Doug Lester

Very nice looking work. Doug

The charcoal forge shown in that video is way too shallow. You need to have 6"-8" of fuel under the the work and about 4" over it. That means that you will need to start out with something like a galvanized tub. I know the maker of that video said to avoid galvanized metal but the clay lining will protect the tub from getting hot enough to burn off the zinc. See if you can google up the Lively forge. It shows what I'm talking about. Doug

What Alan said. Sorry to hear it. Doug

I would always recommend to quench in oil with regular carbon steels. The old Japanese swordsmiths considered a 25% failure rate with quenching in water to be normal. If you are using a steel that will not quench in a fast oil I'd recommend that you get another steel. As far as the steel in the springs go there is a fair chance that it's 5160. There's also not a bad chance that it's 1095. It could be something else too. If you want to assume that it is 5160 then slowly heat the blade until it just becomes non-magnetic and then heat it just a little more then quench. Temper for two one hour cycles at 375°. Doug

Personally, from what I've read, gut hooks are pretty useless. They're not big enough and quickly fill up with hair. I even read somewhere that the original purpose of the notch was to catch the bail of a coffee pot that was sitting on the campfire. Other than that the knife looks great and I think the lines of the blade would be much better without the gut hook. Doug

Very well done. The dye really makes the carving stand out. Doug

Yes, he sounds like he was a character alright. I'd keep those knives just the way they are. Doug

I have experience with coffee can forges and I'll say that a larger one is better. You can't have much of a hole in a coffee can forge and they also tend to have a hot spot right where the gas comes in. Also if you are going to try to use a torch to fire the thing you will find yourself being restricted by the small fuel supply and you will quickly end up with a bunch of empties to discard. What I'd recommend is that you use nothing smaller than a 5 gallon paint can lined with two layers of 8# ceramic fiber matting. Use at least a 10# propane tank as a fuel supply. For a burner you can go with a venturi or a blown burner. A blown burner will give you more control. Doug

Yes, I think that it would take me a little head scratching to figure out how to sharpen a crooked blade like that. I take it that it's for carving things like bowls and trenchers. Doug

The wire in the new handle really picks up the pattern in the blade; makes it a real eye opener. Doug

Nice hamon for 1084. The sheath's interesting too. Doug

I have two forges and neither one has any welding to them. One is made out of a mailbox with the burner tube inserted through 3" of Ins-Wool and coated with a castable refractory. The other is cast with castable refractory and covered on three sides with soft fire brick. The point is to use your imagination and you may not have to do any welding. I would also vote for a blown burner as they are a little easier to build and fine tune. Doug

I know that people say to get the blade right into the tempering oven as soon as possible after quenching but remember that you can get it into the oven too fast. If you get it into the oven before the Mf point you can halt the conversion of the austenite to martensite and cause the left over austenite to convert to something like bainite. Let the blade cool to where you can hold it in your hand before putting it into the oven. Doug

I've been looking for my grinding jig for a couple of years now. I know that I put right where I could lay may hands on it. Doug

Great carving on the handle. What does it represent, man being attacked by wolves? Doug