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I Forge Iron

My first blade


Mbmul175

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What so you guys think ?  1467994559269-561803626.jpgthis is my first successful blade. I made it from a ferrier's rasp, its a mix between a panga machete and a khopesch. The blade is 29cm long, with an 11cm grip/tang ( I'm not sure what to call it in this case ) and the spike at the end is 7 cm long ( that was the RASP's handle). I'm thinking of keeling the spike and giving it a bit of a curve. Its name is shark skin, due to the very rough texture of the rasp.

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Love the overall shape of the blade.  I'm not sure what you're planning to do with the tang/handle.  Right now it looks like it's in the middle of hidden tang and an exposed full tang. Since the shape of the blade says "chopper" to me I'd want to see the "spike" you refer to bent the other way a bit if that was where a person would grip.  The other concerning thing for me is all the potential points of origin for cracks created by the teeth of the rasp.  The texture looks good, and I don't think it's as bad as a file which has teeth (and grooves) running the full width of the blade, but with a chopping style of knife you really don't want any good places for cracks/breaks to develop due to the impacts the blade will most likely receive in use.  Again though, I love the shape of the blade and it's better than my first attempt.

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Thanks, it is a hacking and chopping shape, but I'm gonna use it for hunting, to slit throats, debowel and skin animals.

I'm going to give it an African mahogany handle and a leather sheath that will attatch to my belt at the lower back.

Basically what I'm saying is that it will chop (bone) butnothing heavy duty like chopping down trees.

Thanks for the reply,

Michael.

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The tang is whatever you fasten the handle material to in simplest terms.  You have a short portion that could be used for a hidden tang and a portion that could have slabs of material (scales) fastened to both sides to create the handle. Neither of them is fully developed and I'm not sure which way you plan to go with the handle.  If you are going for a hidden tang then you'll need to draw out some of the wider stock in the area near your index and middle fingers in order to get enough length for a decent handle to be put on.  If you are planning to add scales to complete your handle then you'd probably want to remove the "spike" part, possibly reshape it some near your little finger, and drill/punch some holes to help with alignment and security of the handle slabs.  Generally with a chopping blade it's good to have the tang end furthest from the cutting edge flared out or wider than the part closest to the cutting edge.  This helps keep the knife from slipping out of your hand during chopping.  If you're planning on doing any piercing or thrusting then you will probably want some form of finger guard that prevents your hand from slipping forward onto the cutting edge during use. Bowie style knives typically have both features for instance.  Right now the area of the tang nearest the cutting edge has a gradual taper as it gets closer to the cutting edge.  There's not much to keep your fingers from slipping forward during thrusting or piercing use, especially if you have a lubricant such as sweat or blood on your hands at the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There she is, finially finished ( its been finished for a while but i couldnt pust cause we had no wifi). I decided to leave the hook idea because there was no way to make it work and look good, so i drew out the tang and did a hidden tang . What do you think ?IMG-20160713-WA0008.jpegIMG-20160713-WA0010.jpeg

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