Bill Jones

Hello All Does anyone out there know where I can get grinding Belts in Germany. I can not seem to find a dealer that sells them Bill

Hello What does this class cost? Bill Jones

Hello all It it has been a long time from my last posts I will be staying in Germany I will be shiping all my forging and grinding gear to Germany :-) The small problem I am have shipped my Grinder over to Germany with blades o work on. but my Grinder blew up today it must not have liked the German power. so I need to buy a new motor and speed controller any one here have contacts in Germany I can get these parts from? Thanks every one Bill Jones

Great work. If I am lucky I will have tools over on this side of the pond to start working with aqain Bill

I think I will just give up sword making now and just watch your work.

why is it when I have the money I don"t have the time. and when I have the time I am out of money. I really hope he teaches this class again. I have around 10 blades forged and heat treated and I have no real clue on how to put them together. This class is what I have been looking for 3-4 years now.

Hello all Is Darren Ellis still in business? I have been trying to get hold of hime for 3 weeks or longer. Bill Jones

Thanks Cyrus I put this book on my birthday wish list. Bill Jones

Hello all If you ever Get the chance to Watch Jim Forge do so. But I worn you don't even Blink one time you will wonder how he made that little folded up billet into a full lenth sword I have seen him do this first hand it is truely amazing to watch he has no wasted steps or wasted time in his shop. and never get in his way unless you wish to be welded up with the steel :-) Bill Jones

Nice Job on the blade have you tried cuttting with it yet?

Looks like you guys where having too much fun I should come out there and just hang out and learn from you guys. Bill

Hello I really don't give advice very often on what to do. But I started about the same way you did. I tried to learn by myself to learn knife making for 3-4 years all by my self and I thought i WAS DOING WELL. until I went to a real class in knife making the teachers be very kind told me the best thing I could do was going to class and at the end of only 2 weeks of classes at the ABS school and 1 other teacher. I unlearned and learned so much you would think that 2 different people made the knives if you looked at my knifes 2 weeks apart. So what I am saying is you can save more money by taking classes and learning how to set up your shop and how to use all the tools you will need to make knives. I spent over 1.5k in tools when I first started out if I had gone to the class first the tools would have been a lot less and not so abused. also I would have made better knives that I could sell for more money. Example the first three years I could only sell my stuff for 35-45 and real good one 60. after classes that went up to 135-175. I worked in the shop from when the teachers first opened the doors until they put a boot in my ass to kick me out for the night. a the end of the 2 week I got a lot of knives forged and sold every one of them. so in the end the class paid for itself. in in truth if I had paid 20 times what the class taught me it was a steel. You should let your desire to learn take precedent over buying tools, read all you can talk to every one you can TAKE THE CLASSES then and only start buying tools and the only ones you need. Bill Jones

Hello all I wish I could photo my 4 quench tanks 2 of them I made out of 6 and 10 inch pipe and a flat piece of steal welded to the bottom. one is over 4.5 feet long for doing swords the other one is for daggers I have them mounted on wheels so when I am not making swords I can role it out of my way. for knifes I just use steel planter box I had laying around the shop. for long single edge blades I use a live stock watering troughs it holds 60 or 70 gallons of water. most of all this stuff I picked up as scrap so the cost is not very much. the real cost is the fluids I put into the tanks. Bill Jones

Hello Jim I am glad to hear that things have calmed down in your life and if it was not for you my path down the knife and sword world would have never happened I am very greatfull for all the things that you tought me thru the years. Now If I could ever get out of Germany to work in the shop again I will work on the skills you tought me over 15 years ago. the nobel minion core Bill Jones

Some moments are too perfect to capture on film, however this one came really close!