oljoe

I built a blown propane forge using a upright vacuum cleaner as a blower. The thing puts out waaaaay more air than I need so I had to choke it down. I disassembled the vacuum and just mounted the motor and blower. The thing even has an on off switch built right in. The biggest problem I have is the noise.

Nice Jens. I like the hamon lines.:cool: Do you clay coat the blades or are they edge quenched?

Feukair, Do a search for superquench. It is a mixture of water, salt, a wetting agent, and dish washing detergent. It takes a rapid quench to harden a railroad spike due to a lower carbon content than most knife steel. ApprenticeMan, The spike knife will perform much better if you use the superquench. Give it a try. Joe

Strine, No trepidation needed (for me anyway). That is what these forums are for, to discuss blacksmithing and I can use some constructive criticism. I remember reading about golden ratios, but most of it has been crowded out by other things that I need to remember. It needs another look. After I got the thing built I noticed that it wasn

Thanks for the nice comments. I got the power hammer about two years ago. It has made a lot of knives. This is the first project, other than a knife, that I have done and it was all done by hand. Thanks again for the Kudos. Joe

I have forged many knives but this is my first true blacksmith project. I forged out half penny scrolls and connected everything with rivets, except the FOSTER and I MIG welded that. Tell me what you think.

ApprenticeMan The answer to your question in short is forge out a knife. The long answer is a little more difficult to come up with without more information. What kind of knife do you want to make? Do you want a full tang or narrow tang? Drop point, clip point, skinner, Bowie? Hollow ground, flat ground, convex ground? There are so many options. Start out with a drawing of what you want it to look like. I make a chalk or soapstone drawing on my steel work bench. I usually start out forging out the point keeping the same thickness as the parent stock. Then if I want a tapered blade I will taper it drawing it out longer instead of wider. When I get the taper that I want I start on the tang. For a narrow tang (hole drilled through the handle) you will need to get a good heat and place the steel on edge with the tang area on the face of the anvil and the blade portion hanging over. Strike with heavy blows keeping the edge of the hammer even with the edge of the anvil. This will compress both sides of the tang making it narrower. If a full tang (slabs on each side of the handle) is what you want, just the edge side of the tang needs to be narrower. This can be accomplished by placing the spine on the face of the anvil and striking where the blade is to stop and the handle is to begin. Draw it down to the width you want, keeping the same thickness as the parent stock. I then use a hot cutter to cut to length. There are a couple of different ways to draw out the edge. When the edge is compressed the blade will want to bow. You can start out with a bow the opposite direction and when the edge is compressed the blade will straighten out or you can try to keep it straight as you go. When you get it to the shape that you want (see drawing that you made with chalk) make sure that it is straight and flat, then heat to cheery red then place it in ash to cool SLOWLY. The stock removal can begin when it cools. You can look at my website to get some ideas. Good luck

Using any recycled steel is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you

Peyton, I read that Nicholson files are made from 1095 high carbon steel. Most of the cheaper files are surface hardened and will not make a good knife. Look for an old Nicholson file with a diamond stamped on it. Another thing that you may consider is to use an old truck leaf spring. Most are made from 5160 and make very good knives. A disclaimer must be made about this information however. Using recycled steel is not really cost effective considering the labor that it takes to make a knife.

Stu, I

Hi Pat, One way to make a square corner is to upset the area where the corner is to be. Place it in a vice with the top of the jaws in the middle of the upset area. Fold it over at near welding heat and continue to hammer until you have nearly square at the corner. Remove from the vice and work the other side of the corner over a square side of the anvil. The reason to upset the stock is that, as the corner is made, the hammering will cause the stock to thin. The sides will also need to be dressed up as you go. This should leave the stock the same size throughout. Oljoe Foster

Thanks for posting this Jens. I had no idea that you could get that kind of contrast with steels that were that similar. I have not tried any can stuff yet but after seeing this it is something that I must try.:cool: Oljoe Foster

Very nice Jens I especially like the ebony. From the last picture it looks like it may have a little grain to it. The lower layer Damascus really brings out the contrasting metals. Thanks for sharing. Oljoe Foster

Very nice Rich. is the Damascus made with nickel? Oljoefoster

Backyardsmith, The first 20 or so knives that I made I used a Rockwell 1 X 42 belt sander. Back in the 80s when I first started that was all that I could afford. I used an old washing machine motor to drive it and it did an adequate job. I bought a Grizzly 2 X 72 grinder and the difference was like night and day. Grinding a blade that didn