Chad J.

Made a small basket twist S hook. I went with 3/8 inch round stock and 1/8 round for the basket. 5 inch length on each end and the basket was cut to 3 inch. I used my stick welder, much more reliable than forge welding for me. Since it was so hot today I mainly stuck with project prep.

Handled the ax in hickory and then goofed off hacking up wood.

I've seen a lot of good anvils on the book of face's marketplace. Many of them at a decent price with a lot of life left. 2 of mine are unidentified and the one I need to rebuild is a nice Peter Wright 125 lb. Check the flea markets too. You may get lucky, I got my 200 pounder for 500 bucks at one.

Found a nice piece of wrought walking with the gf and her dog the other night. Really tempted to try to fold it a few times and make it into an ax body, it's about 1/8 x 1 1/4 x 3 foot or try a san mai blade

Being the impatient person I am, I decided to encourage the clay on my coal forge to dry by building a small fire in it, then decided to reshape my coal rake for it. Yesterday I used some E6000 to glue a new leather belt together and I needed to test that too. So the coal forge came back to life for the first time in several months. Oh and the neighbor kid came over and I helped him make an S-hook. Turns out he was supposed to be mowing the lawn. I was able to explain to his mom in my best spanish that he asked if he could make something for her. Thomas, is it welded on the bottom?

I hadn't planned on it for this ax Thomas. I'm doing this for a bit more show, a little etching and carving with leather wrap on the handles. "Viking stuff" for those who just watch the TV series. I think I'll try that on the next one. This is off a really big piece of leaf spring so I have plenty of practice material.

Oh uhhhh, expletive? The coffee hadn't kicked in. Sorry

Thanks Jennifer. That was the inspiration but I hate to say "viking ax". Seems like it's overused, though I do plan on using old Nordic runes on it. This is 5160 and I only plan on heat trading the blade.

Thomas, now you tell me... Finished punching it and drifting. I'm happy with the results of the day and I'm really happy with the drift I made the other day.

Army, I was asked if I could make a bearded hand ax. They showed me a picture of a one handed "viking" style ax. My current propane forge can't weld so I'm going to have to punch and drift the eye. But I'm trying it for myself first. Odds are the person who asked would find the cost prohibitive so it'll likely go on the stack of forged and in progress blades.

Nice, I sprang for an Ameribrade last year. Biggest lesson I've learned is that you don't need to always go full speed. I've gotten much better grind lines slowing it down.

Really nice first knife, I always like purple heart but last time I used any it warped almost as fast as it when across my table saw blade. What did you use for a grinder? My first knives I flipped a belt sander over and clamped it to a work bench. I still will do that occasionally.

Did another drift today. This one is a teardrop shaped, next to the one from the other day. I think I have a few more shapes and sizes to make. I have more than enough 1 inch plus steel.

I'm all in.

Made an eye drift from some 1 inch medium carbon. I'm looking to make a couple small bearded hand axes. It fits to almost round up top.

Yup, that'll do nicely. I have a few of them in the rail road scrap bucket. Thanks for the pics

Good luck, my first project was trying to make twisted handles for a project I was working on. I didn't use them but it started me down this path.

I've not been in the shop as much, the weather was getting nice and had to go fishing. But in the last couple weeks I cleaned my shop, put a handle on a new knife and pumped out a few more coal rakes and bottle openers. Hope everyone's been doing well.

Guess I'll need to make the matching hardy tool for it.

Picked this up from a flea market, I thought it was a fuller but I am not sure at all. It's from the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Also got the straight pean that I liked.

Got one of my many partially completed knives handled and sharpened. My grind lines are getting more defined and cleaner.

Looks like autocorrect got me. I actually had to ask another Smith how it was pronounced at a conference. Not a common word anymore. Thanks for the correction. I was run down this morning. Should have made some coffee.

Made a new tyre for my coal forge. The last one was cast and was falling apart. Not perfectly spaced but that'll be my next one. Also finished up the last 6 bearing bars for work.

I've been trying that finish on my blacksmith knives and spike knives. Those seem like they are more suited for that style finish. It's a bit trickier than I expected but I tend to freehand my grinding.

So last year I came up with a pry bar for work that I specifically designed to make it easier to get 2 bolt bearings moved away from my equipment so we could get a puller on them. We have a problem with low quality castings breaking. I made my original bars from rail spikes. The guys loved them and they are getting a bit beaten up. Well, I got the company to order some 5/8 inch 4140 for me and tonight I remade the first of 9. I think there's a slight difference in wokmanship.