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Forging the Blade The raw material for this blade spent most of the last century on a former homestead. A large portion of the steel was used for another blade, this was the piece cut from half of the left side. Slowly drying the clay for yaki-ire over the embers in the charcoal forge. After yaki-ire, an #80 grit Sun Tiger stone reveals the approximate hamon as the geometry is set. Habaki Habaki forged to shape in preparation for silver soldering in the charcoal forge. The habaki is textured with files and patinated using a blend of copper salts sim

A little more progress: The tang end sticking out will be penned over. There are some weld flaws there but I don’t think they extend to where it will be peened. I plan on doing all the engraving before I put it all together. Now we are too the blank canvas stage. I get really nervous because one cut could ruin a lot of work... Getting the design right and then getting over that inertia for the engraving is the hard part.

Got this one finished up, bar for the sharpening this evening. I forged the blade last year, and it was not very pretty, left it too thick from the hammer, and its fought me right the way through as a consequence! - Core is not centered, but its servicable. The blade is from pre-laminated san mai, with stainless cheeks, and aogami super blue core - The handle is home stabalised spalted beech, and stabalised bog oak. Not sure if I like it yet, but that might be a consequence of it kicking around the shop for so long. I will put it away for a few days, and lo

Furusato (故郷, pronounced “foo-roo-sah-toe”) means home place or hometown and contains the ideas of being rooted or grounded wherever one may sojourn, and a confidence and longing for return. "When difficulties come, I remember my home place…Someday I shall fulfill my task. And, then, return to my home place. To the green mountains and clear rivers of my home." Takano Tatsuyuki, Furusato Materials for the wabisabi aikuchi style koshirae mounting include Tshikalakala (Wenge) wood for the kataki tsuka and saya, Hounoki (Japanese Magnolia) wood and cow horn for

Keep this up and y'all may get a pin. Just sayin'.

Where's that popcorn emoji when you really need it? Love it.

LMAO. I just made the connection with fork or track.

Forged my first sword. I'm going for a crusaders 2 hander. I still have more forging to do. Blade length is 28 inches Over all length is about 38 inches. As of now it weighs 44 ounces.

I believe some steels will retain more austenite if you don't let it reach room temp, which is bad. I even put my 26c3 blades in the freezer after it reaches room temp. No blade cracked so far. So, depending on the steel, it may or may not be a good thing. Of course, most of the RA can be converted to pearlite/ferrite/whatever during the tempering cycles but if you aim for the highest possible martensite %, you want RA to transform to martensite...

It's good for making divots on the bottom of my new plank It was a tight fit so I had to hammer it on with a rubber mallet and work it in a bit......realized soon after the tightening screw was a complete waste of time

There should be separate bars for the neutral and ground wires. If the two bars are bonded in the box, it doesn't matter which one you tie to. That's why I want to see the photo. So I can see if the two are bonded or not.

Here, Josh, you can use mine!

This will work. I have a couple pieces of machinery wired like this.

This afternoon, I got the guard and spacer package set on the take-down EDC. Got the handle block fitted and bedded the tang.

This is what I did this morning. Then I did some work on my 6 blades project.

Alex has it right. Check the welder specifications. Generally they require 2 hot legs and a ground. In a main electric panel, the neutral and ground bars are tied together. They are separated in a subpanel. Take a photo of the inside of the panel and post it, so I can see what is going on in it.

That thing is absolutely gorgeous, Adam. I've never seen anything quite like it and am really impressed.

The two on your breaker are for your hot wires, usually black and red. Your ground (bare copper or green) and neutral (white) will go to the appropriate bars inside your panel. The three on you plug will be for the two hots and the neutral, there should be a separate screw, usually tinted green, that you connect your ground to. It's pretty straightforward, but then again, I did manage to electrocute the crap out of myself a few weeks ago........

I made this little belt axe head. That crud on the poll is what happens in a coal forge. I usually wire-brush things before I take pics, but I didn't feel like it today.

250mm along the edge, about 53mm at heel - its a bit of a beast! Its only the 2nd time ive tried a 'K' Tip, the first one had a weld issue so went to the scrap pile. Im not tuned in to making the profile at all - its a bit alien to me!

Im not familiar with Kastolite products im afraid. The stuff I use is sold on ebay in 20 kg bags as '1600 C castable refractory' - It mixes like dry concrete, and is very dense (like concrete, again!) when it cures.

Gerhard, I don't think you need that tightening screw on the bottom of your clamp. If it's a full rectangle, the pressure from the adjustable clamp on top should pull the bottom up enough to lock the movement of the clamp for and aft. Slick idea, for sure.

I found this clamp, bought a nice new plank and screwed it on there, realized very quickly it will need to move......so I bird-shit welded this contraption together. Need to make a plan with the little foot and it's adjustment, but so far so good. Also made two 2/3 sized blades of the ones I need to make to test the 1070's behavior during heat treat, one with bevels, one without so I can test if post-HT grinding is viable (for me)

First dry fit-up: As you can see, I opted for a bold pattern in this blade.

This is looking great, guys.

Germanic spears based on the Vimose finds. The longest with an octagonal sleeve is 48.5 cm and weighs 330 grams. The other two have rounded sleeves, 39.5 cm and 38.5 cm long, and each brew 300 grams. The knife is a Germanic standard with a Vimose pattern from a single-edged sword. Blade 19 cm long, whole knife 30 cm.

Just so y’all don’t think I dropped from the face of the earth.... I’ve been working on the handle, sorry this is not much of a WIP, I am doing this in a completely different way than anything I have done before and every step is a series of experiments. Here’s a couple in progress shots. Josh, you will probably notice the tang changed quite a bit. I hope you don’t mind, I needed it to fit the curve of the handle. Also, you’ll notice it changed compared to my sketches up above. This is how it goes when you are using organic materials.

Well here it is all done, I am happy with how this turned out in the end esp since it is my first sheath of this type and also my first go at leather tooling (thanks Josh). I have a confession....I had become a bit stale and board with making knives and I feel this has lit a fire again and inspired me to delve into the artist within me. I am really looking forward to my next project which will be a sheath for my pattern welded broken back seax. I also got some 90cm lengths of 15n20 and 1075 so this year I hope to get creative with my blades too.

32 spears .... 9.2 kg of iron.

Hello everyone! Vorace is the other sword that we brought from wilmot, from Tannery Pond of the Sword Reflexions class of May of this year. It is made in 5160 steel following the directives of the class curriculum. the total length is 122 cm and the blade measures 96 cm. the weight is 1.6 kgs. hope you like. Sorry for my bad English

Well I'm happy to say the lake sword is complete! Been a long project well over a year and many attempts in the making, and the biggest thing I'm taking away from this is really taking the time and extra effort seems to go a long way. Another huge thanks to David DelaGradelle for letting me base this sword off of his design! Now I find myself is a strange place with out a big project on the go, need to get back to the forge