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beginning Blacksmith kunai


ryancrowe92

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I will start on this tomorrow when i get my belt grinder and i will be forging a piece of metal into a kunai throwing knife, and i will post pictures as i can since the only one i have is on my laptop. so i will post my progress on YouTube also. let you guys know when i have it up and follow this to see when its done. going to harbor freight tomorrow, to get some stuff. so until then let me enlighten you on this little project, OK this will by mine and/or my brothers first actual forge so wait a day or two cause it has been raining like cats and dogs for the past 5 or 6 days so give me some time and i will get some pictures and the YouTube account up

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PLEASE don't label your Utube video as "how to". Don't do that till you are highly skilled and know what you are doing. Instead call it "my first throwing knife attempt" or something of the like. i don't wan't to discourage you, but there are far to many "how to" videos out there that are made by people who have no ID what they are doing, and ,frankly,  much of what they show is wrong or dangerous. 

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5 hours ago, Tubalcain2 said:

PLEASE don't label your Utube video as "how to". Don't do that till you are highly skilled and know what you are doing. Instead call it "my first throwing knife attempt" or something of the like. i don't wan't to discourage you, but there are far to many "how to" videos out there that are made by people who have no ID what they are doing, and ,frankly,  much of what they show is wrong or dangerous. 

Very true, but I have learned a lot from some of the bad videos. 

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OK i have fount a good piece of steel and i have decided to go with the tanto knife that we were originally planning to do.so the kunai is on hold and i never label any of my videos not like i have posted a lot more like five or six but you kind of get the idea and the channel is still on hold cause we haven't decided on the name yet cause i was dumb and didn't ask my brother today when i seen him about it cause i was discussing the tools we needed to get and i don't live with him and so on and so on so he should be coming over Thursday or Friday and spending the week or two so back to business the tanto is going to be one foot long in blade length not counting the handle and the way its formed because i had questions on it is in another tab, check it out if you want or know anything about it, and mean while im heating it up using the torch and hammering at it by hand and i hope to get plans on that crude like power hammer i seen  

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Ryan, please do everyone a favor and use some punctuation. It's much easier to read when you include a period at the end of the sentences. Being in high school I'd imagine you have at least as much of a grasp on grammar as I do and I quit school at the end of my 10th grade year.

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It may have something to do with how he's accessing the site.  I'm using a PC and so have a full sized keyboard that makes it easy to type in all the little grace notes of communication.  People using a smartphone usually have greater difficulties. (And may have learned to type texting...)

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1 minute ago, ThomasPowers said:

It may have something to do with how he's accessing the site.  I'm using a PC and so have a full sized keyboard that makes it easy to type in all the little grace notes of communication.  People using a smartphone usually have greater difficulties. (And may have learned to type texting...)

Most of the time I spend on the web is spent on either my phone or a tablet. I own a couple desktop computers but don't use them anymore since it's quicker and easier just to use my phone since it's usually in my pocket. 

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I learned to type on a computer. I took a class in high school. However it was more for the fact I wanted more efficient typing. Once upon a time I had ambitions of being a software developer and felt I should take any class that I could potentially benefit from and would aid me in my career. (By the way, I'm not a software developer and rarely see much less use a desktop computer.)

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Bad spelling, punctuation, and grammar are like hammer marks: you can take the time to clean them up or you can decide that a few aren't a big deal, but if there are too many, it just looks careless and sloppy.

Furthermore, as Michael Cochran suggests, it's a courtesy to your reader. A pretty fair number of my posts and comments are entered on my smartphone, and I consider that if I want someone to invest time in reading what I have to say, I'd better take the time to make it readable. The Edit button is a wonderful thing.

(That said, I am willing to give some leeway to the many IFI members whose native language isn't English, like the Australians.)

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When I took typing 1 in high school we had manual typewriters. I took the class because I needed the unit credits and wrote a lot of stories but nobody could read my hand writing. It was a win win on that score, heck I could type faster than write by hand. The cool bonus for a teenage boy in the '60s being I was one of 3 boys in a class of 32 students.

I can understand using smart phone texting shorthand but LORD is it annoying to folk who speak and read English. I tend to type long run on sentences, barely have a handle on punctuation and often don't spend the time to edit like I should but how many times can you use the word "so" in a meaningful sentence? I think "So" is becoming the modern, "that." In almost every sentence you can just delete the word "that" and make the sentence easier to read and more meaningful. Same thing for the word "so." 

Okay, this thread is starting to look like we're beating up on you Ryan and I'm afraid your text is the example of the moment. Please don't take it personally but it's intended as a helpful critique to let you communicate effectively. Your posts are hard to read, a person has to read them several times to figure out what you're talking about.

If you want people to pay attention to what you have to say, making it difficult will NOT work for you. You're a beginner blacksmith, don't you want help? What's the sense of making it too difficult to bother with for us to help you? On top of that you argue with what we tell you. 

Do you really want us to just skip your posts? You wouldn't be the first argumentative beginner to file himself in my ignore folder. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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I had a CompSci professor that said touch typing was bad for programmers as it was based on having an allowable number of mistakes per number of words and programming was based on having *no* mistakes allowed.  (He was also a VP? of IT at a major insurance company and cancelled class once as he was having breakfast with Bill Gates. Who was trying to sell him on the idea that every agent and adjuster should carry a laptop and be able to write policies and make damage claim payouts on the spot; which pretty much tells you how long ago that class was...)

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5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I had a CompSci professor that said touch typing was bad for programmers as it was based on having an allowable number of mistakes per number of words and programming was based on having *no* mistakes allowed.  (He was also a VP? of IT at a major insurance company and cancelled class once as he was having breakfast with Bill Gates. Who was trying to sell him on the idea that every agent and adjuster should carry a laptop and be able to write policies and make damage claim payouts on the spot; which pretty much tells you how long ago that class was...)

While Bill Gates is on the list of famous people I'd like to meet he's not at the top. I missed Steve Jobs but still hope to meet Steve Wozniak but I won't hold my breath.

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  • 8 months later...

congrats on making the plunge into smithing, one of the oldest professions. it can be learned in a few days but take a life time to master.  just a word of advice on making knives.

 

we come across a blade in form or another multiple times a day our whole lives, its got an easy straight forward shape we are all to familiar with, but there harder to make than you could ever guess. and im talking about a sub par knife, personally i would pick someting else out as my first project maybe find something that will teach you how to draw out a length of rod, or round up a piece of square stock and make a simple hook, that was my first project (and i was ticked off when the student teacher wouldnt even let me try and make a knife for months, and now i know why) its surprisingly hard, and thats just the forging you still have to contend w the heat treating  and if you dont evenly hammer the knife itll warp on you or worse crack, when you heat treat it. but that being said do what your heart tells you try and make the knife and when you fail ( i hope you make that knife your female dog) may be try a few other projects then come back to the knife. best tip i can give you is before you begin to pack the edge(hammering the bevel on the edge) be sure to bend the knife in the direction of the blade casue packing the edge will cause that side of the knife to lengthen and that in turn will cause it to bend the other way. but since you though ahead and bent it towards the blade slightly it will straighten its self out.  when i was taught that trick i was a total game changer for me

 

we would love to see some pics of your knife and any other projects you end up forgeing and dont worry if there bad every one here had to start off w little to no exp themselves so we have heaps of sub par forgings.

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Hi Ryan

I'm a new aspiring smith myself.  I've spent my time making twisted crosses, hooks, bottle openers, and tools.  I've learned a lot about how hard it is to move some metal and a lot about Personal Protective equipment, while grinding, eye protection,  respirator and ear protection.  I too plan to make knives but I've a long way to go before I'll be ready for that challenge.  Good luck.   

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On 5/31/2017 at 9:10 PM, Michael Cochran said:

While Bill Gates is on the list of famous people I'd like to meet he's not at the top. I missed Steve Jobs but still hope to meet Steve Wozniak but I won't hold my breath.

Been in the same room as Gates but didn't have a chance to talk to him. I met and had a pleasant, although somewhat one-sided conversation with Woz. He is energetic and enthusiastic! I started with one statement and he then talked for several minutes without a pause! This continued through the whole talk we had. 

 

Sorry for the topic diversion!

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