Leaderboard

I forged out a little scrap piece of Damascus in a 1-cubic inch blade smith challenge. Starting Stock: 1/4' by 1" by 4" Hardened

I've yet a good deal of sand & polish left to do on this guard but the knuckle bow is now ready for inlay. I decided to do a dimpled texture of either side of the inlay for effect. The ivory cabochon here will get a domed head pin in the center.

Four months later and finally the monkey is off...... During December I had a surprising occasion early morning, sober, where a friend lighting up almost cracked me, found that very surprising. Currently people smoking in my company no longer bothers me. I'm very surprised my Dad is also still going strong, had a chat with him recently and was surprised to hear that he struggles badly at times, he hides it well enough. After 64 years of smoking to be expected.

My dad just sent me this link. Got a big kick out of it. https://guff.com/this-giant-swiss-army-knife-once-cost-1500-on-amazon-and-the-reviews-were-hilarious

Adam, there are two ways to look at hardness in a knife blade. One side of the coin is that the higher the hardness the better it will hold an edge. The other side of the coin is that the lower the hardness, within reason, the easier it will re-sharpen. So you have a choice, a blade that's in the high 50's HRc that you can sharpen on a flat piece of hard sandstone that you found out in the woods if you forget your sharpening stone at home or a blade in the low 60's that will hold an edge longer but will need that hard stone to dress up the edge when it goes dull. Remember all blades will l

Hmm, I should have had the hole in the spring, but not in the liners. If that isn't the case, let me know and I'll correct the drawing. I do as you plan to, and drill the holes first. However, if you grind a little short of the lines (leave excess material), and adjust in the following order, you'll find that the hole placement isn't beyond what is easily achieved with a drill press. (That's all I use) Grind the tip of the spring until you get the tip of the blade where you want it with the blade open Adjust the top of the tang to get the open spring height

Though I spent much of my shop time getting ready for a class that I'm teaching tomorrow, I got the pommel made, drilled, and the knuckle bow bent to fit today. It's always a bit of a challenge to bend it exactly to fit and I heated & re-heated it several times before the end fit the hole in the pommel exactly right. As my class is reproducing "Bowie No. 1", it will be lengthy so I may not have the time to work more on this for a while.. I'll post more on this rapier when I can devote the time to it. If you