Jclonts82 Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 So I was asked to show some of the boys (14 &15) in my church some metal working. Being boys they were only interested in knives. Normal. So I had 45 minutes and decided to make a 'blacksmith's knife' as I have seen it called. I've never made one before, but for a start to finish in 45 minutes i think it went ok. If I had more time i would have smoothed out the handle a lot more, and cleaned up the heavier hammer marks. But a I kinda like the roughed in work. Blade is 1095, about 7 inches on the blade, about 11 inches overall. Quenched in 170 deg canola oil after soaking for about 5 minutes at 1550. Torch tempered the spine until it turned blue and ran dark straw to the blade edge. Spent 5 minutes at the big water sprayed 4X106 grinder made for grinding full glass sheets. 36 to 80 to 220 to 400 to 800 grit. Shave sharp and called it done. Aaaand ive never worked so fast, I'm beat, time for bed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 45 minutes eh? Slacker. Well done J, were the boys happy? Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jclonts82 Posted March 15, 2018 Author Share Posted March 15, 2018 The teenagers loved it, kept asking if I would make them all one... I suggested a followup class with more time and they could hammer out their own things. I gave the knife to the adult leader of that age group. He loved it. They do an annual scouting-ish meet each year called a mountain man rendezvous. All ages of teenagers from the SE quadrant of AZ meet up for a few days and things/projects like this fit in perfectly. I suspect We will be making RR spike objects to be used for trading and showing off and whatnot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatLiner Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 That's an awsome activity for them. Hopefully it all goes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will W. Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Think of all the future craftsman you may currently be inspiring, all the hands that may make beautiful things because of what you showed them. That alone makes it worth it. Also, that is a wonderful knife for 45 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jclonts82 Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 Well they liked it enough that its time for round 2. I rearranged the stuff I could to get lots of room this time. My big anvil isnt going anywhere, so it dictated where everything else went. Have all 3 anvils mounted up. Remade my first smaller forge and made a proper pedestal for it. I’m doing a lot of prep-work. Decided for the sake of time I would hammer out the long tangs for them. Then all they would have to do is a little bit of distal taper, then put the downward bananna bend, then pull the cutting edge down straightening the bananna... hopefully??? quench, cutting torch temper, grind to a chopper/appleseed bevel. I need a power hammer... budgeting for an 88# Anyang in a month or two... drawing out six 15” tangs from leaf-springs by hand was a chore. But hey, ive gotten pretty good at doing it at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Time to train a couple of boys or their dads as strikers and have them come help prep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jclonts82 Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 THAT is a good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Another good church-related activity is to show them nailmaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rl69 Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 On 3/14/2018 at 10:49 PM, Jclonts82 said: 'blacksmith's knife' If you want to impress them say it's also known as a Viking ladies knife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jclonts82 Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share Posted May 17, 2018 Thats good to know. ‘Viking ladies knife’ jumping right into knife making is, I KNOW, not the best rout to go. Its what I did 1 year ago, and it was a steep learning curve. I got lucky. With a farming, welding, physics, and chemistry background it came pretty easy to me. After reading here daily for over a year I really understand the wisdom that the obviously more experienced users often say. Start small, s hooks, tapers, upsetting, punch/pritchel, drift, all while learning hammer control. I would really love to start with the basics with these guys, but with how busy life is nowdays, I’m happy we got to do at least this. Plus... i had four 14 & 15 year olds completely focused on one task, and not afraid to ask for help or to explain something again. They did great! Part 2 finished about 15 minutes ago. All 4 of em got a distal taper (well... kind of), the downward bananna, and then pulled the cutting edge down to (again... kind of) straighten the pre-bananna curve. 2 full hours including: safety briefing, instruction/plan, and me helping with some hammering on everyone’s blades to show a little technique here and there. Next wendsday we will ‘spade’ out the end of tang and roll the handle back in. Quench, temper, and final grind. We all agreed I will save them some time and grief and do a rough cleanup grind this Weekend so the grinder is not a bottleneck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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