James Helm

Thanks, guys!

Beautiful! I'll try to make it by. I'm desperately trying to get my own inventory finished up for that show.

That is a beautiful and unique piece, Raymond! How's your thumb doing? I was just a guest at a wedding where the groom was completely missing an index finger due to a table saw.

I like the way this is going. Lots of work involved!

Thank y'all! Fox Creek - Tai is one of the biggest influences on my work. I had five hours worth of lessons with him in the summer of 2007. Alan - I didn't realize that.

Thanks, guys! Gerhard - A ginunting is a Filipino design. This is my take on it, a bit shorter than I usually do. Alan - I think you were a bit more advanced than I was at that point, and still are. Back in the early days, I would use the dialup modem on the family computer to connect long distance and race to learn as much about blacksmithing as I could in an hour so I wouldn't rack up too big a phone bill. Truly, they were primitive times.

It's been a busy year, and difficult to keep up with everything. Here's some of what I've been building. It's all 80CrV2 steel with various cord wraps impregnated with marine epoxy and sheathed in Boltaron. I like to focus on getting geometry, balance, and ergonomics right without playing around too much with materials. :D Apologies beforehand for the massive wall of pictures. Mini-parang. miniparang01 by James Helm, on Flickr Barong. barong01 by James Helm, on Flickr barong02 by James Helm, on Flickr Ko-katana. kokatana01 by James Helm, on Flickr kokatana03 by James Helm, on Flickr kokatana04 by James Helm, on Flickr Wakizashi. waki03 by James Helm, on Flickr waki04 by James Helm, on Flickr Sasquatch for scale. pose03 by James Helm, on Flickr Carcass splitters, two big, two small. carcasssplitter01 by James Helm, on Flickr carcasssplitter05 by James Helm, on Flickr carcasssplitter06 by James Helm, on Flickr Sasquatch for scale. carcasssplitter03 by James Helm, on Flickr Another barong. barong by James Helm, on Flickr An elvish forester's blade. forester by James Helm, on Flickr Snake chopper. snakechopper by James Helm, on Flickr Orange and black bush sword and companion small recurve. orangeset01 by James Helm, on Flickr A tenegre bush sword. tenegre01 by James Helm, on Flickr tenegre02 by James Helm, on Flickr A prototype for an upcoming project. Obviously not a cord-wrapped handle on this one, but TeroTuf slab handles with stainless steel flared tube rivets. ed01 by James Helm, on Flickr ed02 by James Helm, on Flickr ed03 by James Helm, on Flickr Taco Ninja for scale. ed04 by James Helm, on Flickr Another carcass splitter. carcasssplitter01 by James Helm, on Flickr A tiny tanto. tanto01 by James Helm, on Flickr Sasquatch for scale. carcasssplitter04 by James Helm, on Flickr A lamb splitter with TeroTuf scales. lambsplitter01 by James Helm, on Flickr lambsplitter02 by James Helm, on Flickr lambsplitter03 by James Helm, on Flickr Sasquatch for scale. lambsplitter04 by James Helm, on Flickr A small-ish camp chopper. campchopper01 by James Helm, on Flickr campchopper02 by James Helm, on Flickr A small-ish ginunting. ginunting01 by James Helm, on Flickr ginunting02 by James Helm, on Flickr Another small-ish camp chopper. campchopper03 by James Helm, on Flickr campchopper04 by James Helm, on Flickr And finally, a decent-sized bush sword that went to a good repeat customer. I could picture Professor Smolder Bravestone picking this up in the bazaar while outfitting for an expedition in Jumanji. :mrgreen: bushsword01 by James Helm, on Flickr bushsword02 by James Helm, on Flickr And now I feel tired. :D :D :D This is a good bit (not all) of half a year's forged blades (not mid-tech). And, of course, I have any number of projects currently underway.

"Make something beautiful with it." Mission accomplished!

Thanks, Mike! As for the wraps and knots, I have no natural skill in that direction. Fortunately, my best quality is sheer stubbornness!

Been busy banging out bodadacious blades. Here are some recents. 80CrV2 steel, cord wraps, and Boltaron sheaths all around. A biohazard outbreak reaction bush sword and smaller utility knife that went to a repeat customer in Canada. The bush sword has scorched hemp for the main wrap and black paracord Turk's head knots. The smaller knife has tan paracord over hemp, with a black paracord Turk's head. kq01 by James Helm, on Flickr A similarly-sized (6"~ blade) knife as the above utility, with hemp. db01 by James Helm, on Flickr Variations on Benghazi Warfighters, two with sharpened upper edges. knife01 by James Helm, on Flickr knife03 by James Helm, on Flickr knife04 by James Helm, on Flickr knife02 by James Helm, on Flickr knife05 by James Helm, on Flickr A Benghazi Warfighter with black oxide finish, headed to an Army Ranger. He had commissioned a bigger chopper/fighter from me a few years ago, a variation of my Aggression design (I need to make some more of those). We decided this was a "micro-Aggression" and the sheath is a "safe space" from it. He can't tell me yet where he's deploying, but this is going with him. bw01 by James Helm, on Flickr bw02 by James Helm, on Flickr A couple of donation blades, the first for Knife Rights in their continued fight to remove restrictions on the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry arms in the United States. This year, a falcata-ish bush sword with retina-searing neon orange underlay. donation02 by James Helm, on Flickr I don't realize how big my hands look until I take a picture of me holding a blade. donation05 by James Helm, on Flickr And a much smaller donation knife for my old high school, raising funds for teacher projects that run outside the school budget. donation04 by James Helm, on Flickr One of the most useful comments I've had on my work came years ago when a knife dealer told me my blades were good but my sheaths sucked. I have worked to make that better, and think I have achieved a decent level of workmanlike sheaths. donation01 by James Helm, on Flickr donation03 by James Helm, on Flickr And finally, the first oxtail dao I've done in a long time. The customer had as reference a picture of one I built many years ago. dao by James Helm, on Flickr Here's what I came up with for him. He was quite taken with the results. oxtail01 by James Helm, on Flickr I'd say I've improved through the years. The top edge is fully sharpened on the new one. oxtail03 by James Helm, on Flickr The design called for an open-backed sheath. oxtail02 by James Helm, on Flickr Ok, headed to the shop to work on some carcass splitters.

That is a tiny ax! Beautiful work, as usual.

Thanks, guys! MikeDT - Them damned zombies just won't kill themselves! Charles - I'll be finding pink Kydex sawdust around the shop for the next half a year, I'm sure.

It's been a very busy last several months, and while I have produced a good number of blades, I haven't been as active online to post them. So here's most of them from recent months. Everything is 80CrV2 steel, with various combinations of paracord and hemp wrapped handles, and Boltaron sheaths except for the two retina-searing colors, which are Kydex. In vague order from November to February: This chopper was forged very close to the final shape. Minimal stock removal on the bevels. chopper by James Helm, on Flickr A rare foldover sheath: js01 by James Helm, on Flickr My eyes! orange by James Helm, on Flickr Not the same tan tanto as above. tanto02 by James Helm, on Flickr knife01 by James Helm, on Flickr knife02 by James Helm, on Flickr knife03 by James Helm, on Flickr A very rare kiridashi. knife04 by James Helm, on Flickr O tanto with a 13 1/2" blade and wakizashi with a 15 3/4" blade. The waki was a commission from a Green Beret. knife06 by James Helm, on Flickr This 9" recurve was finished just in time to be a Christmas gift. knife05 by James Helm, on Flickr tantos01 by James Helm, on Flickr bushswords02 by James Helm, on Flickr Did a number of ginuntings, have more in the future. bushswords03 by James Helm, on Flickr bushswords04 by James Helm, on Flickr bushswords05 by James Helm, on Flickr My eyes! knives01 by James Helm, on Flickr knives03 by James Helm, on Flickr knives04 by James Helm, on Flickr Hey, look, a midtech Little Rok with CNC machined bevels! Slowly making progress. midtech02 by James Helm, on Flickr

A couple of new big blades that got shipped out earlier this month. Two firsts on these: the cord-wrapped one is the heaviest I've made, and the slab handle on the lamb splitter is the longest slab I've ever made. Both of them are forged from 80CrV2 steel with Boltaron sheaths. The wrapped one has an 18" blade and weighs 5.14 pounds, the first of mine to weigh more than 5 pounds. The handle is 22" long, scorched hemp on top of a neoprene foundation, with West System marine epoxy. carcasssplitter10 by James Helm, on Flickr carcasssplitter12 by James Helm, on Flickr carcasssplitter14 by James Helm, on Flickr It was a Christmas gift from a wife to her husband, and she had me laser engrave this on the blade. carcasssplitter13 by James Helm, on Flickr carcassssplitter11 by James Helm, on Flickr The lamb splitter is an over-sized version of what is usually a large one-handed butcher knife-looking blade. The blade is 17 1/4", the handle is 17", and the weight is 4.125 pounds. It has the longest slab handle I've ever made, from tan TeroTuf with flared stainless steel tube rivets. The customer has assured me that the lamb splitter will be used for butchering. lambsplitter03 by James Helm, on Flickr lambsplitter04 by James Helm, on Flickr lambsplitter05 by James Helm, on Flickr More details in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gho0LtKQPzg

Beautiful work! And congrats on the new kid!