SRT02

I roughed the tang up and removed the old epoxy the second time around. The wood I used is rosewood. I'll attach some pictures

I have been working on the handle of knife and at first I didn't want to put pins in it and just glued the pieces of the hand onto the knife with some 24 hour epoxy. After a day or two the pieces fell off. So now I've glued it up again and I'm wondering if I should try and put some pins in it. Any suggestions? Thanks a bunch.

Here is the knife after I worked on it. So far, I think it is coming pretty good. The handle is walnut, and it may seem kind of wierd looking since the handle is bigger than the blade but it is actually VERY comfortable in my hand. I heated the tang and and burned it into the knife. (I simply drilled a hole to start that). All and all, I would have to say not bad for my third knife.

A lot of good tips guys, I think I might weld a tang onto it. Sounds like it should work pretty well. Thanks a bunch!

I have a piece of Damascus steel, I am thinking of making it into a knife. Just a small knife. I like the pattern and I think it could work. But I'm still questioning if it's fine or too small. It is 5" long and about a half inch wide. It's pretty thin as well, about a 8th of an inch.

Cool knife. Looks like it will serve it's purpose well.

Okay, I'll ask him about that but that sounds like its right on the dot. Because each nail I've used takes a real effort to get back out. For example I was nailing some into a dead tree for a hanger in my camp in the woods, and I needed to take it out and I probably spent 5-10 minutes on getting out. It was barely bent as well. So far, I've learned a lot about this stuff. More to it than meets the eye.

I don't taper my nails much, mostly square down until the point. not real sharp end either. The wood thing seems to be the problem. I'll try that and see if there is a difference.

Nope, only splits with the forged ones. factory nails and such are fine.

I've gotten into making nails. So far they have worked pretty well. Except I had a few problems with the nails splitting the wood. So I asked around and a friend told me that in his experiences the nails split the wood in a very similar way. We pretty much make our nails the same way and the same length (usually). He told me that if you hammer in the nails a certain way they don't split as much. But I thought if there was a way to hammer them in with no splitting, I'd try to find it. What I did was try to draw out the nail a different way so its not 4 sided. With a more round nail I would have less splitting. Or so I thought. It actually reduced the splitting quite well. But of course there was still some splits that could mess up what ever I going to build. Any ideas on how to fix this problem? And if anyone knows why they are splitting so much? (I tried having the nail going with the grain, but still had some problems)

Thanks for the tips. I have a bunch of old pocket knives laying around i could take apart and look at them. And I looked at that post "My first Friction folder", that helped a lot! Thanks.

I am trying to make a small pocket knife, but so far I haven't done much but try a few ideas that don't seem to work out so well. I figured I'd ask around to see if I could put together a few ideas and try something new. I am planning on making a 2 inch blade with a rivet hole at the bottom to put in a wooden handle where I can move the knife into and somehow lock it in there. I am going to try to put a few pics on here of my past attempts.

That spring is HUGE!!!! Wonder where it came from.... I love to see stuff like that! Whoops, already replied.... Sorry.

Wow, thanks for all the info! Man, that is a HUGE spring. Any idea of what it is off of? It'd be fun to know! :D

The I made today is made out of an old jackhammer piece. It's high carbon i think. I forgot to put a shoulder on it though. But it's roughly 2-2 &1/2 in. It works good. Do you really need to heat treat one of these? If all the things you cut using it will be hot?

What is the average height for a hot cut?

The BEST thing about it is you get to make your own tools!

Those sound great, I think I will work on a few S hooks and wall hooks when it stops raining.... ( My forge is right outside the shop)

Been forging for about a year now. I'll ask him.

I'm getting ready to try out a few things on my next knife, folding being one of them. I know absolutely nothing about folding metal. So I was wondering if anyone could help me out on how to get it started and such.

I've got plenty of RR spikes laying around in the shop. I could come up with a BBQ poker also. Thanks you guys!

What's a good project for a beginner/young blacksmith who is searching for some fun? It's the weekend again and I am really wanting to go fire up to forge and all the ideas I have had so far are either a bit risky, or I don't have the right tools for. Anyone wanna help me out? :D

Cool knife Karl, I'd take that knife off a shelf as fast as i could. Looks like a great work knife.:)

Awesome knife! The zebra wood is a great touch!

RR spikes are great practice, I know it isn't the answer you were looking for but I thought I should of pointed something out.