Rantalin

forget to calculate the blast radius when I was helping to break up that hillside. I nearly...

Take Your time. If you rush, mistakes can happen. When dealing with a couple thousand degrees of hot metal, mistakes can be costly, along with ruin the project that is being worked on. Take it slow and you're good to go!

If you go to www.photobucket.com, you can post your photos there and then upload put them up on any other website.

Do you mean an upsweep like a katana blade would have, or is the blade curling up along itself like rolling paper into a tube? Is it is the former, the only thing I've found for a single edged blade, like a knife, is to pre-bend it in the other direction. If you are forging a double edged blade, the best way is to hammer both sides of the blade equally to keep it straight. If the blade is curling itself up, I can't really think of how to help you, maybe one of the more experienced smiths could help you out.

yes, it does. Thank you for the explanation. Excellent work on the knife Alan

irn, typo in your math. The total is 255.

The link does a good job of explaining it, but in short, the first number is the number of "112's", the second number is in "28's" and the third number is in ones, so 1.1.1 would be 112+28+1, or 141

how do you determine the number of layers, is it the number of times you fold the metal, or is it the total number of layers that are formed during the folding? For example, the first time you fold, it would have 2 layers, then 4, then 8, and continuing exponentially. But that doesn't make sense to me as that would be 11.224 folds in your knife, and I'm pretty sure you can't fold .224 times... or maybe I'm just picturing the process wrong.

JPH, yes I have only made those two blades. Being a college student living away from home, I don't have a lot of forge time, which I am not quite happy with. I began blacksmithing in june of this year, but lacked the resources to spend as much time as I wanted to at the forge. I began working full time, which restricted the time I had to bang metal. Now that school's started up again, I'm not at home to have my fun. So all my forging right now is conception of pieces and methods. This way I have a much better idea of how and what to do over winter break. I've purchased "Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking" by Percy W. Blandford, and "The Complete Modern Blacksmtih" by Alexander G. Weygers, a book which I have heard referenced many times and both books are quite helpful. I am trying to get a better feel for the how some techniques are performed and get an idea of what I'm going to do next time I can light up my forge. I appreciate the input and I thank you for your time.

The biggest problem I'm having with constructing a blade is the handle. I can't concieve the best way to craft and attach the pommel and the hand guard. The best I can come up with is to forge them directly into the blade, but that seems to me to be rather difficult. And nearly impossible if I wanted a different material for the handle. I have made two "blades" before. One was VERY poor quality, with a two piece handle poorly riveted to each side of the tang. I ended up melting that one due to poor attentive skills when heat treating :wink: The second blade was a dagger that I'm not proud of the blade of, but the handle came out much better. I used a single piece of wood from a tree in the woods, carved and sanded to shape. I used a drill press to drill out a slot just smaller and as long as the tang of the blade, then hammered it on with a mallet. Very tight fit, no shaking at all and the blade is straight out of the handle. I'm hoping to get some belts for the belt sander that are meant for grinding, and then I can polish my blade up a bit. Is there any disadvantage to using a 6X48" belt as opposed to one with a 2" width? Thanks for your time.

I don't know how keen people would be about giving away trade secrets, but I think a great blueprint idea would be how to make the furniture for, and assemble the handles for knives, because these are beautiful works of art, and the handle is the part of a knife that I do not know who to craft.

I've always spelt it fonix

I'm going to do a variation of the hairstick design to make small roses for my female friends, no idea what for the males though.

a new powerhammer. The only problem let is that...

Although still a fedral offense, I have taken railroad spikes from railways that are no longer used. That waym if something happens to the train, I won't feel guilty about possibly being the cause.

I actually cancelled that order and bought this Paul Chen broadsword instead. It looks to be of better quality, and made from a Carbon Spring Steel. http://store1.yimg.com/I/greatsword_1866_10773037

Well, my Mom find my weapons...distasteful. She does't like them just being out and lying around my room, so my Dad and I are going to be building a cabinet with a clear front to house my collection.

Well, i all for safety. but I guess, i'd prefer things to work the way they are intended should the situation arise where they are needed. So although I'm not going to be marching off to war with my swords (yet!) I may need them for something else.

My parents will be there, and I have a no kidding around policy when it comes to stuff like this.

I AM having a halloween party, and a lot of my friends are sword enthusiests. I trust all of my friends, and have already made up a set of rules involving the weapons. All of them MUST remain sheathed at all times, it the sword needs to be removed from the waist, the sheath comes too. I don't drink, dislike drinking as a way of having fun. I live in the middle of nowhere, where neighbors are not an issue at all.

Ok, I just ordered a sword online for a halloween costume. Its a Paul Chen Kung Fu Broadsword, viewable here http://www.888knivesrus.com/c=VvdfQCJlp9AifIiGHeBrqnAQp/product/CAS2064GT It is made from spring steel, and I was wondering if this is going to be a decent blade in terms of strength. It is a very flexible sword, and I am trying to get it sharpened before shipment, but I have doubts about the quality of the blade.

Not the brightest Crayon in the box (I personally don't like the bright crayons because they are difficult to see)

luckily, right into the large slack tub. Didn't she look funny soaking wet in her best Sunday dress. James and I ran over to see if she was alright and...

I spent the summer working for my dad, who owns an electrical contracting company. We were doing some work out in Boston over a standard grid ceiling, over some cubicles on the 7th floor. One of our guys went up into the ceiling to splice in a set of wires, and when he did, he made a very shocking discovery.(Pun intended) Some *idiot* left a set of wires coiled up without any wirenuts or tape to stop the electricity. Our guy checked to see if it was a live wire, which it was. And it was lying only inches away from the metal ceiling grid. If the wire had made contact with the grid, the entire floor's ceiling grid, along with probably most of the 23 floor building, could have become electrified, causing major damage to a lot of equipment, and possibly people also. No one has any idea how long this wire was up there for, and it was pure luck that it didn't cause a problem.

A jig could be made with two pieces of 1/4" X 3/4" stock that are about 3/4" apart welded to a piece of scrap as suggested below, this would account for the 1/2" width of the collar and the 1/8" of the stock on each side. You can then cut a piece of 1" X 1/8" to 2 1/4" and lay it across the jig, with each end flush with the ends of the 1/4" X 3/4". A piece of 1/2" stock is then smacked into the jig, bending each wing up. The wings are then bent over the 1/4" stock on either side and the angles are all trued over the jig. I drew a picture in paint to help explain what I mean. The hard part would be getting the 1/2" bar to be in the exact center of the 1" X 1/8" bar