JPH

Phil: There is so much C in this that I might have to add some mild steel/iron to bring the C content down a little to lessen cracking chances during HT. I am not at all concerned about the mild steel wire and there is really, compared to the mass of the piece, very little of it there. By the time I get done welding and all...it'll either be scaled off or homogenized into the structure of the piece. I am flying by the seat of my pants here so....what happens...happens.. JPH

Howdy!!... I think I may have been out in the sun a bit too much but....here goes another of my hair(less)brained ideas... OK... I have a big old coffee can full of these little cut off ends, bits and pieces of 1095, 1084, 1070 and 1060 all mixed up that come off various projects and SLTT that I save to make little cutters, chisels and other stuff I might need..basically cause I am a cheapskate and don't want to throw them away... So in a spell of sheer madness I was thinking that "Hey...maybe I can make something outta some of these by welding them together..." The big question was how do I do that.... So I got the idea that if I stack them end to end and side to side on a piece of 1/8" 1095 that was laying about and then cover that with some of that 1060 banding, wire the whole Magilla together somehow... I can then simply squish them into one piece... The first pic is of what I started with...all the little bitty bits and the 1095. Noiw I didn;t take off the mill sclae or anything..just slapping them together "as is".... So the second pic is of the pieces arranged on the 1095 end to end and side by side..I did three courses of bitty bits on the 1095. I am hoping to get some sort of funky "hada-esque" like pattern from the weld lines...sorta like what ya get when you weld cable.... The next photo is of the 1060 strapping material that I am using to hold them all in place while I wrap it in the newspaper that they are sitting on...The strapping is 0.032" thick..and taht is 1060.... Photo four is the stack wrapped in newspaper to hold all the little pieces in place while I wrapped it as tight as I could to hold all the parts together for welding using concrete tie wire...THe paper will just burn off and not present any problems at all... Now I was a bit leary on the idea of using my normal 8# welding hammer as the impact would probably move everything around and jar it out of place.. I figured that I will let it soak for a good while to make sure everything is hot all the way through and flux the snot outta it using my "steel glue" flux...and hope for the best... When it was ready to go I just slipped it under Julius Squeezer and let him gently nudge everything together. It was a bit gooey and soupy from all the flux but it looked like everything stuck... The last photo is of the piece stuck together. Those little wire loops sticking out I will grind off once it cools. I figure that 4 or 5 cut/weld/cut courses should give me a solid piece. Now to keep up the volume/mass I am going to add a couple of pieces of some of that 1050 sheetmetal I have left over from my armour making days...May as well out it to use right?? I have no idea what I am going to come up with when all is said and done but it should be interesting. I dunno what I am going to do with this once it is welded but I will be posting pics as the work progresses.. I don't even know what is going on inside the bar (yet) so this should be a learning experience... Gawd I hope the pics come out in the right order... JPH

Hello: Knowing what I know about that particular book the flat out answer is NO...that book was not written for the "beginner" and if you do not already know the basics you will be totally lost. If you cannot make a decent knife before you start pattern welding you will be wasting your time.. I know this sounds harsh and nasty but that's the way it is. Why make a $50.00 knife out of a $500.00 piece of steel? Learn the basics of forging, heat treating, fitting and grinding...Plus the way things should "flow" and how they should be put together. Get decent at all of those and then start pattern welding cause that in itself presents a different set of problems...Forging "a few blades" simply isn't enough... a hundred or so..yeah..that's getting close. Now I am just one man and this is one man's opinion but forging a few blades I feel is no where near the level you should be at for that book...you need to learn to make solid welds 100% of the time before you start pattern welding. Simple as that. JPH

Thomas...you take the blonde and I'll take the one in the turban.... Book IV is turning into a mighty tome indeed and I am currently looking for a graphics person to do my line drawings.... JPH

looks very "Post Apacolyptic" sorta like something you'd see in a movie at 0300hrs on the Sci-Fi channels (or whatever they are called these days)... JPH

Hello: Ok....I forged this out a little while ago and it curved like crazy in yaki ire...Well,it held together and now I got the thing polished and mounted and "all together" it doesn't look all THAT curved. Nagasa is 27 1/4" ish.. the sori is just a smidge under 1 1/2" which is a LOT but doesn;t look all that much like a cavalry sabre like I was thinking it would... Tsuka length is 11 1/4" OAL: 39 1/8".. Shinogi-Zukuri, no Hi... Which is unusual for me cause I think they make he blade look "finished". The hamon I was going for was Notare but I botched it..a "design change" as they say...more like Gunome now I got it showing..sigh...Hey if it was easy everybody would be doing it right?? Mounted in a lion motif with black samegawa under some of that very so hard to find black and gold chevron weave silk ito...Tsuka is curved to match the blade sori as best as I could... Now I got to figure out how to do the siya...I am thinking black same and the rest in gold leaf under black cracked lacquer....I am getti8ng pretty good at that stuff.. hope the pic goes through JPH

Dodge: On this one I used my fly press and I don't use any guides when I am using Augustus Squeezer as there are to many things that need to be "done" when I am squeezing in the fuller.. After is is squeezed in I clean it up and even it out as best I can using my Foredom flex shaft machine and those little rubber drum sander things.... All in all, a fly press is a pretty nifty piece of equipment..sure beats doing it by hand hammer by a long ways... JPH

Bent: You know you are the second person that said the fuller looks like a raised rib..and now that you mention it..it kinbda does at that. Funny how the eyes can sometimes be tricked .... I think it may be due to the pattern..I dunno.. Thank you all for the kind words about it..this one was a bit of a PITA to get "right" but the work weas worth it.. JPH

Hello: Here's a little something I just finished..a "Cut and Thrust" style sword with a laminated blade. Blade is welded from 1060 and L-6 32" long with a 2/3 blade length fuller. Blade pattern is my "Hug and Kisses" pattern. The hilt is one of my one piece 1/2 baskets and both it and the fish tail pommel are Nitre blued. Grip is in a hock bottle shape wrapped in a chevron pattern bronze wire with a German silver spacer. OAL 40 1/4".. I'd say it came out OK for an olde fart working in his backyard out in the middle of nowhere... JPH

Hello: I am heartbroken, I got a horrible call last night, one of my oldest friends passed away. Robert Waldorff Loveless, a true legend in the custom knife world passed away. Man he and I go back 35 years. I don't need to mention all that he did for the custom knife world, if I did I could fill up this website. I just figured that folks should know... A Living Legend is no longer alive and that is a shame, but it is the way of mortal Man. He was a true friend and I will miss him greatly... We started the California Knifemaker's Association together all those years back. Man this is a sad days for knife folk... JPH

hello: You can just dig a hole in the ground, put in a air souce, Ie, a pipe, put on a simple bellows or other souce for an air blast and then use charcoal.. Been done that way for thousands of years JPH

I like the execution at the tip ogive..very nicely done indeed...looks like clean welds all around... Now the question is...are you going to make any more? hehheh hehhh JPH

Hello: Hope no one minds... RR SPikes are more of a "novelty" than anythiong else..the steel is what I would call "minimal" as far as knife blades go but still, with the proper hardening they do make an OK kinfe..All I know is I sell them faster than I can make them, and the customer wants what the customer wants so who am I to pass judgement??? When asked how well they cut I simply say it'll take a bit more sharpening but they do cut OK...and they just fly off my table...heck.for $40.00 a person gets a hand made, hand forged knife... Now I am just plain lil'ol me and no one special but I can't keep them around (which is a good thing)so I get as many as I can whenever I can find them.. I just brine quench and don't even bother with tempering and they cut A-OK the way I HT them.. Just my two cents... JPH

Hello: Hope no one minds an intrusion.... You got the cracks cause you used water. You should should of used a light to medium weight/speed oil... The mixture of motor oil/atf/diesel fuel suggested above works quite well...been using it myself for many years, even for water hardening tool steels when I feel that ther's an elevated chance of cracking a blade... JPH

Hello: I am glad ya all like it but this one isn't nothing compared to what I am turning out now....And now that I am done with the Japanese section on book IV I ain't making any more... JPH

Hello: I wpould say it is probably toast at this point...I would place it aside for another day and start fresh.. remeber you want to really soak the piece while it is heating..heat it slowly and all the way through..If you don't then this is what you wind up with.... This happens to everyone sooner or later..All part of the learning process... JPH

you got it a bit too hot and hit it way too hard... Now you know what a burned piece of steel looks like. Something that happens to everyone sooner or later... JPH

Howdy: Now I ain't nothing more than an old man working out of his back yard..the use of ash/paper/clay really is nothing more, basically... than what is being done now with a "can" and doing all that mosaic pattern welding. The ash/clay will simply form an airtight "seal" encasing the material thereby reducing scale and other problems from arising. All I know is I can weld SS to HC steels without putting them in a can and have been doing so for many, many years...Nothing new there... The overall tone of this thread is getting a bit testy and I for one would like to keep things civil and "fiendly like" so let's all just lighten up a notch or two.... JPH

Howdy: Ya all know what anvil shooting is???It revolves around that, several pounds of black powder and about a gallon of gasoline.... JPH

Journeyman crumudgeons? HA! I am THE crumdgeon and don't ya all forget it...when you throw an 8lb hammer at someone to stop them from doing something so totally assinine that it will not only cost them their life but the lives of everyone within a 5 block radius THEN you can become one of the few, the chosen..THE Crumudgeon... JPH

Hello: I do that a lot..what's the question? JPH

Hello: Well here is the next step in the Sword of Septis..I have two of the faggots welded, flattened and drawn out, ready for cleaning down to raw metal and the next photo is of the two pieces welded into one... While my paw heals this gives me a chance to consider what I am going to do with this...This is after all a test piece so I will be doing some experiments with it before I commit to making the Sword of Septis...This way I will be more or less able to tell what this material will do heat treat wise... It will be about three weeksish before I can really go back at this so please be patient... I SHALL RETURN..the Sword of Septis SHALL be forged!!! JPH

Hello: Actually you CAN make a knife out of brass but you will need to cold work it and even then, it will not get very hard but it will be sharp enough to cut for a little while. You really need to know what you are doing cold working or else you can crack the material if you aren't paying attention. The first metal implements were copper then various bronzes then iron and then steel..now they are going back to "rocks" (with the ceramics) but you can make a knife out of brass but why? Novetly? Just because? If so..go for it...Have fun doing it...it will be different but don not expect a decent edge that will last... JPH

Thos: Yes...I gotta do the twisting to get the air space down to a minimum...stuff welds nice and easy... Anstee hit a lot on his theories but he also missed a bunch as well...I still have a hard time believing that the edge pieces and core were round cross section welds.... JPH

Brother Thos: You mean the "armour" that's around the multi strand cable?? That would be interesting.. The Venberable Bill Bagwell and I about 25 years back did some experiments with black wire hardware cloth betwen sheet metal..made a very strange patten..Didn't work too well...too many chances of getting inclusions... On the Sword of Septis....I have welded two of the faggots and I am going to weld those together today and then deciude if I need to cut/weld one more time to make sure everything inside is sticking...Will post picks later this evening once I get the two pieces welded. The stuff does stick really nice... I am going to have enough for one sword from the looks of it from what I am working on now...I have 5 more faggots to weld so I have plenty of material for more blades. I never thought there is so much steel in one of these things... JPH