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I Forge Iron

That Feeling When Things aren't Perfect


HEAP of JEEP

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So trying another of those "Gator Back" knives, and one side came out perfect, and the other side... well, the center san mai section of 1080 migrated to one side.  Its gonna be cool, but still not perfect.  Adding a stacked leather handle, and then we'll try it again.  Practice makes perfect, right?

 

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Thanks guys.  After my last one, with the self inflicted cracks, I was mainly concentrating on making this blade so it didn't have those.  I think I ended up grinding the sides different.  I was shooting for the pattern in the top picture to be on both sides, and I probably forged in up a hair off, so when I did my rough grind to true everything up, I must have been off on the one side.  That's about all I can figure out.  It will still be a cool blade, and as always, it is a learning experience.

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Are you going to make a video of it on your YouTube channel? I really enjoy your videos, and then reading about them on here.

                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

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40 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

Are you going to make a video of it on your YouTube channel? I really enjoy your videos, and then reading about them on here.

                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

Wow, Thanks.  I didn't take any video while I was making this one.  It was only my second attempt at trying to get this pattern where I want it.  First one was all cracked, this one is uneven... once I get the process down so my results are consistently where I want them , I will absolutely do a video on how I did it.

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I found your channel a few days ago, when I was looking for some videos or tutorials about cable Damascus knives and found yours, and thought "could that be the same guy" and sure enough it is. you should have a lot more views and subscribers than you have, but just wait . if I had a YouTube account I would subscribe. since then I have made sure to find time to watch your videos. I have watched all of your videos.

                                                                                               Littleblacksmith

correction-I have watched all of your forging videos.

                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

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10 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

I found your channel a few days ago, when I was looking for some videos or tutorials about cable Damascus knives and found yours, and thought "could that be the same guy" and sure enough it is. you should have a lot more views and subscribers than you have, but just wait .

There's my dilemma... I am Jeep guy... I made that channel to just show how I fixed up my old Jeeps.  Had it for almost two years and had a nice group of loyal subscribers... Then I threw up a forging video, just for fun, and started getting requests for more.  The more videos I make about knives, the more requests I get to do more. So now, every video I've put up for the last few months has been forging videos, and in 4 months, my subscribers have doubled what it took almost two years to get from just Jeep videos, and the forging videos are getting 4-5 times more views than the Jeep videos ever did.  I just do the videos for fun, but I still make a few bucks a month from them, so I do want to do what my subscribers would like... so wondering if I should change the focus of the whole thing to forging.  I still so new at this, and make so many mistakes that I question doing that... but who knows?  As long as its fun, and maybe interesting, I'll keep throwing them up.

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41 minutes ago, HEAP of JEEP said:

There's my dilemma... I am Jeep guy... I made that channel to just show how I fixed up my old Jeeps

first of I would like to apologize for hijacking this topic.:( 

well, I'm sure that your going to have to continue fixing your jeep.

my brother bought a jeep recently, and knew that they can sometimes be.... problems, but he didn't know that their would be as much as their was. he is know trying to find a knew vehicle.

oh well, it was a good source of tool steel. coil springs, sway bars,....

                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

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12 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

first of I would like to apologize for hijacking this topic.:( 

well, I'm sure that your going to have to continue fixing your jeep.

my brother bought a jeep recently, and knew that they can sometimes be.... problems, but he didn't know that their would be as much as their was. he is know trying to find a knew vehicle.

oh well, it was a good source of tool steel. coil springs, sway bars,....

                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

Hijack away... No worries from me.

Old Jeeps are not for the feint of heart... or at least not for people that don't want to put some money in to their vehicle to keep it on the road... but the payoff is tons of fun when you take it out in the woods.

It was all of those old Jeep parts that led me to taking up forging.  I was looking for something to do with all of the scrap (to lazy to load it up and take it to the scrap yard) so took up a new hobby and was making small trinkets... hooks, bottle openers, etc... just to hand out to the guys I went Jeeping with.  Got asked to make a knife, so I did out of one of the old leaf springs, and have been hooked ever since.  I've moved on to mostly known steels for my commissioned blades, but I still love to grab something out of the junk pile and have some fun.

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So it might not have been what I was shooting for, but I do love the end results.  It is, by far, the most favorite knife I have made yet.  Where as the pattern isn't even on the sides, I still love the uniqueness of it.  Calling it a happy accident, instead of a mistake.  It is my first try at a stacked leather handle too, and I love how it feels in the hand.  I know I'll be doing more of those in the future.   I still  see a few things in my fit and finish that I will have to work on, but even that is getting better with each knife. 

 

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Wow is that a cool looking knife! The pattern stands out great and the handle really suits it. Well done. Can imagine when you get that pattern even it'll be a beaute. But even with this one it looks great. 

Like in the collision repair business when you just can't get that last millimeter to get gaps perfectly matching the other side.  " you can only look at one side at a time."

 

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wow, it turned out awesome! great job! a failure is sometimes an opportunity.

                                                                                          Littleblacksmith

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On 6/25/2016 at 1:49 PM, littleblacksmith said:

wow, it turned out awesome! great job! a failure is sometimes an opportunity.

                                                                                          Littleblacksmith

 

On 6/25/2016 at 0:05 PM, Daswulf said:

Wow is that a cool looking knife! The pattern stands out great and the handle really suits it. Well done. Can imagine when you get that pattern even it'll be a beaute. But even with this one it looks great. 

Like in the collision repair business when you just can't get that last millimeter to get gaps perfectly matching the other side.  " you can only look at one side at a time."

 

Thanks, Das.  Come Hell or high water, I will get that last millimeter!  LOL

 

On 6/25/2016 at 0:17 PM, Bmallen77 said:

Really cool, I especially like the handle.

Thank you.  My first time trying the stacked leather.  A few issues to work on, but I'm very happy with it for my first try.

 

On 6/25/2016 at 1:49 PM, littleblacksmith said:

wow, it turned out awesome! great job! a failure is sometimes an opportunity.

                                                                                          Littleblacksmith

After sitting down with the knife to talk through our issues over a beer... Two things happened... one, the knife didn't back talk at all.  He was very respectful and listened to everything I had to say.  And two, he didn't drink his beer, so I felt that was an invitation for me to drink it.  The quickest way to my heart is by giving me beer, so with those two gestures, the knife and I are a great terms.  LOL.

Seriously though, I made this for a person who lives close by, so she could give to her husband as a gift.  Seeing the look on her face, and then later, hearing about his reaction was he saw it for the first time, took away all of the bad feelings about not getting it "right".  So in the end, more lessons learned.  I think my knives keep getting better, and they are still fun to make, so I couldn't ask for much more.

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2 hours ago, HEAP of JEEP said:

 

Thanks, Das.  Come Hell or high water, I will get that last millimeter!  LOL

 

Thank you.  My first time trying the stacked leather.  A few issues to work on, but I'm very happy with it for my first try.

 

After sitting down with the knife to talk through our issues over a beer... Two things happened... one, the knife didn't back talk at all.  He was very respectful and listened to everything I had to say.  And two, he didn't drink his beer, so I felt that was an invitation for me to drink it.  The quickest way to my heart is by giving me beer, so with those two gestures, the knife and I are a great terms.  LOL.

Seriously though, I made this for a person who lives close by, so she could give to her husband as a gift.  Seeing the look on her face, and then later, hearing about his reaction was he saw it for the first time, took away all of the bad feelings about not getting it "right".  So in the end, more lessons learned.  I think my knives keep getting better, and they are still fun to make, so I couldn't ask for much more.

well it sound like the knife and you had a good conversation.

                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

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