Les L

Swedgemon, great job on the project. I haven’t seen the “old trick” of filling pipe with sand to bend it smoothly for several years, all the young people use the fancy benders, but the older craftspeople used the sand to keep the pipe/tubing from collapsing while bending. I’m happy to see that some of the old skills are still being used and passed on to people starting to learn how to move metal into the shape they want. I know when I try to explain it to people they look at me like I’m crazy, then when I show them they say that’s easy and I can’t believe it works 

Alexandr, you never cease to amaze me with the quality of your work and your ability to design your artwork to provide objects that bring your customers houses to a work of art that equals museum quality. I look forward to every picture of your work you post. 

Thanks Anvil, one of those what can I do with this moments. 

Ironwoolf, I would definitely be heading that way to attend, but unfortunately it is the same weekend as our LAMA conference down here in Louisiana. 

Or seeing blue flashing lights outside the house! Yes, that’s a great deal John. 

Shaina, It must be coincidence that I was working on a project today and wanted to try the same finish that you were asking about. I'm not  satisfied with the flower, but I am happy with the finish and contrast. I brass brushed the flower and used the blo, turp&bees wax mix that Anvil was recommending

PB, that's a mean looking knife, if she has to pull it she'll probably not find out if it cuts because just seeing it will scare them off.

Wishing you a speedy recovery and hope to see you at the next meeting

I finished this a couple of days ago, still have to make the sheath. This is my first, knife made from a piece of 5/8 coil spring, it has a 0.125 spine. I tested a piece of the spring to ensure it would harden and temper (thanks to the advice here) before moving forward with the knife. It was a fun project, all hand tools, but definitely identified the need for a belt grinder before making another one.

Hefty, I believe knee tongs would work at times, like raising a lid or moving an empty pan, but would be a disaster trying to lift a heavy object without modifying the tongs for the specific purpose. I would do testing with cold pans and pots filled with water 

Buford, when I wanted to see if a gas forge was a good option for me as another tool to use other than my coal forge I purchased one of the inexpensive entry level forges like you did, it also came with satinite to use. My opinion of the products supplied to complete the forge is it’s a lower priced forge because they use lower quality products to keep the price down. I assembled my forge according to the very detailed directions supplied with it and had constant problems with the satinite cracking and the forge not achieving the heat that it should. To correct the problems I followed the information that Frosty, Iron Dragon, Mickey and several others on this site has supplied from their testing and use of quality products to build a good forge and relined my forge based on their recommendations of proper products to use.  After doing this I have not had any problems in the last four months of heavy use, including using it to forge weld 12 wrapped eye tomahawks one week. My advice is for you to spend a little time reading some of the posts here, like forges 101, and it won’t take you long to see who you need to go to for proper advice on how to take care of a problem. 

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed it.

Gavin, that's a great looking knife. I plan on making one in the future and I hope it comes out half as nice as yours.

I finished my first knife yesterday. Started with a piece of 5/8 coil spring, all hand forged and hand filed to finish. It was a fun project, and a learning experience, but I don't think I will be doing another one before I get a belt grinder.

I would keep it for repair parts.

George, thanks for the information, I have an additional bit of knowledge thanks to the knowledgeable members of IFI

3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Deep draw steels

Thomas, please forgive my ignorance, but I have never heard the term “deep draw steels” can you explain what type of steel this is, how to identify it and what it’s good to use for?

The ones I have experience with, from my combining days, were tough to resist wear. We would average 4 years custom combining, 6 months per year, per machine and not wear them out. I do not think they would be good knife steel, but would make good tool steel.

This is the ink stamp. I didn't know my wife had it until Twisted commented on it. Now everyone knows how much mail I prepare to send out, I just drop it in the mail box for her when I check our incoming box.

By the way, she was very impressed with your wax seal Billy, I wont be surprised if one shows up in the mail at our house.

I use neatsfoot oil on my leather work boots, it’s not a waterproof, but it’s the best I found for the underground utility work I did for 37 years 

I damaged the tendon on the bottom of my foot, that attaches to the heel, and had a lot of trouble for 3 years until I bought a pair of Danner boots. The first pair were 8” leather/cordura construction and were like wearing tennis shoes. My foot stopped hurting after a month. All my work boots are Danner and my tennis shoes are Merrill

She bought it off the web a few years ago, I didn’t check to see if they still had a site 

Good haul Billy, I have 2 anvils on tripods and that’s all I’ll use for anymore that I mount. Very stable, quietens the anvil and is easy to move around on a concrete floor. I used 2” pipe on the first and 2” square on the second, because that’s the scrap I had laying around, and both work great. 

On 12/20/2022 at 3:51 PM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

 

From Les!

that’s a really awesome stamp on the back of your envelope!!! Did you have that custom made?

 

 

Billy,

I just saw this, yes that is a custom stamp my wife had made. It came from a company named Three Designing Women

You’ve got a good haul, that set of tongs looks like they are wide for rivets, but you’ll find use for them. 

The fifth one is knee tongs to reach inside something like pip, tomahawk or or axe eyes. I can’t see the fourth real clear, but it looks like river tongs or to hold a round rod sideways 

Alexandr, someone is going to be extremely lucky to receive those, I’m looking forward to seeing when, and where, they are installed.