Leaderboard

Haven't posted on here in several years, but I thought this might be a fun blade to jump back on here with. This tanto was made from an Enfield Mark III barrel with a mild steel core forge welded into it. The idea was to mimic the kobuse forge welding scheme used in many Japanese swords. It was kind of an interesting process getting the hot core down the barrel during welding. If I did it over again, I might have done a few things differently in the forge welding process, but it seemed to work out okay. I did a video on my Youtube channel. I can add the link if anybody's interested in seeing it.

Culinary knives are something I've really only admired and watched other people make, but with my brother entering more into the food world, and Christmas coming up, I decided to give it a go. Forged from one of those E-shaped rail anchors. I'm not super familiar with integrals, so it was tricky to get the heel down straight from the bolster, but I got it more or less. Mareko Maumasi sent me a quick sketch of how he draws the heel back behind the bolster, so that helped, but I think I can do better on the next one. Salem's recent integral has me floored but it's a goal eventually. The entire forging process consisted of studying integral knives by half a dozen or more kitchen knife makers between each heat. It heat treated well, took a slight hamon but it wasn't much so I didn't bring it out. Quenched in Canola, tempered at 375 for several hours, then torch tempered the spine. It takes an incredible flex, and the edge flex (ground to zero) was fantastic. Took forever to hand sand though. The spine is roughly 1/8 in front of the plunge, with a distal taper. Blade is roughly 9" (I didn't take official measurements). Thermoplastic spacer, stabilized Kingwood from greenberg woods, and stabilized curly koa from Petescustomkoa. Overall a fun project and a new world I really like. Maybe someday I'll find a niche but until then I'll try anything and everything.

Lets just make this poll voting deadline new year's. The popular vote at the start of the new year will be the theme we pick. I hope I got everyone's choices here. If there is something that isn't in the poll that you want, let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWaRKxGsyHQ&t=4949s or for 2012 vids: http://www.arcticfire.org/videos.html

So are you guys ready for a new subforum for 2018?

As far as I know the KITH is open to all members of the forum. I have been participating in the KITH of this forum for a few years now, and certainly my early entries were nowhere near my current standard of quality. No one has ever been negative, as long as you try your best to send in a knife made to the best of your abilities. To me the best part of the KITH is getting a knife from a more experienced maker and being able to see how they did things. I have certainly learned a lot from having another smiths work in hand, there is much more to a knife than just seeing the photos on your computer. It is also always appreciated if you do a WIP thread about your build, I know I always love to follow a knife being made. When it comes to deciding the deadline and theme of a KITH there is a thread made in the sub forum where members can brainstorm freely until a decision is made.

Gents, thank you again for all of your comments. Gary I'm a great admirer of you're work and as a fellow ABS brother your remarks mean a great deal to me. Steve

A copy of the $50 Knife Shop would be a good investment for him if he's broke and wants to get into the craft. David Boye's book "Step-by-Step Knifemaking" is also a really good investment for the broke bladesmith. Teach him how to draw file. Probably the biggest money saving skill a guy can have. But yeah, you'd do him a big favor if you showed him basic heat treating on simple steels and then advised him to buy real steel like 1080 or similar rather than making a knife from scrap. Good steel is cheap and starting with a known steel eliminates so many variable for the beginner. Above all else, advise patience. Beginners want to rush to the end so they can see the glory of the finished project. Injuries and disappointment lie down that path. You may want to have him watch Don Fogg's Arctic Fire 2012 video on hand finishing. Not so much for the technique (but that's good too), but for the philosophy Don explains during the tutorial. Luck! Dave

Been a while since I've posted, but I've been keeping busy. As time goes on I've become more fascinated by the world of Japanese blades, but being American as I am, I love the rough and tough wild west themes too. Fusion style knives, like some of those by Ben Tendick and Dave Friesen, are among my favorite knives. So naturally I had to do my take on it. Keep in mind by the way, I've been a bit slow on the uptake in regard to hamons (and good golly I need to get some patternwelding skills). Anyway, a fun one I tried out. Western Bowie with Japanese themes. The blade is W2, clay quenched. I forged this one pretty close to shape, and kept the forge texture but for the most part removed the scale. The clip was hollow ground (that was a nightmare to freehand). The seppa and fuchi are copper, and I forged the tsuba from a farrier's rasp, ground only the edges smooth, then let it soak in the forge to build up scale, air cool, and wax while still warm. The handle is plain maple, but I collected the sawdust from shaping it and used that for a lacquering, texturing, and dyeing technique. Maybe it would've looked better with some dark hardwood, maybe not, but it was an idea I wanted to try out. The tsukamaki is dyed leather. I did a simple double knot on both sides, spotted with glue. Rough of course but that's the goal. I did the wax-the-tang-and-bet-with-expoxy to get a tight takedown fit, and it's pretty firm. For the sheath I made a quick stamp out of antler for a sort of pebbling look and went to town on it. My leather skills still have some catching up to do but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. All in all, this is one of those fun projects to interrupt the billion dashis, and I really enjoyed it.