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San mai.

Channeling a Tibetan prayer wheel…….the symbol is a prayer for well being I think….. or something to do with good health or luck…. My memory fails…..

Now to remove the remaining oxydes with mother's mag polish.

That will be GORGEOUS! I can't wait to see the finished product!!

Started working on stacked birch bark Saya. Since the bark is not under compression like a handle, I have been using epoxy to make the sandwich. Only 400 more spacers to go.

OK, been here on this site only a month and have been pinging everyone for questions -- and I really appreciate all the help. So here is my 16th knife -- finished! I am my own worst critic because it isn't perfect, but thought I would post to show some of my work. The blade is 275 layer Damascus 1095/15N20 with a faint diamond pattern. Scales are G-10. I made all of the parts for this knife including a 1080 tempered lock spring. Fun build -- but man, this design of lock blades must be exact on the fit-up or the knife is total junk!

Thanks Bill and Jaron, if my daughter sees this, I'll end up with another project to do Seriously cool dice though!

For what its worth I've used this guide several times now, and it works wonderfully. If you're using a grinder I suggest a fresh 220g or a used 120g and go slow. check flatness frequently and don't over-grind. Even if one or two of the faces is slightly off it still makes a wonderful gift for friends or a way to spice up your nat-1 rolls...

Side project I did yesterday. Not knife related but thought some here would appreciate this. Each face is 0.625+/-0.007 inches and all angles are 90 degrees to as accurately as I can measure. Numbers are electro-etched. All done by hand (grinding). Why? To challenge myself; and I'm a gamer - can never have too many dice .

On the bench 3 whittling knives, a heavy hunter and3 buffalo skinners, 2 swords and a set of the K tip chef knives. The chef set has yet to be heat treated so is not ground yet.

And since pics or it didn't happen, here you go: Amazing what shows up in the pics that doesn't in person, like the pivot pin is invisible in person, and the grain on the "ivory" is much more prominent in person... but this was a pretty harsh lighting situation. Scratches really pop and the grain got washed out. I may take some better ones after I fix some things. Speaking of, here's one that the owner has been waiting on patiently for a year or more for me to get out of my rut of failure on these little mini-barlows. Again, you can't see that scratchy spot on the bolster in person, but boy does it pop in the pics! Scales are Mediterranean briar burl, the stuff they make pipes out of. The issue was multiplicative error. Turns out that if you use a folder in progress as the pattern for the next, you get a slight increase in dimensions. After about five iterations of this, the tang is too big for the spring, which now doesn't have the tension to snap it closed. Only took me six failed ones to realize that. The steel for both of these is AEB-L, bolsters and pins are nickel silver. The ivory one has nickel silver liners, the other has brass liners. These have not been sharpened yet, so fixing the scratches will be much easier/safer than it could be.

That's one mighty slicer Garry On my side, I worked through some grits on this 7" bunka style in 26c3. I believe I made some improvement on hamon control on the steel again. PXL_20221114_203447593.TS~3.mp4

Got to work on the Mr Volcano today. Here is what it looks like right now. And a 4 second drying burn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehm_UC3kb3M It may need some fine adjustment after drying our and final smooth coat of satanite.

Just ordered the 2 burner model.

It is. The burner alone should be worth that. I wouldn't have thought much about them except one of my guild members bought one to use for demos. He was so impressed he brought it to a meeting and we all played with it. The pentagonal shape allows a swirl effect, the burner is very nice quality and very adjustable, and it's stainless. Beats those from Devil Forge three ways from Sunday, and is cheaper to boot. If you use some bricks to make semi-doors (new folk: you have to leave at least a third of the door space open or this type of burner will not work) you can even weld in one, as long as it's a short billet. I am not a paid spokesperson, either, but I am open to that...

Of the cheap eBay forges I've seen in operation, the single-burner Mr. Volcano is the only one I'd recommend. You won't be making mosaic damascus in it, but it'll do fine for general forging. My primary forge is coal burning, but I use a tiny little two-brick gas forge (chamber size about 2.5" x 8") for everything from forging blades up to 42 inches x 1.5 inches, straightening sword blades, heat-treating blades up to 8 inches (not including the tang), making hooks, nails, and other things that don't need a big fire. If you get the Mr. Volcano, don't use the bricks for the floor. That makes a heat sink. Use them as doors, and line the floor with refractory cement.