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I Forge Iron

Small hidden tang folder..


Rhyfelwr

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I've been making these off and on for a while, and this is one I made sorta for myself. :) Handle is Osage, pins are copper. Blade is a peice off an old anchor for a power pole.. Not a galvanized one so must be pretty old.

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That is a cool little folder! Nice job. Glad you mentioned that it wasn't galvanized, that was one of my first thoughts. That will help keep others from using galvanized and keep you from getting a tirade of answers about the evils (which are real) of using galvanized.
I like the folder.

Mark<><

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice little blade I believe its a friction folder called a higonomaki , I know the japanese have been making them for at least 200 years , not sure of the true origin ? maybe chinese...
. I do like it a lot. Bubba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higonokami

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At the Deutsches Klingen Museum you can see examples of folders from Roman times, say 1800 years ago and in "Knives and Scabbards, Museum of London" there are examples from the middle ages in Europe---around 800 years ago.

They were quite common in the early 1800's in America.

No need to go to the far east to find examples!

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Historicly , a friction folder was excavated in Hallstatt it carbon dated to 600 Bc , similar blades were excavated in china that dated to 300 BC . there must have been some early contact between the two countries . Origin of the first makers is unknown ? I suspect the knife is older than one would think . another odd bit of info . The first metal tool makers were the american indians ? In the great lakes region examples of metal tools , made from float copper were dated to 7500 BC . The people of the middle east were the first jewelry makers . just some odd info I picked up as I was studying Archaic archeology at Washington Univ. in St louis Best regards Bubba

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I totally disagree that evidence of similar objects indicates that both cultures must have contact!

I myself have run into things that I have "invented" only to find that someone else had the same good idea several thousand miles elsewhere in a country I have never visited. (Look how many folks claim to have been the first to do smithing in a certain way only to learn that folks 2000 years ago had been doing it that way too! There was a fellow who was claiming he started the neo-tribal use of charcoal for forging blades; which I felt funny about as I had been forging with charcoal for a decade before he claimed first use; I never though anything about it as I know that charcoal had been used continuously for forging from the start of the iron age to *now*!)

Like pattern welding: every area that made use of the bloomery method of making wrought iron seems to have come up with pattern welding too---perhaps the drawing out of wrought iron blooms and cutting and stacking and welding them repeatedly to refine wrought iron gives them the hint.

Many cultures like to claim that they invented something and everyone else copied them. Unfortunately when new well documented finds in other places show they were not first then suddenly "independent invention" is often claimed.

I think it would be best if folks worried about being *best* rather than *first*!

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You are correct in that some techniques were developed independently , scientificly speaking "contact" is the normal way of passing along ideas . As a trained archeologists You can only rely on current evidence and carbon dating etc: The dates I gave you are correct , directly from smithsonian archives . There is definate proof that the early copper culture amerinds from the great lakes area were the first real tool makers that utilised metal . See article from central states archeological society. I guess best is ok but, not in a foot race, first is better. I have been a swordsmith since I was 17 , I am now 64 . I studied in japan for 11 years while I was in military. I only rely on good basic evidence not speculation. The indians did not claim they were first , archeologists from the area did. The amerinds are long gone . respectfully.......

James J Bieler Bubba-san forge

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