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I Forge Iron

woodguy

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Everything posted by woodguy

  1. Thomas, no I haven't done the tea, thanks. I have heard that wet birch bark will do it. Probably many of the barks would.
  2. I've used mustard, horseradish, vinegar, lemon, limes, potatoes, tomatoes, beef blood, aspirins and many more to get a patina. They all work to different degrees. That day we had sushi takeout for lunch and so the wasabi got used. Here's a surprise for you Charlotte and Thomas, have you tried leaving the blade outside in the dirt? Thanks for the suggestion though. Just using the knife in the kitchen will eventually do it also.
  3. I like what you're doing very much. The Umbila wood really got my attention, great looking wood.
  4. M Mitch, all the kitchen knives are sold so I have no photos of the edge/spine. I could show some of the hunting knives that I sell at shows if you want to see them? What do I do? To help vets? I belong to the Military Order Of The Purple Heart and we raise money to buy items for vets in nursing homes. Until recently I drove vets to their medical appointments and did handyman work for them but I have moved to a new area of NJ and so I have to get settled and meet new people. I had the use of a shop in return for giving one out of every five knives or wood art I made to the gentleman who allowed me to use his bandsaw, grinder, belt sanders, vise, etc.. I could work there from morning til night and I really miss it. I took care of his home and pets when he travelled. He was also a Vietnam vet and we became good friends. I used to have a shop of my own but we have been living in attached homes with no room for a shop. As I meet new people I'll eventually get to work with another good person. I'll post a picture or two of what I mean by wood art. I make about 50 hiking sticks each year and I've been asked to show 10 younger veterans with PTSD how to make their own stick at a 5 day camp in NY state next May. In the past few days I've cut saplings of Beech, Hornbeam and Ash. I seal the ends and by May they'll be ready for carving and finishing in May. I like to use Mountain Laurel for primitive standing figures and especially for knife handles. I wanted the 3-point standing figure to be animal-like so after shaping on the miter saw I skip-peeled the bark to give it the variety of spots as an animal might have. Then it received about 3 coats of Minwax Antique Oil. The kitchen knife has a Herder blade that was made in a German factory before the Allies destroyed it in 1944, I think. I used gun bluing on the blade. I scored the handle with the teeth of a saw and blackened it. Then I sanded off most of the black, leaving it only in the scored depressions. The third shows a closeup of the handle. After the second photo was taken I removed the bluing and gave the blade an acid etch with a bit of Wasabi and vinegar to give it an antique look..
  5. The blade for this knife was cut by waterjet from one of the old Disston handsaws I inherited from my Dad. Using a waterjet doesn't affect the heat treatment of the steel. The saw was .05" thick so it made some very nice thin slicers. For the handle I laminated some nice crotch walnut onto curly maple. When I use curly maple in laminates I always use thin cloth that is the same color as the darker wood to fill the low points of the curls. I use Titebond III glue. The finish was super glue and then Minwax Antique Oil. I made 7 like this and all are sold. One of the buyers was a woodworker from out of state and he came to the house and bought $300 of crotch walnut(so I had some beer money!). Now he's a regular customer. I also make hunting knives using blades cut by the waterjet from old circular sawblades after I test for hardness. If there's any interest I can show them. I had also done a batch using Ambrosia Maple and Spalted Sweetgum. I mainly sell highly figured wood but I also like to make knives from purchased Scandinavian blades and from old steel handsaws and circular sawblades(for hunting knives because the steel is thicker).
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