northtowntom Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Okay. So here's my first ever... uhm... creation. Thing. I call it the paleolithic intimidator. Paleolithic for obvious reasons. Intimidator because that's about all it's good for. (It does cut! Sorta!) Tools used: Railroad Spike Mexican Cast Steel Anvil Whisper Momma at 6PSI Ball Peen Hammer Bastard File Scrap Leather Thong I know it's lame. But! It sure was a xxxx of a lot of fun to make! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkriv Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 Great first effort. I bet it was fun! Looks like your hammer would benefit by introducing it to a belt grinder if you get the chance. Thanks for posting. We like pictures!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Czar Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 the purpose of a forum and a community is to offer information, encouragement, and fellowship. but the comic potential sometimes overwhelms that 1. who's thong? 2. I think the Lucky Charm's Leprechaun is looking for a new hockey stick now that Ive got that out of my system nice photo nice leatherwork (but then your a pro aren't you ) nice texture work we actually try to do that most of the time at work constructive dont be afraid to stick it back in for more reheats Id guess the biggest problem was holding the hot steel? at work most of what we do involves an architectural scale, working with a bigger cooler lever simplifies control, a bigger chunk of steel might help When I started my boss put me onto making a thousand penny scrolls (rather small), think about what both hands are doing, keeping the hammer face parallel to the anvil. There is really no substitute for just doing it again and again till it becomes muscle memory. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easilyconfused Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Feels good to finish a project. Like skunk said, if you dress your hammer face with a grinder to get rid of the sharp edges, you'll notice that your pieces are smoother just by doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Congratulations on posting your first efforts. With a little more hammer time and practice you can work the metal to be a lot smoother. Keep this one so in a year you can look back and say this was where I started. I still have my first effort and use it as a letter opener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mende Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 This reminds me of a saying I like " Brute force - It it ain't working you aren't using enough!" You could call it the DISEMBOWELLER! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrynjr Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 It hurts to look at but at least you have the guts to show it, I think I threw my first few solo attempts away. I probably wouldn't have dared to show them here then, I'm not particularly proud of the items I posted yesterday but I'm not concerned about possible ridicule anymore. I do the best I can and keep trying to improve! Having fun and continuing to learn is the key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northtowntom Posted December 31, 2007 Author Share Posted December 31, 2007 Hard to look at! I'm gonna sell it - just you watch!Hand Forged Railroad Spike Knife Thanks to all for the helpful advice and for the friendly ribbing. To be honest, I knew it needed more time, but I got rather impatient. I wanted to get it sharp-ish and to start carving stuff up. It didn't even start as a knife. It started as me whacking away on a railroad spike just because and it kinda got knife-ish shaped and so I went with it. Truth be told, I had absolutely no desire to do any knifesmithing! (Though I do now feel it important to appease the knifemaker gods and to atone for my sins by making a less ugly knife at some point.) I won't make any excuses - it's ugly - but the lighting in the picture over-dramatizes just how ugly it is. But I kinda like ugly. It's 100% clear that it's made by hand, no? As for the hammer, it's already crowned (is that the right terminology - the edges of the face are already rounded?) and the resulting ugliness is completely due to lack of control and inability. Don't blame my poor hammer on my bad technique! She's already been through quite enough today!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 wow, it looks like its been beaten more violently than a ginger stepson but it looks kinda nice in its own way. thanks for sharing it. When I make somthing that is a bit ' rough ' round the edges I use descriptive phrases like ' rustic ' , 'textured' etc..... gives it some b.s credability in my own mind anyways... look forward to seeing more in the future.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrynjr Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Sorry! I meant to add "but better than my first attempts!" Mine were downright Fugly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habu68 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Nobody and I mean Nobody will ever see my first set of tongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Czar Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 when I first started whacking hot steel (not that long ago, Im at best a middlin apprentice) the lead journeyman at our shop had me do an exercise, taking a flat relatively wide piece of stock (1">2" x 14">38") strike a successive pattern of blows drawing in out (marginally) what it shows you is your bias, how far off of parallel from the anvil face you are, like having a slice in golf reheat flip it over and practice neutralizing that bias, slowly drawing out the steel with each pass good practice ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blubrick Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 It is fun isn't it North? Here's my second piece - a letter opener. Well, it's kind of my second piece. I have made a few other things, but I can't really call them mine because I had varying amounts of help. I was under instruction and at some stage, I succumbed to the offer of "Here, let me fix that for ya". My first piece was a leaf, and I burned it away to nothingness - but I've already told that story. I did the whole thing bass-ackwards, forging the blade end first and then the handle. But this time, when Dale very kindly offered to "fix that fullering for ya" - I told him I'd rather leave it flawed. The rusty bar is what it was like before I started to play with it. Mister Washington is only there for a size reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie Zietman Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 good work! exactly like my first piece! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbillysmith Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 If your hammer already has rounded edges, than it might be that you don't have the spike hot enough. Be sure to keep it at bright orange/yellow in color. Other than that, It doesn't look bad at all. Kinda "sick" lookin'. Sorta like mid-evil. Just grind the edge smoother so its more rounded than jagged. I like it. No question about it!! Keep practicing you'll find that it only gets more and more fun from here! -Hillbilly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Looks like you noticed that as you pound out the edge bevel the blade bends the other way. Two ways to get around this are to 1: prebend the piece the other way and then it will straighten as you hammer out the bevel, or what I usually do: heat the blade and place the spine on the anvil and gently hammer on the edge driving the spine to lie flat on the anvil---this actually works and can be done repeatedly. If the edge gets real thin then a post vise can be used to push the blade straight again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Murch Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 The reason why a piece bends when beveling one side is because the side of the piece being beveled wants to become longer, but the other side keeps the whole piece from lengthening, so that one side of lengthening steel has to go somewhere, therefore the whole piece bends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Plains Forge Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Hard to look at! I'm gonna sell it - just you watch!Hand Forged Railroad Spike Knife Thanks to all for the helpful advice and for the friendly ribbing. To be honest, I knew it needed more time, but I got rather impatient. I wanted to get it sharp-ish and to start carving stuff up. It didn't even start as a knife. It started as me whacking away on a railroad spike just because and it kinda got knife-ish shaped and so I went with it. Truth be told, I had absolutely no desire to do any knifesmithing! (Though I do now feel it important to appease the knifemaker gods and to atone for my sins by making a less ugly knife at some point.) I won't make any excuses - it's ugly - but the lighting in the picture over-dramatizes just how ugly it is. But I kinda like ugly. It's 100% clear that it's made by hand, no? As for the hammer, it's already crowned (is that the right terminology - the edges of the face are already rounded?) and the resulting ugliness is completely due to lack of control and inability. Don't blame my poor hammer on my bad technique! She's already been through quite enough today!!! Haha, I like your craigslist ad: Forged in the HELLFIRE of a quiet MEXICAN NEIGHBORHOOD IN NORTH LAS VEGAS. Funny! Good luck with your first sale. A word of advice - once you start making more stuff, I have found craigslist to be the worst place to find customers for nice ironwork. Unless you are selling it for dirt cheap. Everyone is looking for a bargain, and if you try to trade ironwork for something worth a bit of money, everyone wants 30 feet of really detailed railing installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mills Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 I'd say what you lack in metal skills you make up for in marketing. I bet you could make a living at this! Good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeplokd Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 I think it looks pretty cool. There a guy here who intentionally makes his blades rough like that - they look flint knapped and he sells them to the pioneer set. Draws down a tang and epoxies them into deer antler handles. Very cool work, my friend. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welder19 Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Abstract comes to mind. We all started out the same, not being any good, and some of us are still not much better (me), but that's the way it is with anything your just learning, honestly, I think it's pretty good for a first try. Keep practicing. welder19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 I like that texture very much. I know that some are very much into smooth but there is a lot to be said for texture. It is very tactile. Give the eye and the hand something to send the mind. You can even appreciate it with your eyes closed. Nice work.:cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racer3j Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 (edited) I find that I must comment. The Nessmuk, which you have so traditionally forged is one of my favorite game dressing knives. Your hammer work, recalling the knapped flint texture is appropriate. Frosty can chime in- maybe he already has, but when I saw your first knife, bravely displayed, I was so proud of you. I believe that the earliest examples of the type can date to the Iron Age and it was not any easier for those Far Northern civilizations to make than what effort you invested. Flint, obsidian etc. were not easily available to the ancients in that part of the world and flaked leaf shaped knives were the rule- or, carefully saved and shaped bone were the first Nessmuks. Somewhere around this jumble I call home, I have my first attempt to forge a flintlock plate- if I could dig it out and show it, you would see the traditional vertical fullers at the rear of the plate, but the also traditional "tail" at the rear would drop off if looked at too long- the web cut through a couple of times and the Master Gunsmith, finally started going nuts( and startled by the crudity of my curses), that he could take no more and managed to draw out the last available bit of wrought for the last try- it took, I think out of fear that I would spend the rest of my stint draw-swamping barrels. I did end up investing many hours in the "Forbidden Swamp"(I called it under my breath) and after about ten or so filings on ruined blanks I got good at it. But that lock plate is around here somewhere daring me to be confident now. Please take this post as a true compliment from one who likely has less talent than you(as I was a racer-all guts, no talent) and who is certain that you will keep on- the down the roads won't be better efforts- just better results. Do not let this knife from your custody- it will be a fine yardstick as you grow into becoming a Master Smith. My respect and best regards, Mike-- PS- I have ordered a Nessmuk from Cariboo(maybe November) and this week took delivery of a damascus Nessmuk blank, which will be handled with jigged Gaboon Ebony( very black, like bone buried long and pickled in salt). No hilt,-none needed( my true favorite game knives have no guards/hilts). So, any tips you can pass on will be put to use. In fact, the other favorite game knife is a set of caribou antler handled, scrimshawed (alt. scrimshanded)Scandanavian laminated _____( I'm drawing a complete blank on proper spelling of the PPUUKKOO(smile)-delete unneeded letters. I can post pics if any are interested- down in bladesmithing.m Edited August 1, 2008 by racer3j typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draper84 Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 I personally love it, atleast you have something to get your metal hot, i have all the right stuff just no blower nowhere to go but up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden_eagle Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 My first blade looked almost as bad... after two months of work it became my best looking knife to date. the moral: no matter how bad it looks, never give up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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