aparadi

Nice! Thanks for the tip. I have linseed oil, so I can try that!

Thanks Frosty! I'll look up what products are good for stabilizing the wood. BTW - I have plans to make one of your burners sometime soon!

Thanks for the idea Thomas - I'll keep that in my back pocket for the next time I mess up a fitting! Good point about the 'old' oak

Thanks for the ideas! I did use epoxy all inside the hidden tang and between the wood and copper spacer, but none between the spacer and the guard. I also didn't clamp it lengthwise while gluing it - I assumed the pins would hold it well enough (they were hard enough to get in!) I used very old oak that's been sitting in a garage for 30 years or so for the handle. Just used boiled linseed oil on it. Given how dry the wood would have been I would think it's more likely to expand than contract?

Hi all. I made my first knife and it's "OK". I have limited tools (no welding options, no taps for threading, no lathe, no drill press). I went with a hidden tang approach but wanted to have a separate piece for the guard. I was struggling with getting the handle on there tight enough to keep the guard nice and tight though. The slot I filed in the guard was a little looser than I would have wanted and allows for some 'wiggle' along the long axis. I figured that the flat top of the handle pressing against it would prevent that wiggle. I used steel 'rivets' for a mechanical bind - and it was really tight when I was hammering them in during the glue-up. But a couple of weeks later the guard has started to wiggle ever so slightly again. It is just not feasible to build a rock solid guard the way I tried to do it?

Thanks JHCC! Sounds like making a machete is the perfect project for my second ever knife and a "forge" that is only 1 brick deep I'm not expecting great things from my final result

Thanks Thomas! I'll check with my mechanic so see if they have anything! Sorry for the @ option - why do people not like that? I don't get notifications from iforge when someone replies, so I thought that the @ would help with that.

Thanks We're in a lock-down right now, so getting different steel isn't as easy as it once was. Maybe I'll wait until I can get it more easily and make something else instead.

Thank you for the replies - I didn't realize that iForge wasn't sending me notification when people replied so I just saw the responses now! I ended up getting some el-cheapo firebrick (not the soft kind) from Rona and and use a bernzomatic torch hooked up to my bbq propane tank. The interior is only one brick thick and maybe a couple of inches wide, but it's been enough to make a bunch of napkin rings with leafs on them and to heat treat a stock-removal knife. I used some charcoal for a big enough fire to make some really really ugly tongs. But I've found some suppliers for kaowool and refractory cement etc, and found that my brother in law has a drill press as well as a wielder, so I think I'll make a propane-tank forge at some point!

Hi all. I have some .125 inch x 12" x 1.5" 1095 stock (bought some blanks for knives), but I'm thinking of making a machete. I was going to forge out the tang and would have to draw out the rest of the blank which will result in a pretty thin machete. It's only going to be used for fairly light camping type work. Which I believe means I'll need some pretty springy steel. Will 1095 work for what I want? I'm new to forging and knife making, so I have limited tools, but let me know if there is anything else I should consider? I have quenched my other knives with Canola Oil. I'm unsure how well it worked.

I'm looking to get into forging more and I'm finding myself on the fence here too. The lightweight insulating firebricks seem to be about $10-$15 each. To build a reasonable sized forge for making fun things and maybe some blades it looks like I would need about 8 - 10 bricks. I think I would likely buy a burner. And then miscellaneous angle irons etc would bring me up to about $250 or so. And it looks like I can buy one for about $300. Given how difficult it is to get materials as a downtown Torontonian I'm leaning towards buying. Even finding non-brickette charcoal is tough enough around here (and cost a lot in fuel). It seems to me like my cheapest option is to buy one. I don't have a welding skills or supplies. Am I missing something? Thoughts?