Heres a new hunter Ive been working on, finaly finished. Blade was stretched from 1" John Deere L&D shaft (5160) and given several flash normalizing cycles during forging and 3 full normalizing cycles after befor annealing. The guard and pommel are some beautiful antique wrought iron from an 1800's wagon wheel rim, and the handle is dyed elk antler and stacked leather. Shes a hand full, but has a great grip and palm swell. I did an experiment, forged thick, and edge quenched this blade 6 times with freeze cycles between hardenings. I didnt take pictures but the visual transformation of the steel between the first and last quench was amazing. After the 3rd quench she had the grainy "wootzy" pattern we all know and love, but by the 6th quench, freeze and end tempering the steel looked incredible, barely any visible grain but almost a crystaline appearance. Im goin to do some testing and see if it helped the performance. Il repolish and etch later and see if I cant get some good pics of the temper lines. Shes razor sharp and ready for work. Glad to hear what you think!

OAL 11.25"

Blade-6" Satin finished for now

Very nice!!
That JD material makes for some good blades.

outstanding, by the way i hate you.....keep it up,jimmy

that is a nice and formidable looking blade. The handle would fit my hand well. I don't always like it when people look at a photo and say the handle is too big - the handle is only too big if it doesn't feel like you want it to feel when you use the knife in its designated activity.

I ramble... good job,

Kevin

Thanks guys, the guard looks a bit bulky, so Im going to try to grind a finger relief into it to add some curve and take some of the bulkyness away. It should make the knife flow better from front to back

NO! do not change a thing. i would totally buy it off you.. if i had the money. that is a grat knife. make it for using it then make it look good. if you change it for looks not for practicality then it is a useless piece of art. nothing personal a knife is a tool and a sculpture not just a sculture. (yes i rant alot)

Thanks guys, the guard looks a bit bulky, so Im going to try to grind a finger relief into it to add some curve and take some of the bulkyness away. It should make the knife flow better from front to back

I had a hunting knife with a simillar guard that I posted a few weeks ago. Someone pointed out how bulky it was, and I ground it to a smaller and more profiled shape. I profiled lengthwise as well as front to back. It made the guard a lot smaller, but it made the knife better for use. I would not have done it without some encouragement.

If this is to be a skinner, then you need to be able to manipulate it in fairly tight areas. A smaller guard may be a good idea.

Form and function... anyway it helped me. It is a good knife as it is, and I would like to own one whether you change the guard or not.

Kevin

the guard may be a bit big, but go slow and be careful (funny advice from a newbie). i have ruined to knives from goin to fast. if you change it be carful. you know, just a thought.

I actualy decided I like it the way it is, you cant realy see from the pic but the leather spacer is shaped (on the bottom side) to give a comfortable transition between the bone and guard so no extra shaping is realy neccesary. I always want to change a blade after Im done with it, but I never do, I'll just forge a new one. Its what keeps me going lol

Very beautiful knife! love the looks of it!!

STOP!!!! The guard looks great. Tweaking a finished knife is like scratching a bug bite. It might feel good, but can only get worse the more you scratch! Beautiful knife as is IMHO:)

Utterly gorgeous knife, reminiscent of Ed Fowler's hunting knives, in appearence at least.

Six quenches sounds rather a lot. Can you be sure this really does refine the grain structure? Etching can be misleading; Have you done any destructive testing to support this method?

5160 seems to like multiple heat treatments; I am intrigued by your heat treating method and would be fascinated to see if it achieves good results.

Very very well done.

Thanks, 6 quenches was alot, but I had heard of people doing as many as 4 quenches and I just wanted to see what happened. So far I havent seen any vast improvement over my triple quenched blade, but it didnt hurt anything either. I followed Eds method of forging and doubled his heat treatments for my experiment. No coincidence it looks "Fowler-esk", I realy like his style. I should also mention I did do a temper cycle after the third quench to relieve the stresses a little befor I went on.
With this knife Im going to focus on the cutting and edge durability, then Im going to do another one for destruct tests because this one is getting a new home, people didnt like they idea of me destroying her, even in the name of science

6 qeunches sounds like over kill to me. but hey i am a newbie so if it works it works. good luck. Did you happen to make a sheath for your knife?

It'll be really interesting to see what the results are. After all, the goal of heat treatment is to refine the grain structure.

Great work. I look forward to seeing the results of your experimenting.

very nice knife,how many hours total?

About 1.5 hours two draw out the steel ( all by hand and 5 lb hammer ), another hour to forge the blade, an hour of grinding, and 6 days of heat treatment with overnight freezes between. Thats not counting the guard, pommel, and handle. Im no professianal so Im not as quick as some.

you get out what u put in.my knives are not on your level but ill get there one day.not to many knife makers in my area so i learne alot from trial and do it again.