jlpservicesinc Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Here is a recent Chopper I made.. It has been hand forged, filed, hardened, tempered, sanded, polished.. A guard made from Wrought iron and pins made from some damascus I forged out of some 1085, 1018, wrought iron and 15n20.. The grommet was made out of 6000 series Alum on the metal lathe out of a time savings.. Not my finest work but this is just a ramping up to get all the skills back up to speed.. Here's the pictures.. First full sized knife made in many years.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Might look at the late medieval to renaissance Grosse Messer as you are getting real close! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Cool chopper. Every time I see the process photos of someone making a knife I become convinced that I don't have what it takes to make one. It seems so laborious and tedious and I find I get distracted by other things. I made one practice knife and got about a third of the way grinding the first side of the blade and put it down for a bit. Haven't gotten back to it yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 6 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Might look at the late medieval to renaissance Grosse Messer as you are getting real close! It was based on a drawing my bestie did back in the 70s. He had a little more curve and sweep in the blade and the thicker top portion of the blade had a lions mane carving.. I figured it would make a great chopper but really I wanted to work on my preform forging.. I cut 2" off the end as it was going to be to long (balance was off) and reforged the tip area to get to a length of 13.5 and 21 overall.. 4 hours ago, Lou L said: Cool chopper. Every time I see the process photos of someone making a knife I become convinced that I don't have what it takes to make one. It seems so laborious and tedious and I find I get distracted by other things. I made one practice knife and got about a third of the way grinding the first side of the blade and put it down for a bit. Haven't gotten back to it yet! Lou. It really isn't that much labor to make a knife.. Or time for that matter.. Took me less than 1.5hrs to take a piece of 3/8X2.5X9" leaf spring and end up with a workable blade forged by hand. A power hammer would have cut the time nearly in half.. A good striker would have done the same.. A blade shape like this becomes a time eater for hand polishing as you have to address the curvature and keep the edge centered. If the blade had a straight cutting edge vs the inset ricasso it would have expedited polishing.. Also the redesign made it a little tougher as it rounded out the tip even more.. I picked probably one the the hardest types of knives for me to make and polish out just starting back out. I love to forge them, but hate all the finish work.. Personally I'd rather make a Katana or a Tanto as they are designed for hand work.. As is a lot of the older designed blades where the cutting edge is a consistent bevel.. I made a lot of rookie mistakes but it's part of the process.. The fit on the guard was decent but not as snug as I like so I peened the wrong side and you can see this in the guard.. Instead of peening the best way is to use a special punch for the purpose which I have.. I just forgot about it.. I also forgot to peen it on the back side.. LOL instead of the front.. If you have a knife grinder or hand polish a straight blade is always the easiest.. With the curved cutting edge it takes just that much longer.. I'll be making a few more in the up coming months.. This was just the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 I know I have to be able to make a passable knife just for the sake of credentials...if nothing else. I do plan to try my hand at some smaller bushcraft knives at some point. I'll take your points and make sure I choose a really simple design. Then, maybe the grinding won't make me hate myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 1 hour ago, Lou L said: I know I have to be able to make a passable knife just for the sake of credentials...if nothing else. I do plan to try my hand at some smaller bushcraft knives at some point. I'll take your points and make sure I choose a really simple design. Then, maybe the grinding won't make me hate myself I will be at Goshen for the fall NEB meet, Fri and Saturday and helping out at the green coal tent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 16 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Might look at the late medieval to renaissance Grosse Messer as you are getting real close! Thomas, what you have up the sleeve as for a good book of pictorial knives and swords.. :??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 What type and what time period? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 1 minute ago, ThomasPowers said: What type and what time period? 1600 to present.. You have a great flavor in reads.. Just looking at expanding my reference knowledge with different designs.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 I'll try to get a few listed; but I'm going to Austin TX next week to visit the Mothership and so will be away from my library and my wife is visiting me this weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 19, 2017 Author Share Posted August 19, 2017 No problem. When time allows. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 Post 1600 is a bit modern for me; I know there are books just on the Napoleonic War swords; I just don't have any of them...There is an old Knives XXXX yearly with an article on the 1913 "Patton" model heavy cavalry sabre... Anyway: Definitely look these over by ILL before buying! The Illustrated History of Weapons Swords, Spears and Maces, David Soud Treasures from the Tower of London; Norman and Wilson Not many but the ones listed are described with lengths and weights and dates. Swords and Hilt Weapons Coe, Connolly, Harding, Harris, et al Studies in European Arms and Armor, Blair, Boccia, et al for the article "Small Swords and Court Swords in the Kienbusch Collection" And an oddball: Cut and Thrust Weapons, Eduard Wagner I have the 1967 edition: large format *drawings* of swords with descriptions including data on length, etc Lots of 19th century military swords included Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted August 19, 2017 Author Share Posted August 19, 2017 2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Post 1600 is a bit modern for me; I know there are books just on the Napoleonic War swords; I just don't have any of them...There is an old Knives XXXX yearly with an article on the 1913 "Patton" model heavy cavalry sabre... Anyway: Definitely look these over by ILL before buying! The Illustrated History of Weapons Swords, Spears and Maces, David Soud Treasures from the Tower of London; Norman and Wilson Not many but the ones listed are described with lengths and weights and dates. Swords and Hilt Weapons Coe, Connolly, Harding, Harris, et al Studies in European Arms and Armor, Blair, Boccia, et al for the article "Small Swords and Court Swords in the Kienbusch Collection" And an oddball: Cut and Thrust Weapons, Eduard Wagner I have the 1967 edition: large format *drawings* of swords with descriptions including data on length, etc Lots of 19th century military swords included Thanks Thomas.. I will check out these titles.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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