Dewnmoutain

Lol! Although, a copper wire wrapped handle sounds like a fun experiment to see what itd look like on another blade

Reason i disregarded the pins at forst was that the only rod i own is just under 1/8". And the tang height is 3/4". Looking at it, to me, it wouldve looked weird. If i had 1/4 rod for pinning, then i think thatdve looked better.

That....thats a really good idea.

Making a 9" chefs knife. Things are going well. Forged to shape, heat treated, thinned down slightly and bevels ground in. Now im working on attaching the handle, and im second guessing myself here. Ive made knives before, big, small, in between. Full tang, hidden tang, even did a couple burn ins just to see what happens. But for all of these handles, i always drilled and set pins in them. Because in the back of my head, somewhere i read or something like that, that having pins helps reinforce the handle for a thrusting motion. Helps keep the handle on the tang. But now im making this chef's knife,and decided that i didnt want to pin it. I would just do scales, epoxied on and sanded to shape. But today, im getting to the point where im about ready to glue it up, and in the back of my head, that little voice is screaming at me that i need pins in the handle. I know the epoxy im planning to use has some 5kpsi rating or whatever (id have to look at it again),and for a chefs knife, itll work. But that dang voice. I guess i just need someone to tell me "yup, itll work" or "nope cuz of X" or "yes, itll work, but you need to do this as well".

Huh...yeah that makes sense

Im a semantics kind of guy. Especially if the reasoning for something isnt obvious to me or made clear. I ended up putting beeswax/linseed oil mix on the hook. I know the hook wont be outside, but i still wanted to coat it. Ill have to try the trick you mentioned. Never would have thought of it. Thanks!

But its a general observation, not specifically about heat treating...

Made a J hook. Needed it so i could hang coiled electrical wire.

Finally got around to chabging from used motor oil as my quench oil to canola oil. First time i used it today. I have to admit, it smells a whole lot better than used motor oil. And i didnt feel like i had smoked 3 dozen packs of smokes in one breath. Oh, and i made a hook today as well! Since people are gonna think this: no, i didnt quench the hook in the oil. Im making a chefs knife and quenched the blade in the oil.

Doing some clean up in the shop, and im trying to organize my slits, drifts, punches, etc. I came up with the shelf unit in the picture, but i dont like it. I made another shelf like this when i built my shop and used it to store a couple chisels and punches that i had purchased, but in the end it ended up contibuting to rusty ends. I know this shelf will work for the time being, but im stumped on how to store these tools in my shop. So i was wondering how my fellow smiths organize their slitters, punches, drifts, chisels, etc?

Christmas presents finished. 3 back scratchers. Wish i could have seen how the middle one was going to space apart before i hammered it flat so i could have done a tighter twist. But, it turned out well enough to leave my shop.

Prototyping backscratcher designs. Successfully forge welded the ends

Getting better.

The thing that was missing for me to fully understand was that bit you talked about in your previous post, about working it down to remove the seam, and loosing height in your material because your having to mold the material. I watched asperys videos several times already, and always felt like there was something missing. Finally Frazers comment got me what i was missing. So tomorrow i should have some good welds completed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it now. ...no. i was practicing just getting them to connect first. I probably shouldve been taking the extra minute to set up that scarf on the material