HondoWalker

Been awhile since I fired up the forge. And it showed. Got up early before it got hot. My coal just would not start. Took me 2 hours to get it started. My rebuilt hair dryer wasn't pushing enough air to get it going. And my vacuum cleaner was giving me too much air blowing it out. I finally got it going and tried to forge an old piece of file into a dagger. What little I got burning was barely enough to heat it. And then I had to quit. Couldn't catch my breath, was seeing spots (more than normal), and felt weak as a kitten. Got a tang on the file and that's about it. Took me an hour to quit breathing hard. But I wasn't sweating too much. It was a new experience. Unpleasant. I guess when it hit 90 with the humidity it was too much for me. It's really upsetting. I worked out in that heat for 25 years. Never got like that. And I did landscaping in the 90's back when it was stupid hot in NC. It has cooled off a lot since then. Who knows when I'll be able to finish that dagger.

Fixed my blower finally by finding a dc motor that fit and an old laptop power supply to make it go. Set out to make a ginseng hoe but run out of gas and it ended up being a rock hammer. Took me two hours to get the hole made. My punches kept sticking to the steel. Was going to try to make a bigger hole but the angle was wrong on the biggest punch and it did nothing. The handle is from a walking stick I cut in West Virginia about 12 years ago. It was 25 and only an inch and a half wide. So I figured it would be a pretty strong handle. Until next time.

Thanks for the knowledge. I've never made Damascus and only know the legends about the Japanese and Syrians. I just guessed that the more steps you take up in grit the cleaner the shine. Lately I've begun realizing that I can only polish wood so much so I don't have to go through every grit up to 3,000. Never been too good at talking to people or asking questions. I've always tried to figure stuff out myself. It's usually worked out pretty good that way. However this metalworking stuff is quite a bit more complicated than it seems. I can use the advice. Saves me a ton of time and bother.

Nice damascus. I haven't tried any yet since every single attempt I've made at forge welding has failed. That and if I do it I'd like to try one piece of steel folded like 50 times. But can't do anything until I figure out a solution to my blower problem. It was an old hair dryer that had a cool setting. I locked it on cool last year and forgot about it. And it stopped working and melted my adapter that held it on the pipe. I figured no problem and took it a part and cut out the heater wire. The really bad engineers that made that thing was using the heater wire as a voltage drop. Without the wire the motor won't run. It is a 12 volt dc motor! I do not have a 12 volt dc power supply. A battery would die before my forge even warmed up. Luckily I got the blade I was working on finished before the blower trouble became apparent. This one started as a chunk of hinge I had been given. It forged nicely and even got semi hard. The handle is made of teak from an old boat I had 20 years ago. Saved the wood just for something like this. The pommel is carved from a solid chunk of aluminum. Things I learned on this one: If I use 7/16 threaded rod it's easier to cut a slot out of the center and place the tang inside the slot. It really welds up solid. But it's harder to tap. And my 1/4, 5/16, 9/16 and 3/8 taps are worn completely out. Also, starting at 36 grit and going 100,150,220,320,400,500,600,800, 1,000, 1,200, 1,500, 2,000,3,000 then buffing still leaves little scratches!!! Even starting at 500 and going up two more times still left tiny scratches! It's maddening. Hope I can get my blower up and running soon.

Today I got to fire up my forge for a couple hours or so. My mom gave me a bunch of hinges. Well half hinges made of 1/4 inch steel welded to a tube. I have one I cut the tube off one and sanded/ground on it until it became an adapter for my tool rest on my lathe. I cut off a kinda small piece and hammered it into a blade. I don't know if it hardened on the quench yet. It's still 115 in my shop. When it gets down to 90 I'll go up and see how it did. Only had a couple blades harden. Both made from a really, really rusty piece of threaded rod. I use one of them as a utility knife and it has already cut me bad several times. But when your hands are numbed, and deadened by strokes it's to be expected.

This latest one is made from a can opener handle. It's the first one I made using my new 72x2 belt grinder. Saved me hours and hours of filing and using my weak 4x38 belt grinder. I forged it on a Tuesday and had it finished the following Friday. Usually takes 2 weeks. Only gashed my thumb's knuckle once.

I got to hit the forge Monday. Beat out two knives. One was part of a commercial can opener handle. The other was some random steel piece. Looked like it may have been a hinge. They both seemed to harden. Got to use my new 2x72 belt grinder and saved myself a few hours on the old 4x32 sander. Having two horsepower makes a huge difference. I can just about stop my Harbor Freight sander motor with one hand. I can't stop my 72 inch. It'll break a hand first.

Made a belt sander. It's not pretty but it works.

Your welds are far better than mine.

Been looking for an anvil for a couple years now. Finally found one for sale. Unfortunately the owner seemed quite insane and would not even begin to consider my offer. It was an old beat up 42 pound anvil. I offered 50 or 75 dollars for it. He would not budge from the absolutely insane price of $500. He kept going on about his price being reasonable since anvils are so rare. If I spend $500 on an anvil I won't be able to carry it out one handed. Guess I'll spend another year on my two inch thick six inch wide "anvil".

Got to hit the forge on Monday. Made a little knife out of ancient rusty threaded rod found in the woods at my mother's house. The other thing was a broken file. It was a small piece so it's now a large arrowhead or a small spearhead. I mounted it to a broken arrow I have and it looks mean. Shot it a couple times. Kinda fun. The knife will be a work knife since it got nice and hard and is just right size for using.

And here's the one that I welded the tang and placed a pin in the pommel. I concentrated on those two aspects so I neglected others. Plus it's the knife a split my pinky finger working on. Should have got stitches. The wound is healed but it still hurts to move it.The handle is purple leaf plum. I keep finding bits of it and using them. Still getting better at the knifemaking. Not as good as some of the knives posted in this thread. You guys put me to shame. Really good knives.

Here's the one I ground out of Lowe's bar steel. It's how my dad made them. And compared to forging it is super simple to do. How did he get $350 per knife back in 1984? According to Ebay custom made knives go from $20 to $75. Have to find some super glue before I can finish the one with the pin and a welded tang.

I let it cool slowly on it's own. How do you preheat a flux core welder steel? Propane torch? The first weld on it had a small bit attached together. The second one had it all melted together. It hasn't budged and I'm almost to the point of polishing it.

Didn't make it to the forge this weekend. Finally got a welder. Tried the el cheapo one from HF and it would not weld the angle iron I had set up to learn on. Plus it would not stop feeding wire or turn off until the off switch was flipped. I took it back and traded up for the little green one. It could and did weld the angle iron just fine. I completely suck at welding but those two pieces of steel ain't coming apart. So I pulled out the knife I had set aside and welded threaded rod to the tang. I spent a bunch of time filing down a handle made of alternating black rubber and plexiglass. I found that my weld job sucked and it broke apart. I cleaned the metal up best I could and welded it again. This time I did a much better job. My pieces fell apart so I found a piece of purple leaf plum wood and used that for the handle. It has worked out well and I have spent the better part of two days filing on the pommel. I cut the end off because the pommel was too long. And of course I exposed the hole I'd made and tapped for the threaded rod. I sat there looking at that hole and my first thought was a brass bolt I could fill it with. Had no luck finding one. Was at my desk and spied a piece of brass tube I had bought 20 years ago for launch lugs of high power rockets I used to make. And it perfectly fit the hole. I cut off a small piece of tube and stuck it in the hole. I put 8 pieces of 14 gauge copper wire in the tube and a piece of 8th in brass rod I've had forever. Filled the empty bits with JB Weld. Let it cure and filed it down. The hole is gone. The pommel is 80% filed down. Couple more days and I'll be able to start polishing the blade.

I don't consider my hands to be large. The wood began as a large block I split and used for a handle. I filed it, rasped it and sanded it for 3 days and it feels good in my hand so I called it "good enough". The hilt sticks out about half an inch on the sharp side and is flush everywhere else. It just keeps your fingers away from the ouch.

My dad was a knifesmith and I inherited his tools from when he made3 knives. I use the pins he left behind. Eventually I'll have to buy more.

Here is my latest knife. This one came from a random 6 inch long half inch wide piece of steel my mother had in her shop and she gave it to me. I made the guard out of a flattened piece of 3/4 copper water pipe. It's my first knife with both a guard and a pommel on a hidden tang knife. My first use of a brass pin also. The tang was not made properly for the guard. JB Weld covers most of the glaring mistakes. Wasn't going to have a pommel but I cut the end of the handle too short and the end of the tang was exposed. I had a small piece of brass about as wide as the tang so I drilled it and the tang for a pin. My smallest diameter pin was too big for the hole. Don't have a bigger drill bit so I used my drill and a file to make the pin fit. I again used JB Weld to help hold the brass and cover the hole the tang was in. The brass polished up and you can't see the pin at all. The wood is curly oak. I buffed it to a shine to make the stripes come out. Also this steel was hardenable. It got nice and strong. Finally one of my knives will get and hold an edge. It gave me a nice slice on my pinky that should have had a few stitches. Then I was wiping buffing rouge off the blade and the edge jumped through the cotton fabric and sheared skin off my thumb. Then it touched the cuticle of my first finger and brought the blood again. It falls through paper like a laser. Not as pretty as my previous one but much more useful.

I have no idea. I think it quenched and got hard, But I'm not too sure. It was just a random rod she had. No idea where it came from.

I got to heat up the forge Sunday. Mom gave me a 6 inch x 1/2 inch steel rod. I Made it into a knife. Put a new tang on my roughing chisel. Also increased the bend in the u channel to make a better cutting chisel. Made a 3/4 x 1 inch chunk of mild steel into a fork. And took a small piece of scrap steel into a kindling wedge. WAs putting a handle on the knife and split my pinky finger. Bled everywhere. But that's the price you pay to be a blacksmith after 7 strokes. Going to get hurt a LOT. Still though, gotta do something and I've turned all my wood.

Hit the forge a few days ago. Was experimenting with that steel I have been using. Apparently it is mild steel. Quenching does nothing to it. So my last several knives are for looks only. Wanted also to see how much I needed to make a small knife. One inch won't do it. Need at least 2 inches. Still having a bear of a time trying to affix some threads to the tang. I will be getting a new welder in a couple days. So I figure that problem will fix itself. First I have to learn to weld. I keep trying to forge weld but so far I've had absolutely no luck. Had a planer blade I wanted to turn into damascus. Had cleaned it up nice and shiny. Tried several times to get it to stick and figured it wasn't getting hot enough. So of course it melted. I'll keep trying. I'll get it to work eventually.

That is a really good knife Hound. I hope my blades could be half that good. I mostly finished the latest one. Still have a long way to go. I did get what I feel is the biggest compliment I've ever gotten. My dad was a master knifesmith. And I was told that since I forge my knives that they are better than Dad's. Dad did stock removal for all of his knives. To me there's no higher compliment.

And it broke again. I'm going to stop on this knife until I can figure what to do. No, the only friend I have with a welder is in Pageland, SC And that's too far to go. IF we get another stimulus I'll buy me a welder. If we get one. Every attempt I have made at forge welding has been a miserable failure. I guess next time I'll try to make the tang round and thread it. But every rod I have ever tried to thread has broken. I can tap holes pretty good, but threading rods is a skill I'll have to learn.

Latest knife update: getting the threaded rod to stay on the tang is frustrating. I used a small bolt and it broke when I tried to tighten the pommel. Then I tried JB Weld putty. That didn't work either. Finally I was going to rivet it together and the hollow rivet collapsed on me. I ended up just using the pin side. First attempt was oak. Second was plum. Now I'm on Cedar hoping it stays together this time. Trying to get it all tight and I'm having a time trying to make it tight. Tried using copper plate and leather to make it tighter but like that it won't go on. I threaded the brass chunk and it's only 3/8s deep. I don't want to go through the brass. I know if I welded or braised the rod on it would work, but I have no welder or torch. I had a torch and my step son lost it along with a ton of my tools and several other items I never wanted him to mess with yet they are broken or gone. Being a step dad to a 26 year old "kid" not what I signed up for but it's my life. I have to adjust I guess.

Been a couple weeks since I hit the forge. While the last couple of knives have gone their own ways I felt it is time to up the difficulty a little. This one will have a guard and a pommel. And no rivets. Also my belt sander has gone useless on me so I'll have to figure another way to shine it up right. Harbor Freight tools seem to only last 3 or 4 years if you use them a lot. Got an angle grinder that is 7 years old and it died. Started using it a bunch and poof it got dead. Belt sander, bandsaw, angle grinder, oscillating saw, mini lathe and air compressor. I think that is all that have died so far. It's enough though, isn't it? I'll spend whatever time I get free this week and make it presentable. Also made my first fork. It didn't come out too good. Going to need a lot of practice at it. I make knives, bowls, spoons and now I am branching out to forks.