DRoberts Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 using this thread as photo dump of blade work. 1st blade ever smithed - started with bar stock from giant wooden spool. turned out to be low carbon, didnt take differential hardening and barely hardened at all for that matter. scrapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 threw something together in an afternoon for my buddy's 35th birthday. "something big and stabby" he wanted. 2nd blade - started with cuttings from some scrap 1/4'' thick sheet from scrapyard. turned out to be medium-high carbon. hardened very well to spring temper. got lucky on this steel as i picked up a LOT of it. will use for more blades in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeshow Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Plenty or good steels available on line. Cheap with some good quenching techniques on this site. Keep it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted November 20, 2013 Author Share Posted November 20, 2013 making 6 knives at once as practice with different styles of blade shape/finish and handle types. going to give them away as christmas presents. red/green stained oak handles, plain steel bolsters with brass pin work. 3rd knife (right) 4th knife (left) pre-handle stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 ended up not using a bolster on these two. i believe i made the tang width too thin. went with quick and easy oak handles from my property. i'll still stain them, but not something i'm ready to be proud of making yet. definitely learning from mistakes rapidly. i re-worked the remaining 4 of the 6 blanks i made, they now have much wider tangs and should take to having metal bolsters much better. tried my hand at layered and fully enclosed handles, i dont know if there's a proper term for these handle types feel free to chime in if you know. I've also taken my first commission and have begun work on a historical replica of an english scalping knife for use by an individual that participates in historical reenactment events. I'm using truck coil spring steel for this job as I'd like it to turn out to be a good quality blade. I believe it is most likely 9260 as I've never seen the type of oxidation on plain carbon steels. there must be some kind of alloy in it as the oxidation produces a very subtle reddish pink tinge that i'm not used to seeing. if anyone has experience with what alloy produces this i'd appreciate it. the metal is extremely hard to work unless it's near yellow heat, and doesn't really budge at all at low orange/red under a 3lbs hammer. i had to heat the entire section of coil to high orange and rip it open with tow straps tied to a tree/jeep. new territory here, really looking forward to seeing how it ends up. my wife is starting to complain about my hammer hand not being soft anymore. 3rd & 4th knives with unfinished handles. coil from land rover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 been busy. this is the coil spring knife. customer wanted it to look something like this: Historical replica of an English Scalping Knife (1750-1790) I believe the metal to be 9260, land rover coil spring. Assembly: Testing Walnut colored Danish Oil on walnut handle. Cut the tree down myself. Black color is from boiling vinegar bath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Looks great, I need more pictures of that last one though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 only other one i have of it atm. thats the spring i cut the stock from. kinda neat before and after pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 In an effort to try learning various knife styles this I went with a dagger type knife to try my hand at my first guard and hollowed out one piece handle. I made many mistakes on this piece that were irreversible without starting over but I also learned a great deal from the process. There are 3 sections on the blade where i hammered too thin (left dark discoloring to show the uneven center line). At the bottom right corner of one side I hit entirely way too hard with the rounded face of of my rounding hammer and sunk 5 craters into the blade so deep they were below the grinding line. The bevels are entirely hammer made, not ground down from flat bar. The guard is made from the same steel as the blade, land rover coil spring 9260 or 5260 probably. By using such a hard piece of metal for the guard I went with hot punch and drifted the slot on both sides. Needle file work on the corners. The pommel is not attached yet, that will have to wait till my tap and die set comes in, but overall the look will be about the same. The handle is cedar heartwood harvested myself at a local paintball field I volunteer at. Due to the various mistakes in the blade I did not put too much effort into fine decor like I had intended. This knife I made for myself as part of the learning process. At best a functional 'pig sticker' to play with. I will be making a layered sheath for it and may try to line the outer side of the sheath with squirrel fur. Vegetable oil quench, 400F for an hour temper, HCL bath to remove scale, rough sanding. Full size pics at http://davidproberts.com/2014/01/29/knife-wip-pics/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearhartironwerks Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Looks like you're on the slippery slope and doing well! Keep up the posting. Thanks, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted October 6, 2014 Author Share Posted October 6, 2014 attempt at hira zukuri tachi. goals: super light weight, simple enough to not bite off more than i can chew on the first bite, and as much done by hand (ie no power tools) as possible. first large blade, first Japanese style blade. lots of mistakes, but leaps and bounds past that stupid butter knife on the OP. wanted to experience first hand watching the back and forth curving of a differential quench. hearing the furnace cement crack and fly off as the blade curved backwards more and more was exhilarating. land rover coil spring. completely hammered, filed and sanded by hand. heated with wood. still have a ways to go, but far enough to throw some pics up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benton Frisse Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 The tachi is amazing! are you going to do the mountings yourself or send it off to someone like Fred Lohman to have it mounted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted October 6, 2014 Author Share Posted October 6, 2014 The tachi is amazing! are you going to do the mountings yourself or send it off to someone like Fred Lohman to have it mounted? all completely myself. habaki, seppa's are done, working on tsuba now then fuchi/kashira. not sure what XXXXXXXX im gonna do for menuki, but for the skin wrap under the cord i have alligator gar skin cured up and ready to go, will be wrapped around walnut. like the rest of my work i try to supply as much as i can first hand. in this case this young (small scales) alligator gar i caught is the willing donor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 found the pics of the hamon coming out. http://davidproberts.com/2015/07/25/found-the-tachi-pics-blacksmithing/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Still working on it. put on a temporary leather cord wrap on the handle for a test look. Don't have a closeup of the hamon but it looks pretty good. more pics later after more progress. First sword ever, learning a lot loving the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitch4ging Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 I'm not a sword guy, but thats a good looking blade! Still planning on using the gar skin? Would be another nice personal touch... Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRoberts Posted November 17, 2015 Author Share Posted November 17, 2015 On 11/10/2015, 11:41:56, mitch4ging said: I'm not a sword guy, but thats a good looking blade! Still planning on using the gar skin? Would be another nice personal touch... Mitch sadly the gar skin ended up as a bunch of scales in a pile. gonna have to go with something else. im a big time catfish guy, may use catfish skull bones to carve the menuki; i have some pretty big blue cat skulls lying around in the back. gonna put some pics of the hamon up in the sword forum in a minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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