2 knives, both WIP

[BlissStreet]

Well, it's been a long 3 months and a lot has happened. But, the house is finally settling in and between coats of paint on some book shelves I managed to get some forge time in. It actually worked out great since the forge kept the garage warm enough for the paint to set, what with this crazy cold Georgia winter (sarcasm alert, I have lived in Minnesota, this is heaven in comparison).

First, I should tell you my wife bought us a propane forge from Diamondback Iron Works, and it's a real treat. I can't tell you guys enough what a great product Dennis is making for the price.

I have been admiring Stormcrow's knives for a while now, and I rather like the handles he's been putting on them. So, rather then do a hidden tang and wood handle like I have been, I thought I'd try a solid tang wrapped in 550 paracord. It gave me the challenge of learning knots and forging multiple tapers into the knife, rather then rely on a brass bolster to transition to the handle as I have been doing. New challenges are good, it keeps the voices Alzheimers at bay.

A while back I was thinking that with all the zombie apocalypse knives being made, that there was a very good chance that vertically challenged would be turned as well. And since all the knives I have seen were intended for the full sized adult, I tried a midget chopper.



Meh, I wasn't really feeling it. So on to MKII.



Here we are at forging, including the fish mouth there at the end.





you can sort of see the idea here, to have a thicker spine running down the center of the blade with it tapering off on both sides as well as a thicker section that would serve as a stop for the knot and transition to the handle. I was a little less then careful with the cross peening to draw out the blade and the symmetry of the "bolster" isn't great. You can see it better here:



No too happy about that, but it's the first try back at it since I left South Africa, and I'm stubborn. Of course that means another attempt. I have never had an everyday carry knife, and thought this might be a good time to make one. I missed the forging shots, since I was kinda in the zone. Which is a shame since I took my time and forged it rather close to what I had on mind.





Besides that little bit of scale pitting along one side of the blade, it's rather clean. and I'm liking the smaller size.



So, tomorrow is all about normalizing, quenching and then tempering. Then over the weekend, I hope to have the handles wrapped and sealed.

Thanks for looking.