G.Lamontagne

on step 3, the W squeeze. do you mean the same process as you would use for the "feathered W" pattern?

what and incredible piece of steel....beautiful work! and thank you for taking the time and showing how its done.

this knife is gorgeous! I have been looking at a few of your knives on here and this one is by far my favourite so far. maybe ill find one of your knives on here before its sold at some point!

Hello, I am actually very interested in coming to this, i have been out of blacksmithing for much too long and am currently trying to get back into things but need to build a forge ect ect....i was wondering if you know of anybody up in the edmonton area who does blacksmithing who wouldnt mind showing a guy a few things?

I have been playing with a charcoal forge on very rare ocasions....and i really enjoy doing it. i make my charcoal the same way as you but i use a old 80 gallon propane tank and i dont enclose the kiln, i have found that this sometimes - but not always- produces charcoal that looks like what you are after, that nice ting sound when you break it and little dust. have you tried leaving your kiln uncovered to allow the process to be cooler? i have not been doing anything with smithing for some time now and even then i was a novice at best but...just a thought maybe?

im also a welder by trade and I would normally say buy the biggest welder you can afford....but if all you want to do is tack billets together, you should be fine with just a little buzz box kind of deal. i would really suggest looking on craigslist for something like a little miller thunderbolt machine, they come up for cheap sometimes

the first one i have no idea...the second though it looks like the center pin from a vehicles differential, thats probably not the right term but its what goes throught the spider gears to keep everthing aligned with ur side gears...i have a couple of them kicking around my place. no idea what type of steel though...

arno...i dont think thats a feathered W like what Toby made...but it sure looks cool! i must have read this thread 20 times and i love just checking it out for the pictures, that really is an amazing pattern and blade that you have made there. i need to get back out to the forge and keep working on my hammer control and smithing skills so maybe ill that a shot at some point. a question about making damascus though. how long does it take you? i am trying to make a billet of just random pattern and it seems to take forever..even when im swinging the 12 lb sledge with my dad holding the billet

a question for those who have expierence with pattern welded blades. does pattern welded steel really improve the mechanicle abilities of a blade? i have been searching online and some places claim that there is no actual advantage to a pattern welded blade, others claim that it is an effective way to combine the properties of 2 different steels ect...any help would be much appreciated. Guy

so im doing my insulation with the clay and ash..however im having trouble trying to go around the whole propane tank without having the top half of the refactory fall off- i have it laying on its side and im going around it with the refactory, rolling it as needed, once i get past a certain point though, all the refactory starts to fall off...is it common or acceptable to do one half and then let it dry or get a small fire to dry out the clay then do the other half? will this work or should i just try to use the bare metal if the clay fails me?

ill chip in...cause i havnt seen prices listed anywhere..but there is some good basic info in a sticky in this forum, thread is "beginners read this" or something like that. anyways, im about where you are at, im just getting set up for forging again, i have a 2lb ballpeen and i think a 24oz as well. both hammers were around $20 cdn each. anvil what i did was went to the scrap yard and picked up a piece of 6" dia round bar tool steel. cost .42 cents a pound so i got a 300lb anvil for around $150. as far as tongs and other forge tools i think it is a good practice to make these things yourself. however they can be bought quite resonably from sombody states side, i cant remember who at the moment. a search on google will bring up some results. i think they were about $30. good luck getting set up. there are lots of other tools that you may require in time but i would stick with the method of making what tools you need as you need them, i think it makes for a more versitile smith, but thats just me. some people prefer to buy the tools because it gives them more time to forge knives, its a trade off i guess. hope this helps http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3401 this is the info that i was reffering to about getting started http://gstongs.com/ this is the place i would get tongs from if i were to buy them

hhhmm greg, the dry welding is kind of interesting. i may have to try that. i am working on getting some old worn out files from school in case i have trouble welding the springs, im hoping that with the way my forge will be set up and if i break my charcoal into smaller bits i will have some amount of success with the welding. my forge will almost resemble a tatera or at least use the same principle (taller chimney, more charcoal the hotter your fire will be) anyways... i will be taking pics for the school project, i have plenty of ash from our burn barrel, im going to mix it up with some clay that is around the yard and hope that it sticks to the walls of the propane tank...

well...i just finished cutting the anvil last night around 10PM...keeping it full length and digging a hold for my anvil is not really an option as it will have to be mobile at least for the the time being and as mobile as you can consider a 300lb chunk of metal mobile...i plan on sinking the end into a bucket of tamped sand/dirt and using that as my base, this way if i need to i can ajust the height up a little bit as needed. i have the offcut which is about 8" long and i figure it weighs in the ballpark of 50lbs, i think im going to clean up one end of that and face it off on the mill at school that way i have something which i can mount at elbowish height for finishing work. right now im scrounging all my steel so it comes in all shapes and sizes...beggers cant be choosers so i my 12lb sledge will get a workout every now and then im sure. i think/hope i will have the best of both worlds with the 2 anvils. i plan on modifying the anvil a little bit to put a hardy hole onto the side..i have some 1" plate that i can use and cut a square hole in in for hardy tools ect. anyways, thanks for the advice guys! happy forging Guy

i am by no means an expert...however i dont think that there is much to be done with cable that small, most people use 1" or bigger cable because with the smaller sized you loose too much carbon in forging. also stainless is supposed to be very tempermental to weld. best of luck!

great, sounds like im making my cut in the right place because i really dont want to have to re-cut that sucker...took 3 of us to get the thing onto my bandsaw! the length of it is about to my knuckles and i will have probably a 50lb offcut that i would like to face off and then have on a higher stump or something for doing my bevels or smaller stuff where i want to see exactly what im doing.