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I Forge Iron

first 3 knives


bikecopXXX

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here are my first 3 knives for your perusal.

the fat one was made at JohnCCampbell Folk School about 9 months ago.  made from truck leaf spring, 5160 i presume.  Heavy thick blade, like a survival knife i guess.   i formed the grip using a fly press, which of course resulted in fly-press lust. It feels really good in the hand.  I took a week-long class and made garden plant hangers and hooks and spoons, etc.  but on the last day i said to heck with this, i'm making a knife!  the kydex sheath is also homemade. 

The other 2 were recently made from a rusty old pitchfork that a neighbor found in the woods.  He brought it to me and wanted to make something out of it.  The spark test looked good, and the end result hardened up nicely with an oil quench and toaster-oven temper.  A file doesn't touch it.

The little one was made over about 2 hours last weekend and my wife has claimed it.  the blade is a bit rough so i might do a bit more work on it.  it was made from a 3" piece of a pitchfork tine.

The long one is my neighbor's project and isn't quite done.  Started with ~5" piece of the tine.  We are planning to finish it this weekend with an antler handle attached with epoxy and a thru pin.  I'm trying to let him do most of it as a learning experience, but the hot work was done by me to avoid burn issues.  He is 18 and a friend of the family and i don't need to make his mom mad.  He's also talking about making a leather sheath.  I have made him some bodkin points already for his homemade arrows and longbow.  He's talking about me being his mentor for his senior project, which will have something to do with blacksmithing...

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we finally finished my neighbor's project.  he carved the handle end knob to hold a retaining strap on the sheath.post-41149-0-29109200-1390148131_thumb.jpost-41149-0-52472200-1390148141_thumb.j

 

the antler has a left hand curve, which works for him as he's a lefty.  you can see a patch near the brass rivet where a chip broke out.  we patched it with epoxy mixed with antler dust.  the blade is sharp, cuts paper, etc.  we worked on it a bunch after i took these photos to remove scratches and make it prettier.  The goal was not a mirror finish, just fairly shiney.  The spine was left as-quenched.  He is pretty happy with it. 

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I would be happy with it too. Looks good.

 

I think my next knife will have an antler handle. The piece I have has even more curve than that, but I have read that you can boil them for 20 minutes and then Immediately(10-15 seconds from water to straight) clamp to straight in wood blocked vice. Never tried it but makes sense to me.

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