I had a couple of finished up tantos go out to a good customer recently.  He's been waiting for the shorter one for a while, and picked up the longer one, which I had forged as a demo of using my power hammer dies, when I posted as available on Instagram.  The shorter one is forged from 80CrV2, with a 9 1/2" blade.  The longer one is 5160, with a 12 1/2" blade.

I did a bit of a variation on my usual wrap with these, matching a wrap I had done on a chopper for him last year.  Over a foundation of neoprene is an underlay wrap of white bleached hemp cord, with tan paracord for the overlay.  And, of course, tan Kydex.

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He sent me a video of him hacking up a large pumpkin with the longer tanto.  Made short work of it. 

And this bush sword was one that I had forged a while back and had the customer disappear on me.  It was kicking around the shop for a while until another customer bought it as his first custom blade.  It's forged from 5160, with a blade length of around 15" - 16" and an integral socket handle. 

I had made a Kydex sheath for it, but the customer also got a leather sheath with baldric rig for it from fellow knifemaker Luke Swenson.

Nice little detail on the leather, Luke!

And a couple more bush swords in 80CrV2 steel, with integral socket handles, black paracord, and 16" blades.

And black Kydex.

Those are all really nice. Thanks for sharing the photos with us.

Great work, James! The nose-heavy look on the bush swords is wild! 

One question: how thick are these long blades at the start of the blade? (Near the handle, I mean.)

Thanks and bests:

Gergely

Nice work!

Yes, very nice work..  Forged and ground?  Do you like working with the 80Crv2? Also for the wrapped handles  are you using epoxy under the wrap?

Very cool pieces. I really like the art work on the leather sheath. 

These definitely look like something a Forged in Fire champ would crank out. Good looking stuff, man! 

Thanks, guys!

 

Gergely - I usually start with 1/4" stock, and the blade is often thickest at the blade/tang transition.  So, about 1/4" to 3/16" on most of 'em.

JLPServicesInc - I forge as close to shape as I can, grind off the worst, and hand file the bevels to final thickness.  I wrap the handles and then brush on a liberal dose of marine epoxy.

 

 

 

sweet!!!

Thanks... Nice work.. 

Thank you for the info, James! 

Bests:

Gergely