Noah M Legel

Recently finished a simple EDC for myself, for once! 5160 blade with a ferric chloride forced patina, Wenge handle scales, and stainless pins. I don't normally grind out my hammer marks or completely get rid of forge scale, because it's my preferred aesthetic, but I figured I might as well play with it.

Yeah, when you mentioned it happened because the oil was fast, that's kind of what I figured. I wonder how it would do with a full jacket, forge welded taco/hotdog bun style? On the plus side, the fact that the welds held up under that pressure is a good sign? I'm curious to play with it in cooler oil, now, just to see, but I also want to try doing some proper 1095/15N20 "Damascus," next. I'm the type to try and jump into the deep end and do things that are more difficult/complicated than I really should be attempting, so it was hard enough doing Sanmai when I really wanted to go straight to a 1095/15N20 twist, lol.

I actually made this one back in October/November as a Yule gift for my girlfriend's Wiccan girlfriend, but realized I forgot to share it. We knew that she didn't have an athame (too expensive, she said, but she's the type to not feel like she NEEDS one, either), and figured it would be a nice gift. I'm not Wiccan, myself, but I tried to be considerate of her beliefs and intent, and my girlfriend provided me with input on that. The blade is recycled farrier's rasp (both the recycling and the connection to horses are good things for her particular beliefs), with a yew handle (apparently the best wood for magic conduction) and natural-death horsehide spacers (the horse connection again), and copper pins (also good for magic conduction). Since Wicca is big on 3's, doing a triple normalize/quench seemed appropriate, and I did it on the night of a Full Frost Moon. She was very excited to unwrap it, and I hope it serves her well, even if I don't totally get it

Ah, right! Viscosity and whatnot--I completely forgot! Just quenching monosteel blades for a few years, now, I've just done what Tai Goo showed me and preheated the stuff. Makes sense, though. Thanks!

Thanks! Honestly, doing it as a business kind of killed the fun in it for me, so now I just do it for friends and repeat customers :P. Good to know on the cracking--can I heat the oil more to prevent that, or do I just need a different quenchant?

So, I have gotten to start playing with some methods that are outside my wheelhouse, lately, thanks to a new forge showing up under the Christmas tree. Initially, I just stuck a piece of O1 to a piece of mild, to see if I could, and it stuck really well, so I tried to make a little Sanmai sandwich of mild and 1095. That billet seemed to be pretty solid, so I figured I might as well make a test knife out of it, and see how it goes. I banged out a super simple drop-point blacksmith's knife and sanded it up to 330 grit before hitting it with some polishing paste and giving it a ferric chloride bath to see how it turned out. Overall, for my first ever attempt at a forge-welded blade, I would say it went pretty well. I'm guessing some carbon migration was going on to cause that dark cloudiness along the transition line? That, or maybe I just ground down too far? The only thing that really went wrong was a lovely *ting* in the quench--a hairline crack down the center of the spine. Surprisingly, in the middle of the 1095, not along a weld. To be fair, I was quenching in vegetable oil, not a proper quenching oil, but it's worked well for 1095, 5160, and O1 before now. Still, even with the crack, my girlfriend is going to use it around the house for light duty, so it shouldn't be a huge issue for that.

Thanks! And near Metrocenter, although I work closer to downtown, and we are looking at land out in AJ

I finished up my first bowie, today. I forwarded the blade out of reclaimed truck leaf spring, the guard is a solid chunk of brass, with two letter washer sandwiching a brass washer between the guard and the stag antler crown that makes up the grip. It ended up being very comfortable. There's actually bit of story behind this one. Back when I was 16, and started getting interested in bladesmithing end knife-making, in general, I had been discussing it with my best friend at his house. His dad had actually made some knives out of old files, when he was younger, and had been giving his input. We ended up talking about the kind of knife he would like to have hand-forged one day, and he said it would be a simple, large bowie with a brass guard and a stag handle. He is a big hunter, and has the dream of someday going bow hunting for bear, and he said that he would want a knife like this by his side for that. He figured that if the arrow didn't kill the bear, and the bear came after him, it was only fair to fight it, and if that's how he went out, he was fine with that

Beautiful and clean!

Thank you, all! I suppose I should have mentioned that those first pictures are when I rough-forged it and pre-curved the blade before beveling it. I actually fine-tuned the bolster area and got it to line up with the blade better :P. The integration from metal to wood was really a pain, without grinding or filing the bolster, but I feel like it came out relatively okay, especially considering I have never done a bolster of any type, before. It's definitely cool to be able to incorporate old things into new things, and it has a lot of meaning for me, and hopefully for him. My grandpa played a big role in my life, and helped foster my interest in a lot of things, including working with metal--he was a sheet metal fabricator, in addition to being a farmer, before he retired. I'll be making a sheath for it, and possibly some way of displaying it, and present it to him mid-November.

For a while, now, I've been working on a surprise project for my grandfather, and now his knife--the Neal Farm Knife--is finished! It's far from perfect, but what it lacks in perfection I would like to think it makes up for in character. The blade was forged from the drive shaft of a piece of equipment on my grandpa's farm (yes, I tested it, and it hardens very well), and the handle was made from a piece of Osage Orange (hedgeapple wood) that grew on the farm, and which he often used to make fence posts. You can see the leftover steel and wood in this photo, as well. I left the blade, including the hexagonal integral bolster, as forge-finished as possible, meaning that the steel you see here has barely touched a grinder--aside from cleaning up the shape of the spine and tip a bit, the steel was made this way by my hand, with hammers and sweat. The tang underwent plenty of grinding, admittedly, to get it to fit into the handle material :P. The handle is a hidden tang construction, epoxied and pinned in place. I followed the octagonal shape of the bolster, but curved and flared it to be more comfortable. I had a bit of a mishap with vinegar, trying to re-patina the spots on the steal I hit with the file, and it soaked up into the wood, discoloring half the handle. I couldn't sand it out, and I wasn't really digging the two-tone look, so I went all-in and did a distressed look with the wood, which still has a bit of the two-tone effect, but honestly goes well with the forge-finished steel, in my opinion. There was a crack in the piece of wood my family sent me, but I don't think my grandpa is going to put much hard use into the knife, so I mixed epoxy with sawdust from the wood and filled the crack with it, which seemed to work out pretty well. It isn't perfect, but I'm proud of it, and I hope my grandpa likes it! He has always meant a lot to me, and played a big role in my life as I grew up.

Beautiful!

Whew! That's a gorgeous blade!

The puukko style one is definitely my favorite, but they all look nice, and the leatherwork is not too shabby, either! Nice job, Kevin!

While I have no interest in making armor, myself, I am constantly inspired by those who do--great stuff!