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And a couple more. The grinds are getting more complex even though it's not really visible All the distal taper with sturdy heels and almost flat grinds in the back quarter but the thin out fast with almost imperceptible hollows above the edges and the flats are convexed both towards the edge and the spine

And complete with belt and bronze age zip lock bag, all based on bronze age finds

I finally tempered the saber, had to use a BBQ grill because it would not fit into any oven I have access to. Did two one hour cycles at 410 F. Meanwhile I have been working on the handle fitting and cross-guard. I decided I will try to do add brass trim around the handle using 1mm x 10 mm brass strip and will solder it to the grip like I have seen done on other Turkish/Cossack and Hungarian sabers. The weight of the blade is down to 2.63 pounds from a starting point of 4.6 lbs... Still some more to go...

I felt compelled to making some changes... I think I might be on the right track: Alright, so a bit less "round" expression, and mouth doesn't look like a blowfish... Added some more muscle tone - but need to improve on that. I'll leave more material for sculpting on the actual piece.

Things have been a bit chaotic lately, but I found some time to work on knives. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire so to speak, but I put the priority on these blades, whipped up in the past couple of days. A handful of my “bread and butter” styles with a few pukkos, Sakha knives, and a leuku.

The last ones completed in 2023. Both blades are 195 with buffalo horn bolsters and stainless spacers. The orange is stabilized Karelian birch. The other is stabilized leopard wood.

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve posted here but I would like to share my latest creation with you guys. My girlfriend has been begging me to make her a Nakiri for months so I finally got my lazy butt over to the grinder and made her one. The blade is made from 3/32” CPM154 complete with a distally tapered blade (hand rubbed to 800 grit)and a tapered tang.The spine and choil are all rounded and polished for improved comfort and aesthetics. Handle is a piece of gorgeous stabilized Curly Hawaiian Koa that was generously donated by my buddy Matt Gregory. Speaking of Matt; he also performed the heat treatment for me AND took these photos so special thanks to Matt - I really appreciate it man! This was my first time making a Nakiri and I certainly had a lot of fun doing so. I hope you guys enjoy it and I look forward to making many more kitchen knives in the future! I know this isn’t forged but unfortunately I don’t have access to my forging equipment at the moment!

Nice! I've been using the heck out of the one I got from you in this year's KITH. Speaking of which, just finished this santoku. Right at 12" / 33cm overall, 7.25" / 18.4cm blade. Stock removal from 3/32" / 2.4mm AEB-L HT'd to what should be Rc61. Handle scales stabilized walnut from Bill Armstrong, https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/43173-stabilized-scales-for-sale/ I found out that if you strike a stamped mark too hard on an annealed blade that thin it will bend the heck out of said thin blade, but it straightens out easily too. Solid 1/4" brass pins, slightly riveted, which is why the center pin looks slightly misaligned.

Alright, so I've finished background removal on the rear of the handle, side B as well - so now it is time to proceed with the actual sculpting - which I dread... I've spent a few hours improving my sculpting attempt no. 2 - and here is the result: I've doubled the depth of the background, allowing me to play a whole lot more with topography on the relief itself. I've cut much more agressively compared with previously, and attempted to increase the level of definition. I have however - detected a few things that need further improvement. Please feel free to add to my three points mentioned above. My next cuts will be directly on the knife. I cannot keep churning out these test-plates forever if I am to finish this project in time... Wish you all a good sunday!

You can also add copper to a blade by warming it up (350-400 F, you don't want to change the temper too much) and scrubbing it with a brass or copper bristle brush. It give cool highlights. Geoff

Idon't know why, but the order of pictures in post is definitely different than the order I was attaching them. So, here in this post the second blade.

Hi guys, after long time without motivation, i beginn a special custom sword. My customer want a reconstruction of the sword from Skanderkeg. The Sword and the helmet are in the Waffenkammer of Kunsthistorischen Museums in vienna austria. This is one of the swords of the albanian national hero Skanderbeg. The sword was said to be able to cut its enemies half vertically. Its a cavallery sword. The sword have a persian blade and a turkis handle. The sheath dosent fit with the crossguard. The sword is 103.3cm long. 5.8cm large lenticular blade by the crossguard and 6mm thick by the crossguard. With a 17.5cm large crossguard. The weight is 1.3 Kg. The blade has a large koftgari work in gold. The wood Sheath and the wood handle are covered with fishskin. 1 hour ago i harded the blade. I take 1.8159 steel. The blade is hard and flexible. I forgot to make pics. I was in a verrry nice flow. I make pics tomorrow. Ruggero

Hi all, the crossguard is originaly a hollow sheet construction. I decided to make the crossguard in aluminum. I used the loast foam technique Her the raw Crossguard. The blade is ready for the Coftgari. I heatet this part on 300° Yesterday i worked on the crossguard. The CG fitts. Now i make the finish and i work the surface Ruggero

This reciprocating tool hasn't totally eliminated hand sanding/stoning, but it sure helps. This one is a micro-motor type, others are driven by a flex shaft or compressed air, Saludos J

Hi Alan and all of the Smiths out there!! It's your resident noobie here again, with a question or two about anvils. I have the opportunity to buy this anvil for $500. According to the seller, it's a 243 pound Peter Wright anvil. My questions are: In the first picture you will see that there is a dip in the face of the anvil. (I mean it's not flat.) Is that a big deal here? I mean, won't that affect my ability to make my work piece flat? I know that Alan told me that you should NEVER mess with the face of the anvil, so what would one do in a situation like this? That's my main question, but the other questions I have are: Do you all think it's worth $500? Can you tell by these pics if it is indeed a Peter Wright? Thanks for your time everyone!! :-)

Yeah, you have to turn the piece over to look at it more, but you get used to the process. If the block is stationary and you move the piece, you're using your whole body to do the action more, which means you get less fatigue. I guess that must be why they do that in Japan!

You can always try mounting the sanding block, and move the piece over it, like the Japanese do with swords. I often get hand/wrist fatigue with my sanding blocks, but never when polishing a knife or sword using stones.

I've seen fancy ones, but I just use a 14" bar of 1/4" x 1.25" hot rolled mild steel. That extra length lets you really bear down without risk to your fingers, and you don't need a death grip to control it. You could even stick bicycle hand grips on the ends if you wanted. If the 1/4" is too flexy for you, just use 3/8".

The red handled one is pretty cool. Love the handle. Very clean execution too!

Well, it looks like a Peter Wright, in that it has the flats atop the feet, but it also looks like it has a parting line down the middle of the base, aka a cast base welded to a solid top more like a Trenton. But, it doesn't have any of the other characteristics of a Trenton, so maybe that's just a rust line or something? Anyway, yes. Just about any anvil that weighs 243lbs is easily worth $500. As Matt said, the sway is a great feature, do not mess with it. I still kick myself for selling my 143lb Peter Wright with the sway right there. Best thing ever for straightening long bars. You cannot straighten on a flat surface without tilting the bar to get relief underneath, and that sway gives you that relief. The edges are good, nice radius with no chips or sharp corners. As long as it still has good rebound, I'd buy it!

You'll learn to love the little sway, the edges are nice. Hurry and snap this one up!

Sculpting the human form in metal is a very hard task. It looks like you have the skills and patience to pull it of.

This is fun watching your progress…. You are making good choices by the looks of it…. You have been telling us patience…. Now it the time to practice it the most….. after all this investment …..

Recipes for copper-plating with a solution of copper powder appear in a text from the first half of the Middle Ages called the Mappae Clavicula. They see them as preparation for gilding, because you can bond gold to copper or silver but not iron. Some of the the details may be fuzzy because we have Latin copies of Greek originals written down by people who watched workers who spoke Egyptian, Aramaic, or vulgar Greek. Lots of room for copyists errors, mistranslations, and "sure master that is how we do it can we go have dinner now?" This translation should be readable with a free account https://doi.org/10.2307/1006317

During past couple of years I forged two gladius blades based on an artifact from Vindonissa Museum in Brugg, Switzerland. Each of them was forged in a different way. I think the photos will show better than words can explain the structure. Briefly. The first one is a kind of ‘sandwich’ like San Mai construction. Soft wrought iron as flats and hard steel 80crv1 as a core. The second was forged from three kinds of material: soft wrought iron on the main body, hard bearing steel as a core, which is invisible in final blade, and the third one is medium hard wrought steel on the edges. Why such unusual solution? Soft iron would make the blade too plastic, bearing steel is hard and rigid/stiff. One picture shows the cross section of a piece of ‘blade’ I forged of the same bar just to check how it goes. The first sword has already been fitted and equipped with a scabbard. This marvelous part of job was done by another craftsman, an Elder Mster who’s name I don’t even know. I mentioned about it in my thread about Spatha. After the pictures were mixed up by the system I deceided to put each blade in separate post.

Hi, here a pic of the harded blade.

Allright, 12 hours of background removal later: I decided to go quite a bit deeper than on the test piece - which will give me a bit more "elevation" to work with in terms of topography in the relief. Next I will do this same procedure on the back of the handle, then start sculpting the front and then finally the back on this side (A). Needless to say I am pretty nervous. I will try to improve my old test-piece a bit before I start cutting into the relief on the knife. I've been watching some wood-carving videos - and I want to try out some techniques... Have a good Odin's-day everyone!

Basically these. When you lift the top gravity drops the lock into position, lift up and push a lever and it folds down. The set we bought is rated at 500lbs, I think the end of the cabinet will fail first, though I reenforced everything pretty well. It worked a treat for dinner last night. Geoff

I was telling someone the history of the place, and the fact that I do not own it, when I realized I myself joined in September 2003. It's now September 2023. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess... Don Fogg started this place as a page on his personal site in March of 2003 (some digging on the Wayback Machine shows he added a forum in December 2001, but it was on a different set of software I can't get to open now. The current InVision Powerboard format we know and love is what he added in March 2003), and I intended to make this announcement in March. Better late than never!

Finished a couple of pettys last week. Made from cx75 steel and though I did clay harden them and got a bit of hamon I chose not to etch them at all as they are meant to be used and I'm interested in seeing how they would patina up over time

i'm just an old farmer. The more tools you have the easier your job is(one should hope). Granted, common sense tells you your 'investment" should make you worth more. NOT TRUE, Bullkachit ! You can have 300 grand in tools but if you can't use them your work is useless. I can think of a couple of BIG RICH "kife makers" who crowd that group. OTOH. If a dude builds a blade that affects you more than a big dose of Viagra......using a chainsaw file, an old Nicholson bastard and uncle Ferdies Weber/ Kmart grill ????/ What blade is worth more ? Picasso didn't even have a lint cloth or mineral spirits . Understand ? Product is worth way more than process.