HondoWalker

When I bought my house one of the clothes hanger rods was 5ft of 3/4 inch steel rod. I have been using that. Have no idea what kind od steel it is.

Here is the same blade after a week's work week's work on it.

I ran out of them and need to buy more. Unfortunately all I can find are coby bolts and they are priced ridiculous. I need a bag of like 50 brass rivets for less than $20. I bought 25 sets a few years ago and they're all gone. Epoxy/glue won't hold my scales on so rivets are a must. I've tried to glue/epoxy on 5 knives so far and every time they pop loose when I'm filing them down. Rivets hold them on. Any ideas?

I knocked one out today. Only took me 3 hours. The handle is a bit too narrow but I'm still learning. Here's mine. Post yours.

I started at 80 and worked my way to 2000 then I put it on the buffer. Yes that's my touch mark. It has a L on it because I couldn't make a H And my middle name starts with L and most people know me by that name. The other is 245. I found it in my dad's old machinist toolbox. I figured it would be unique enough to set mine apart from any other L out there. I made the knife for a woman with small hands so the handle is a bit small. Also I was finding out how much steel rod I need to cut for more knives. Started at 8 inches, then 6 then 4. Next one will be 5 inches.

It's finished!

No, not the first one I made, my first sale. I got $50 for the knife pictured. Is that a fair price? Did I get robbed or got lucky?

I guess you could call me a new knifemaker. I made my first knife 30+ years ago when I was 14. My dad made knives and he showed me how to do it. I made a few simple knives out of old saw blades but they were for use as tools and met their fate long ago. 3 years ago I got a small cheap lathe and learned to make bowls. I made hundreds of them. I've only sold around 20 of them. Last summer I was watching Forged in Fire and got to wondering if I could still make knives. My dad did stock removal. He would grind a knife to perfection. I'm not so good at it because I've had strokes take away my ability to be precise with my hands. And my short term memory is useless too. But hey it wouldn't be fun if it weren't hard. So far I made a forge from a donut tire rim, an exhaust pipe from an Audi, some pieces of cinder blocks and cement with an old hair blower my wife donated. It works ok but it's a tad too small. I've forged 7 knives and a drawknife so far. Remembering what to do next is difficult at times. I've had to go to a smaller hammer because I can't really do fine control with my hands. A lot of it is no different than if I had my eyes shut while doing it. It's easier with a smaller hammer. But I think I'm getting better at it. Finally had someone want to buy a knife from me but I have no idea what to charge. My dad charged $300 back in 1985 for his knives. I looked up what an equal price would be given inflation. I kept getting around $1,000 as a current equivalent. I've got 18 hours in this latest knife. I know I can't even hope to get that much for a knife. Not even with copper added to it. What do you guys charge? I have a picture of most of what I've made so far.I'd say all of them were more practice than anything else. This latest one I'm working on seems far better than the others, Even though it's handle is too small.

Yeah they are fine. It was 36 years ago. The er told them if they had been inside any longer they would have died. I got up early and left to go do whatever it was I did back then. I only had a headache and didn't think anything of it when I left. I have always slept with the door shut. That is what saved me. And nearly killed them with their open doors.

Yes I do. I'm originally from West Virginia and seeing online sales of $25-$50 a bag coal is completely unreasonable. Been trying to get someone with a truck to take me WV so I can buy a $25 truckload of coal. My sisters have 3 trucks between them. I'm sure someday they will help me get some coal. The funny thing is my house has a coal fireplace. If I could get bituminous I could heat my house with it. But I wouldn't. Last time I heated a house with coal my mother and sisters nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning. I was 16, I didn't know better.

Me too. They seem to be glass/iron. I use anthracite coal and those clinkers make me wonder what was that coal other than dead wood. I did find a broken piece of pottery in my last bag of coal. Gotta wonder where that came from. I took a picture of my latest spoon. here it is

Today I made another knife. I used that same steel rod I've been using. First knife I used an 8 inch piece. Next it was a 6 inch piece. Today I did a 4 inch piece and figure that's about right for a small knife. I only used the three pound cross peen to spread it some and the two pound ball peen for the same reason. The rest of the forging I used that little bodywork hammer. I didn't wear out as fast this time and the metal responded well. Also made another spoon. Used an allen head bolt and this time it welded just perfect. And the thing might be useable when I'm done with it. Here's the blade fresh from the quench.

My stepson lost (and I found and kept) a small hammer with a very flat square end. It's a bodywork hammer for beating pieces of fender strait. I gave it a try on this latest knife and had pretty good results with it compared to just trying to smooth it out with the flat side of a ball peen hammer. I should have qualified that heat treating just the edge doesn't work for me these last couple of times. Parts of the edge are hard to file on and other parts the metal feels soft as butter. Going to take me a bunch more practice to get good at it.

Made my first knife when I was 14. Then in the next 35 years only made 3 or 4 simple knives that weren't very good. Now I'm in my 50's and have become disabled I needed a way to force my brain into learning something new I figured black smithing might be cool. And I gravitated to knives soon as I started. It was then I discovered that I hadn't forgot most of it. And what I don't know is the smithing part. My dad made knives and he taught me, but he never forged any. He ground his knives from flat steel bars he bought. Last night though I had missed a big one. That is, use a countersink bit on the rivet hole and not only does it look better, it makes the rivets easier to set. And if you think only quenching the edge and tempering works, well it doesn't seem to. In the future I plan on getting a propane torch so I can drill the holes and shape the metal and then quench and temper. But for now as my forge is coal I'll have to keep doing it when the smithing is done. Oh and towards the end of forging use a lighter hammer and a softer touch so the blade won't have dips and tool marks. Anyone got more tips you'll only learn by doing?

There aren't any gaps. The black stuff is when I haven't got sanded yet. The gaps at the top of the handle are made from excess wood that will be trimmed off. I only spent 20 minutes on it after the clamps came off. I have days more work to do on it.

Got the clamps off and most of the extra wood off the handle got many hours left on it but I figured yall could give good feedback on my progress.

Monday was nice so I forged another knife. Each one is better than the last. So the rest of this week is polishing and handle making. My walnut boards vanished on me so this handle will be cedar. Never seen a knife with a cedar handle. I know it's a soft wood but I plan on a thick coating of epoxy on the handle to keep it pretty. Besides, no one wants the knives I make yet. It'll never get used for anything anyway. I make them for something to do, not profit. I'd never get paid for my time in it. Just like my bowls, can't charge for my time and effort. Would never sell any. I'm lucky to get $20 for a bowl that took 3 or 4 hours to make. I put 3 hours into that knife so far and a couple more getting the blade shiny and still more hours on the handle. How long can you guys swing a 3 pound hammer? I'm lucky to get 3 hours in before my arm stops working and I have to stop. Then when I'm almost finished my arm won't swing the hammer anymore so final details suffer. Any advice on how to still be able to use the hammer when 3 pounds feels like 30 and you can't catch your breath or quit sweating, even in the cold?

Don't have small chisels yet. I made my mark out of an old steel lathe bit. I put it on hot and hope it doesn't get sanded off. I've sanded a few of them off. I have no idea what kind of steel it is. I quenched the edge and it is good and hard. The rest of it is still drillable. On one of my first forgings I quenched the whole thing and ruined a couple drill bits trying to drill it. Plus if the whole blade is hard it takes more energy to polish it. At least that's my reasoning. Could be wrong. The drawknife I made from angle iron is mild steel I think. Quenching did nothing.to it and you have to sharpen it every time it's used. Still a beginner. Thanks for the complement and advice.

Been a while since I forged anything. Last time I made a spoon. Earlier this year had a water leak in my closet. So we had to take the shelves and hanger poles out. I had noticed one of the "pipes" was heavy, but didn't think more about it until around Thanksgiving. That's when I saw it was not pipe. It is a solid steel bar 1 inch by 5 foot. I cut 8 inches of it off and got to forge it Saturday. It became a knife. I hadn't forged a full tang knife yet so that's what I made. Cleaned it up last night. Today I put a handle on it and shined it up a bit. Was going to make the handle out of walnut but I couldn't find enough to use on both sides. One side is walnut. The other is red oak. And I finally got my mark on one correctly. It's just an "L". Couldn't quite carve a H So I had to use my middle initial. Once I have it sanded down to fairly perfect I'll coat the handle in epoxy to lock the shine in and to seal it up. Here's a picture of it. Yesterday and today.

I forged another spoon. This one came from an old broken socket extention. The wrench hole did not weld, like every single attempt I have made. But the spoon was not made to eat with.

The weather broke but I had ran out of coal. Then I finally got my stimulus. So now I'm ready to go back to it. Bought one of those foot long vice grips. I figured they will make decent tongs until I can make some that won't immediately break. And a ball peen hammer. Used to hate those hammers as a kid. Hard to drive nails with. Never knew what they were for. Now I do and guess it may come in handy. All that is left is leaves. Gotta get some up so I don't burn my yard. This weekend something steel will be born.

And I thought $1 per pound was too steep. I guess I will never own an anvil. Growing up cartoons gave the impression that anvils were common. I have never seen one in real life. I reckon my little circle of steel will have to continue being an anvil for me.

It was cool enough to break out the forge last weekend. I saw a "scrap" of metal still welded to the ancient threaded rod. I figured I had made knives using far less metal so I got to forging. There was enough for decent sized blade. Had some free time so I polished it a little and made a handle for it. The first part of the metal I used months ago to make a knife. I thought I used more steel in the first knife but I must be wrong because this one is of decent size. I used part of a piece of aluminum I found for the guard and used walnut wood for the handle. Kinda feeling the damage from my strokes today. The handle that is on it is the 4th one I made. The others broke or the rivets bent and I had to start again over and over. Been making knives since I was 14. Here at 52 I can't match the quality of my first one. At least despite 7 strokes I can still make a usable knife. Forgive the headline typo please. This tablet likes to jump around and put things where I did not intend.

It's much better than I thought it would be. Plus water/other things won't stain the wood.

first knife I forged got a soldered hilt. Used regular solder on brass and steel. Had no problems with it. Had to be careful I didn't kill my heat treat. Looks pretty good to me.