Will W.

Agreed. A sincere thank you to our servicemen and women.

Ill look into it. Thank you for the information Smoggy.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. And please keep us updated.

I get that you use what you have, im all for that. But why didnt they just use water?!?! Its literally the most cost free thing on this planet and is far less.... disgusting.

If you dont have an O/A torch, then my first thought would be to just make a solid fuel fire. You dont need a perfectly designed forge to heat steel. You can literally start a campfire, let it burn down to coals (or just start with charcoal) put the section of your steel into the fire that you want to heat, and use a blowdryer for air. Or a large flat board as a fan. Or your lungs. Voila! Like Glenn says, if you never build the box, you never have to think outside of it.

I would recommend staying away from tool steels for now, ESPECIALLY air hardening ones. They require a lot of finesse. These include (but are not limited to) O1, D2, S7, and A2.

The pattern has an almost industrial look to it. Or like the scales of a mechanized lizard. So cool.

OH MY GOD!!! Im absolutely blown away, this is one of the coolest patterns i have ever seen. Beautiful. Very well done.

Unfortunately, it has to be brazed in place. It is being bent to a specific shape and then connected at the ends.

Good to know, thank you Thomas. I woukd rather pay for quality than run the risk of getting something i did not order from a sketchy company.

Better yet is if you have a piece of cold thick steel that you have not been forging on. It will draw the heat out of the edge faster and leave your spine hotter for straightening.

I drilled the rivet holes in one of my knives with a *hand drill* so yes, a power drill will work, but expect it to be slower than a press. Annealing will help with drilling as well. I also agree with Latticino, dont drill while it is hot. I expect all that would do is ruin your bits. Decreasing hammer marks and pits is a matter of technique and hammer control, yes. (But keep in mind, even the best bladesmiths need to grind on their blades.) After the rough forging is done, i like to go over the entire blade with a 1.5 lb hammer using light but precise blows to get it roughly evened out. After that, you can take a bar of mild steel flat stock, place it on top of the hot knife and strike away. The anvil acts as a bottom swage while the bar acts as a top swage, flattening the steel. Then its off to the grinder!

Rio grande has what i need and seems to be a reputable company, though i will look into them further. Now, a new question. Instead of posting a whole new thread, might as well just ask here; I need to braze/solder/weld the gold wire together, end to end. I would like to use gold as the filler metal, so as to keep it pure. Question is, how easy or difficult would this be? What i was planning on doing was simply getting the base gold hot, then melting the filler gold right over the two, just like brazing.

I can feel the purity!!! No, what i meant by that was to actually buy it in person, see the person who is selling it, maybe run tests on it, etc. I looked on amazon, but i mostly found 14k. I would prefer 24k. Ill look on rio grande, never checked there. Thanks.

I like the design. I can see where you were going with it. I think your bevels are much too short. Unless what i am seeing is just a secondary bevel. They are also quite wobbly, not following the edge truly. This can be seen in the plunge line. Look into draw filing to improve both of these aspects. You also have no ricasso on the blade, the perpendicular step should help keep your hand away from the edge, but IMO, the only time a blade should not have a ricasso is when it has a guard. Personally, i dont like seeing hammer marks and pits in blades, it can be pulled off correctly, but usually i just think it looks sloppy and incomplete. Mostly, this is all opinion. But you asked for my critique . Oh, yes, when you take photos of your blades, try to chose plain, mono colored backgrounds that do not reflect light, and with good natural lighting. The countertop you used is too busy and reflective, it draws the eye away from the piece that it should be focusing on.

Thank you. Im a little weary about buying it online, i would very much so rather hold it and verify that it is actually gold, but i will message them and see. I do not mind the price, as my needs demand that it be solid and pure gold (not plated or filled.) Sorry, but i have to play that card very close to my chest for now. Michael, thanks. Ill see if any of the numerous colleges around me have anything like that. Maybe, at the very least, i can find out who their supplier is.

Going to the local mine that you mention would be a good start. The Tractor Supply Company near me also sells anthracite coal, so you could try your local one. You can also find coal and coke online, at sites like centaur forge, for example. To find old blowers, you could try going to antique stores, auctions, etc. Theres also the option of building your own blower. I made mine from a squirrel cage blower from a forced air furnace. Some 2x4s for a frame, some stock for axles and a handle, pulleys and belts to increase output (could be subsituted with sprockets and chain or gears), washers to hold the axles in place, and a welder and its actually quite an easy build. If you do not have access to a welder, you could hold everything together with set screws. All the material is easily found at any hardware store, and you could try contacting a furnace reapir technician to get the blower. Most of them throw out old ones when they replace them, but they are still perfectly suitable.

Hello everyone. I have a strange project in the process right now, and im in need of some solid gold wire, preferably pure gold, and preferably 22 gauge. I dont need a whole lot, maybe 12-14 inches in total. I have been unable to locate a reliable source. How difficult would it be to forge gold down into wire? Or draw it through some sort of die to reach the desired dimensions? Or, better yet, does anybody know a reputable source of such wire? Thank you in advance.

O-1, in my personal experience, is not too hard to weld. Tricky, but not difficult. During the actual welding, never let it drop below orange-red, and when welding is all said and done and youre forging your blade, never let it lose color (dont go below red, definitely dont hit it below red.) When forging is finished, allow it to slowly cool, similarly to annealing. Just leave it in your forge and turn the fuel off, or if youre using solid fuel, leave it in the fire and just let it go out.

Kirinite is fantastic material to work with IMO. It is a little brittle, but in my own personal experience, its also quite tough. Just make certain youre wearing a dust mask, or better yet, a respirator when you work with the stuff.

I hope that upward peak above the ricasso on the spine does not interfere with the ability of the gut hook to function. I like the look of it overall. Being that it will be around blood, guts, meat, and fat like Thomas mentioned, i would use either acrylic, micarta, or G-10. You can get all of these in purple, and they dont get as slippery as wood does when covered in blood, and they also wont absorb it (this can be circumvented by using stabilized wood.) Ive skinned and gutted many a creature, and ive abandoned my old wood handled knives for that task for the above reasons.

That oughta make a fantastic utility knife. The patterns in both the steel and the wood are wonderful. Nice work.

I guess i cannot participate in this thread. My philosophy has always been the same as Henry Ford's; You can have it any color you want, as long as its black.

Especially when your working your way down through the grits. Done with 220? Belt change. Done with 320? Belt change. Done with 440?... Imagine doing that all the way down to 1000 grit. You get the idea. Having it be fast and simple will save a lot of time and headache.

Those shelves better be forged if you want to hold an anvil on them! But, if the anvil is being stored, what would you forge the shelves on?