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OK, it isn't pattern welding, but the similarities won't be lost on this crowd. Apparently there are areas of rock where layers of iron and other contrasting materials were laid down. These layers were then manipulated by geologic forces over a couple billion years to produce some striking patterns. I didn't know this was a thing. I'd love to see this in person some day... http://www.gigapan.com/galleries/7754/gigapans/94833

Before patternwelding became common, seaxes were constructed the same way as knives, which just about any combination to have a steel edge and iron body. However, I've never seen a fully steel seax with an iron tang welded onto it myself. Rounded spines on seaxes were used simultaneously in Anglo Saxon and Frankish regions. The broken back shape is later, and the reason you mostly see them from the British Isles is because seaxes disappear from the archaeological record in Frankish regions at the time the broken back becomes the common style.

I found this forum the other day while looking for ways to improve my multi-tool grinder attachment and decided I should stick around for a while since you all seem to be a knowledgeable group with a great collection of skills. First picture is of the knife that inspired my design. I actually made a knife for my wife that very closely resembles the drawing I made based on this knife. I then traced hers after I got it roughed out because I liked it so much and made a slightly larger version for myself. I intended for it to be a more exact copy but ended up leaving more material on it all the way around. As with my first round of knives I made most of these were intended to be Christmas gifts so I was a little limited on time which is why I'm just now getting back to working on mine 9 months later. You can see I loosely based the shape of the handle around the inspiration but I changed up the blade shape a fair bit (IMO). I really like the way that the scales projected into the oversized choil and ran with that as the focal point of the overall design. I like how it affords a good forward grip on the knife for choking up on the blade. Overall I was pretty happy with how hers came out other than the handle needs some improvement/ refinement. (I'll try and remember to get some pictures of hers to add to this thread for reference. It didn't come out bad but it would have been better if xmas wasn't fast approaching when I was finishing it.) Below you can see the group of knives I heat treated in that batch, all O1 steel that I bought precision ground. I had a good mix in there, everything from a pry tool bottle opener thing to hunters and a kiridashi like blade. A keen eye will note that in my haste I forgot to file the jimping into my hunter although my wife's is jimped. I've been using WD-40 when hand sanding the blades and it seems to help the paper last a little longer. Strange stuff happens with suspended metal particles in oil on a magnetized blade. Do blades often become magnetized like this? Scale cleaned up after heat treat. Polished (I've since sanded the blade again, I think it looks better than the polish did. Possibly because the polish was less than perfect.) This is some prelim design work for the handle. I've decided not to attempt to copy the carving on the scales but I was playing with the idea in the below sketch. IIRC the scale material I picked out for this knife is Gaboon Ebony I got from Bell Forrest. Up until this point those are all pretty old photos from either late 2018 to early this year. From this point forward you're seeing what I've done in the last week or so. I decided that the black scales on the polished blade might be a bit boring and decided to add a liner to them. I thought about just doing a layer of brass but I decided to go ahead and add a layer of red micarta between two layers of brass. (.010" brass, .030" micarta) I spent some time getting the scales flat on one face and gluing up the liners (is that the correct term?) then brought them to work to drill on the mill. I don't have a drill press at home and the last ones I hand drilled came out a little bit off. The blade now has a 600 grit finish on it but I'm not sure how far I'll end up taking it. Beginning to rough shape the scales. Where I ended up last night. This ebony is a filthy wood to work with, makes an absolute mess of me and the shop. I screwed up a little bit last night. I got a little ahead of myself and glued the scales on after I got to this point. It would all be fine and dandy if I didn't have more sanding to do on the blade. Oh well, it will just take a little more work to protect the scales and not make swirly scratches where the blade meets the scales. I doubt I'll make any progress tonight as I have some other errands planned but I'll keep you all posted as I make progress. Thanks for checking out my project let me know what you think.

I'd be proud to hang something one of those hooks (especially the first), Conner! Did you get a forge situated? Hopefully you'll be grinding soon. Good looking bunch of knives there Joshua! I sat down and watched FIF for the first time in a while... I was surprised to see a familiar face! I told the family they had to watch this one. I said "I know that guy! that's the guy that'll win it!" I dont want to spoil it for anyone. I still cant get over what happened.

We have a show in November and I need some knives to sell.

I haven’t been able to bolt it down yet, I’m hoping to do that this week, so I haven’t used it very much yet. Cant wait to work on it though forged another hook today, this ones a bit different.

This makes me happy. It's the first time I have gotten a real look at the pattern. It's almost what I intended.

Made a piece of rolled micarta from red dyed Hessian (burlap) coffee bags, added blue tint to the resin, as well as a think slab of black cotton twill micarta for bolsters. The blue tint in the gaps of the red burlap sounded like a great idea in my head, developed some doubts while making it and seeing the resin penetrate between the fibers......giving me....purple? Might not be right for what I intended, but it shouldn't be ugly

Just finished forging this little hook, I need to make a punch so I can punch holes.

Thanks Alan, the teeth are basically just little bumps now, completely worn down. This thing has been put to hard work. I’m finally going to attempt to forge a Yakut. We’ll see how that turns out.

Conner, That file was most likely made by Nicholson before around 1965 or so. Belknap Hardware was a national wholesaler who had all kinds of stuff made for them by all kinds of companies, but put their own trademark on it. For instance, A Belknap Bluegrass anvil (they exist!) is a Hay-Budden, their axes were by Collins, their forges and blowers were by Buffalo, etc. Basically all top-quality stuff, and highly collectible in good shape. Thus the file is most likely a Nicholson Black Diamond. If it's in good enough shape to use, do so! If it's totally worn out, make a few knives out of it. It's W-2.