix stuff till they break, so a plan that you have to follow to the finest detail is what i like to work with.  

An I'm not going away, I won't quit smithing just because I have trouble with my forge. I will still spend my holidays and weekends fine tuning everything, making sure its perfect for when I start doing it full time.

Thanks,

Michael.

Thanks for all the advice, 

I would love to take classes but there arent any that we could find that i would be able to do, due to politics. I'd rather ask about these things than going out and making stuff and burning my face off. I know I'm not supposed to use concrete, I just wanted to see how the burner worked with the correct volume needed, even tho the concrete ate my heat and didn't really give any helpful results.

But I am going to go study next year, so I'll have 3 years to get my affairs in order, make sure everything is cosure in my shop. 

Thanks again for all your help and advice,

Michael.