Yahoo! I can finally post in the knife section. I actually heated steel and pounded it into submission. I helped a friend build a forge, and this was the first thing made with it. Two firsts, I guess. I used an old tire iron, and Brian Brazeal's technique to do it, and guess what, Brian's way works pretty slick. If this is my first result, it's either a really good way to do it or I'm just naturally talented. I think the former is probably the true part. Here it is in all its glory:


For some reason they came out a bit blurry, my poor old camera ain't what it used to be. It's about 6" total length, I figured that I really didn't need a sword, so a reasonable sized knife would be better. I did make one mistake in hindsight, I should have set the tang down a bit from the spine of the blade, the handle is going to look high when I get it together. Now all I have to do is grind it out, and heat treat it, and give it a hilt. Easy peasy (yeah, right...)

It's nice when you first realize that you can actually make something unique even if it's unique to you alone. Nice first blade. Keep it up.

Mark<><

Thanks, Mark. My friend makes knives through stock removal and was fairly impressed with how well it came out too. I left a lot of meat on it so I could tweak the shape a bit while grinding, the tang is a little over 1/4" at the base of the tang, and not quite 1/2" through. I think I may just grind down from the spine a bit to compensate for my error. My son has already claimed this first one, I got into blacksmithing to try and interest him in something other than TV, perhaps this will encourage him to come out and beat on some metal with me. He's not too interested in the foundry end of things.

Where in Maine are you? I am in Bangor.

quick! you have only a short time before the DARKSIDE got you! Make a scroll out of it!

Too late, Old N Rusty, my only saving grace is that I have too many other projects with higher priorities to go totally nuts. Pike3e, I'm pretty close, I'm in Orrington. Thanks for the compliments, guys!

Just an update, I have been working on it on and off for the past week and here's the results so far:

I've got it ground out to the shape I more or less thought it should be, and found some material for the handle and guard. I was originally going to use deer antler, but my only set has dissapeared into the depths of my shop somewhere... I have some black walnut slabs that someone gave me at some point so I thought that would look nice. I even got the grain to come out at a nice angle, I can't wait to see it finally shaped and finished. I've definately got some work to do on my fit and finish skills, I didn't get the guard and blade matched up as perfectly as I wanted, may have to try again.


I have yet to heat treat the blade, but so far so good. Whaddya think guys?