Johnnyreb338

Good afternoon friends. Here's a couple of pics of my latest creation. It's mystery steel blade, water quenched and triple tempered to 425 degree. File tested and chop a 4x4 block into, scales are double dyed maple burl with carbon fiber thong hole and anchor pins. The blade was fully sharpened before the quinch and temper process. After tempering the cutting edge was polished to a mirror finish with 1200 grit paper. After installing the scales and during final finish the blade was stropped to a razor finish.

Lol. Thanks for the likes

The scales we finished with teak oil

I find them delightful and very cool. That dirty white goes well with the pine cone. Nice grind lines as well. Mabey 1 day I'll own a grinder and can make work like this. I'm a fan

Good afternoon friends Here's a few pics of the latest project. A guy at work wanted a knife, so I made this beauty for him but he turned his nose up at it and didn't want it. So I guess I'll add it to my collection. It's 5160 spring steel with maple burl scales ( if I remember correctly, I've had them awhile) and black carbon fiber pins. Double tempered at 410 degree. And chop tested on a railroad cross tie.

Good afternoon friends Just thought I'd pass this along. I've been buying most of my knife supplies from usa knife for awhile now and the past 3 sets of scales on separate orders all said they were stablized wood in the description. None of them were even close to being coated with anything, in fact I just received a set of black ash scales, upon first observing I noticed they were as light as a feather and still felt like dried wood, and when I was shaping them on the sander I had to open the door to let the dust out of the room. At 30-40 dollars a pop plus shipping I would like to receive what I ordered. I'm just funny that way. I got them soaking in linseed oil right now hopping I can salvage this project. Especially since this was a money job. Just my 2 cents, needed to vent a little.

I like it. That forward shape and keen point would mak it very good for deboneing dead animals. Also would make a great utility knife

Oh lord you guys are killing me.

Although the bloomery would be a blast, good friends, good ale, fire. Shoot what could go wrong. Problem is im not sure mississippi mud would be the best source of dirt to be trying to burn iron ore out of. Although probably a 25' circle around my workshop would probably be a motherload.

Yes sir there are. I would like to learn the art of mixing my own ingredients in a crucible and making a ingant, then working it down into a presentable knife. That would be cool.

Good morning Mr Thomas The batson blade show would be about 140 miles from where I live. I looked the venu up on line and it looks like the are a lot of things to look at. Might be worth a weekend road trip. Will have to check when the next 1 is.

Good morning friends. Thanks for the replies. That is a fine little skinner tactically sharp. I kinda figured that today's steel is far superior to what could be produced by ancient smelting methods. Today's steel is more pure and refined. The only thing that I can see that made it better was the heart and soul that went into making such a piece. The community basically had to come together and contribute something that day, men gathered wood, dirt supplies, women cooking, bringing water etc... everyone had to take turns on the bellows, pouring in the mixture etc.. no telling how much ale was required. Then the time it took to refine such a piece with primitive tools must be mind blowing. By the time it was finished the blade had a spiritual soul to it and to its owner. Nowadays we go out to the shed, cut off a piece of spring steel. Spend a few hours heating and beating, 2 more hours grinding, and whala we have a blade. But it has no soul...... Just my thoughts for this beautiful Sunday morning. Friendship, kinship and sweat are the ingredients missing from today's steel.

Ran across an article about forging a Japanese sword in which they used a technique called blooming, said it was the old way to do wootz style steel. Looks like a lot of work to me. I would like to try it once just to mark it off my I done it list. Has anyone tried it and are the rewards worth the trouble.

Very nice

Diesel repair shops are an excellent place to find lots of spring steel. The springs under most trucks theses days are 2 -3" thick x 4 wide. The mudflap hangers at the rear tires make great blades, there usually 3/4" square stock. And of course there are usually hundreds of wheel bearing races in the scrap bin. If they rebuild transmissions the shift rails in the top are a hard enable steel. Used Camshafts are great, broken axles, etc...

Sorry about the pics, my tablet doesn't take good pics and my I phone was worse than these. We took several shots but these were the best, my house has no windows,just artificial lights inside. I will try to get a better shot of the spine and stuff tomorrow in the daytime.

Good afternoon friends. Just finished this bad boy up, it was more or less a stock removed project. A friend of mine at work gave me 2 sets of leaf springso from a 60s model ford p/u. The bottom spring had the serial # and the fomoco emblems stamped into it so I thought I would save that into the blade. Basically I just heated and flattened it out and shaped it. Then used a hand grinder to put the bevels into it. Nickel silver bolsters and a red dyed burl wood scales. The fit and finish was where I ran into problems, the fit up was good but I'm still struggling with final finish. Overall I think it turned out to be a suitable trade/gift for the springs. What yall think.

Thanks guys Robakyo, that blade your referring to was made out of a mudflap hanger off a big truck, the handle was made out of some red cedar I had laying around, the bolsters were nickel silver with copper pins. It was heavy and felt solid in the hand. Just a cool scrap together knife.

Good afternoon friends Sorry I've been out for a spell, been dealing with personal demons and other issues, but I have not been totally idle while on my little hiatus. Here are some pics of a few blades I threw together. It's not much but I'm proud of them. Most are made from spring steel, the 1 without bolsters in the first picture is 01 steel. I am a diesel mechanic and work in the shop so I have an endless supply of spring steel. Although I like 01 steel better. Spring steel seems to be a little more forgiving and free. O I also have an also endless supply of bearing steel but I hate working with it and it seems to be a bugger to sharpen. Sorry the pics aren't that great.

Good afternoon Thanks for responding to my thread, I have taken the time to look at each knife maker listed and might I say wow, there are some beautiful pieces of art to be found in each makers bag. Amazing to see how many styles and shapes and attention to detail even to the tiniest piece can be incorporated into a simple blade. cool stuff. Thanks

Good afternoon Frosty. I actually left this 1 with a little crook in it, my belt on my sander was worn slam out and the blade was so close but still so far away. It was just a piece together any way. that being said what I was trying to figure out as you pound the edgend out and work to the point the blade gets thinner so if you stand it up on the spine and pound it out straight it has a tendency to fold in the middle. I pounded another blade out this weekend and done a much better job keeping it straight. still had to grind a little bit to get it flat but it wasn't bad. My goal is to make a blade that is not ground ,as I tend to like the rough forged look.

Good evening Stormcrow The material I have is some old oilfield suckered rods used on workover rigs, An Internet search yielded very little info except that most are made from 4140 or 4340. It Sands beautifully to a fine luster and polishes to a ultra shine which leads me to belive it has a high nickel content or chrome. Although I do greatly appreciate everyone's concern over me wasting my time on this project, I still see a certain entertainment value to it, I'm very new to forging steel so I still have a lot of bugs to work out of my techniques ie.. shaping the hot steel, drawing it out, edge making and just plane old hammer control. practice....practice...practice Thanks.

Good afternoon Steve. All the info I dig up online from the ansi/astm steel mfgs. all say that 4140 and 4340 are quinchable hardening steels to the 55-60 rh with very high wear resistance and good shock load capabilities. Either way the steel was some I had left over from a welding project and was free and I needed the practice. I don't sell my blades of unknown steels to the public so it's no big deal if it doesn't work. Thanks for the reply.

Here's a picture of my current project, it's a 12"drop point I beat out yesterday and started finish grinding this morning. not sure what the steel is, my research has led me to belive it is 4140 or 4340. spark test show its high in carbon and it's tough to move on the anvil. I made a blade out of it before and after 3 attempts at hardening ( 2 in oil and 1 in water ) it still was not real hard, I could cut it with a file with some effort. 2 weeks ago I cut off a small piece of it and hammered it down for experimental purposes. this time I carried the heat till it was almost white before quenching in oil and whala it's hard as grandma's big toenail. I have about 12 feet of this stuff so I'm hopeing I can work out a solid heat treat to put it to good use.

Who is your favorite knife maker that you secretly admire and or hope to be as good as 1 day. my secret zen master would have to be Thomas Rucker, I follow his work on Facebook and personally think he is by far the best I've seen. of course opinions will vary depending on taste, I like the old world rough forged looking blades. Just curious to know.