Jokke

nice shots, great place, looks I had been there a couple of years ago with my wife thx a lot for sharing! best regards

Dear Greg, your work looks stunning and I like the blade a lot, it always seems to be beneficious when smiths share their goods (thumbs up to Niko, too!) I never did a blade this long, who knows, maybe that will come in time. But I loved the pics from your workspace really reminded me of mine best whishes and regards from Germany

Kip, Ben, George: thx guys, I appreciate the feedback! I had a long time away from the workspace and it felt good to finish this one, there are still a number of different blades ready and waiting for mounting, so I hope to show some more soon... best regards from Germany

here are some more pics: it has a good feeling in the hand the end of the handle 37 to 23 mm oval the oval of 31 to 19mm in front detail on the blade and the fitting slicing bread is no prob :D/>/>/> since it is a nesmuklike blade, I thought of naming it "whalemuk"

Hi to all and a Happy and Healthy new Year 2013! I managed to get my latest kitchen knife nearly done, before the last year ended. My wife got me out of the workshop early enough to celebrate "Sylvester" and the coming of the New Year with her, so there is just a pin (2.5mm pure silver) missing and a decent honing of the edge, the older pics are here: http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=25012 now it looks like this: overall 187 gr, the blade is 150mm, the handle 109mm with a thickness of 37mm on the end 23mm wide it is stabilized antique whale bone which I got from an old friend years ago, the blade was preforged by Perry (Norbert Bahls, who made the Monster-Damast-bloc with Achim Wirtz a couple of years ago): I did put a spacer of black fibre to it, not just for the looks, but this way it was easier to get the thin blade nearly perfectly into the handle... here is a closer look on the four twisted bar design

Sorry, Jan, I do not have any other information on how to differ a higher level of carbon in highcarb steels (UHC) other than sending it to the lab, which is quite expensive. Here in Germany we have some good old files (by Pferd, Dick and others and french Grobet or swiss Vallorbe) mostly made from : 1.2008 - 140Cr3 / 140Cr2 C 1,35 - 1,50 Si 0,15 - 0,30 Mn 0,25 - 0,40 P max. 0,035 S max. 0,035 Cr 0,40 - 0,70 or 1.2002 - 125Cr1 C 1,20 - 1,30 Si 0,15 - 0,30 Mn 0,25 - 0,40 P max. 0,030 S max. 0,030 Cr 0,30 - 0,40 it is said that the longer ones >30cm where made from a 0.7%C-steel and the spark-test is not very distinquishing with UHC's, which is too bad... best whishes for the NEw Year

Vielen Dank, Troy and Mike and Mark Frohe Weihnachten und ein Gutes Neues Jahr, best seasons greetings from over here and best whishes for you and your families!

I sharpened the blade on a belgian waterstone, gave it a shaving sharp edge, the steel is about 60 -61 HRC after an hour in the oven with 170°C had to see to it, that is was tight and smooth, too there is no glue on the brass fittings, normally you would simply use a small hammer to flatten the pin on both ends. That would give the strength to hold it all together tight if you wonder about the loose brass fittings, Axel will want to fix them by himself I did not want to hammer on the sides to fasten the bronze pin so this is it now so I keep it in my pocket for a while, bevore I send it back to Axel, just for the feeling of it it feels good, I must admit and it is fun to see it done by the way, it is an old piece from G.Grafrath, Solingen Germany hope ye had fun looking best seasons greetings from Germany!

So it took some evenings, since I worked rather slowly, but then the blade was ready for hardening, this is how it come out of 830°C and into lukewarm oil: and the parts to be put back together I wondered if I did everything right, you can see that the main pin was all that needed to be removed to get the old blade out and the new one in. You need to take a good look, to see from which side the pin is more narrow and then to slowly force it out. Back into the holes carefully the same way back... so I tried the fittings: needed some adjustments and more filing, which was quite hard on the hardened blade and the steelspring on the back

Hi, an old friend asked, if I could make a new blade for his old pocket knife with a worndown blade, it needed some restoration, so I got an idea, and since I had fun making it, I took some pics to show them here this is how it came to me: so I found a piece of damasc for it. It is damascus with 500 layers, made from 1.2510 and 75Ni8 by my friend Micha Schick. I cut out a piece and started with shaping the blade. I used files and worked slowly, which was easy since the damasc was very soft super annealed, quite astonishing for me, since I normally hotwork the steel I use, nearly to endform. It was easier than I first thought... My first pocket knife blade ever... so I kept on filing with different files to get the blade right so it took on the right dimensions and here you can see how worndown the old blade was (in my eyes no wonder, because of the steel, stainless, a bit too soft to hold a good edge long had to see to it that the thickness was right,too

it might be easier to use tin (German: Zinn) to make a good workable bronze, use pure copper and 10 to 15 % tin, when you use zinc, like Mark said, you will get brass, but you will have to be very carefull about heating zinc, because of the fumes that are hazardous, we have some very good smithing bronce here in Germany with Si in it with some very good features for smithing, for casting bronze you may use up to 22% of tin, when you mix the copper with lead (1-8%) and 5-11% tin (and eventually some zink (1%)you get "Rotguss" or „leaded red brass“ which will be easier to pour or cast and pls, buy yourself a crucible (graphite) good tongs and very good gloves that will keep you from getting harmed my 5 ct with the help of "uncle wiki"

Best wishes not only for the day and your health but the heartiest greetings from Germany,

DSC® from Markus Balbach in Germany has 150 to 160 layers. It is very easy to make your own design out of this... it is made from 1.2842 (90MnCrV8)und 1.2767 (X45NiCrMo4) 3:2 and is simply flawless, Balbach has his own special way of making the damascus under special conditions, too bad his homepage is mostly in German, you may find stainless damascus and other specials there, too I had bought some of it and forged some blades, like the two above. I did cut into the material to have the banding like this, because I like it a lot -it hardenes up to 65 hrc, 840°C in lukewarm oil I will put up new pics after finishing the pieces, since I am working most of the time, it may take a while though

I took some more pics to show the four bar structure more clearly: the blade is 151mm and was polished up to 1200 grit with wetpaper by hand: 2mm thick on the back, a little thicker in the center of the blade for stability, 32mm at the hilt and 26mm at the tip

Hi, after working more on the house I used my little forging place for hardening four blades, that where lying around up to over one year. two are forged from M.Balbachs DSC (Damast-super-clean) and will be made into Puukko's, also the small blade from Damascus made by Micha Schick with the sharper point. But especially proud I am of the four bar piece that I bought from "Perry" on the Solingen Knife show this year. It is made from 1.2842 (90MnCrV8)and 75 Ni8, from four twisted bars and forged together by him. I had the luck to buy it from him in a prefinished form, so I forged it a little more and put it into the shape it has now. Since the main steel in all of the blades is 1.2842, I did a three time normalising from around 700° and hardened the blades at 830°C in warm Oil (110°), all four came out straight and fine, another two hours in the oven at 170° smoothened them enough... and today I finished Perry's blade up too 1200 grit and put it into Ferric to reveal its structure: here you are, I'll show the knives again when I have put this one into a kitchen knife and the others into Puukkos:

Hi Qiang, I am not so sure that the slow cooling is the problem, others did that fast thing, too and 1400°C will keep most of the charge in fluid, if it is around 1.6%C, you will use a thermic cycle to dissolve the moire (around 1200) before starting hammering anyway. So I would suggest more heating cycles to about 900° and cooling to black before forging with a stronger fullering (maybe use of small hammertips before flattening again will give you a better moove in the moire) maybe Niko is soon ready to give classes??!! :D/> just my 5cent best regards from Germany

nice little king, nice moirè, too, treat it well and enjoy the smithing, after a short heating to about 1130°C and a couples of preheatings to about 780°C (some did 40 of those before starting to hammer the ingot) do not go too high in temps and remember you do have about 25 seconds for hammering, before it will be too cold again, that gets better when it has started to moove later on thumbs up!!

The black knife - Sgian Dubh (pr: skian doo) Stag-handled skean dubh with inset Cairngorm stone. A dress skean dubh. The derivation of the name of this little 'weapon' is open to discussion. Traditionally the handle was made of black 'bog wood' - wood that had long lain submerged in a bog, and that's certainly an obvious origin. Others point to the fact that originally it was a hidden knife and therefore rather sinister and used for 'black deeds.' In rougher ages it was secreted in the oxter - the armpit - and could be withdrawn for use in a flash. As violence and lawlessness disappeared, the need for such a hidden weapon diminished and it was then openly displayed, tucked into the hosetop. Out of R.R.MacIan's 72 illustrations of Highlanders published in 1842, only two of them were shown wearing the sgian dubh in their hose. copied from: http://www.tartansauthority.com/highland-dress/ancient/ Biodag ~ Dirk. The Biodag (pr: beedak ) or dirk was a long stabbing knife up to 50cms long which was ideal for close quarter fighting and would be held behind the targe as mentioned above. The more affluent Highlanders would keep the dirk in a sheath often with one or more smaller knives or a knife and fork held by smaller sheathes. After the 1745 uprising, many broadswords were cut down and made into dirks. The sheath would often be hung round the Highlander's waist or attached to a special dirk belt - the criosan biodag (pr: creeshan beedak). Dirk: The 1881 Ancient Scottish Weapons had this to say: The Highland Dirk is distinguished from all other weapons of the same kind by its long triangular blade, single-edged and thick-barked; and by its peculiar handle, cylindrical, without a guard, but shouldered at the junction with the blade, the grip swelling in the middle, and the pommel circular and flat-topped. The fashion of carrying a knife and fork in the side sheaths is at least as old as the time of Charles I. Mr Boutell instances "a beautiful dagger, now the property of Mr Kerstake, that appears to have been worn by King Charles I. when he was Prince of Wales; the hilt has the plume of three ostrich feathers, and a knife and fork are inserted in the sheath." The earliest mention of the dirk as a customary part of the Highland equipment, occurs in John Major's notice of the dress and armour of the Highlanders, written in 1512, in which he says that they carry a large dagger, sharpened on one side only, but very sharp, under the belt. In the previous century Blind Harry refers to the custom of carrying a Scots Whittle under the belt. Describing the meeting of Wallace with the son of the English Constable of Dundee, he makes the Englishman address him thus:- " He callyt on him and said Thou Scot abyde Quha dewill the grathis in so gay a gyde Ane Ersche manttll it war the kynd to wer A Scottis thewtill undyr the belt to ber Houch rewlyngis upon the harlot fete." Dirk with knife and fork. General Wade mentions the custom of swearing on the dirk, which came to his notice among the Clan Cameron and others who followed their example in putting down the practice of taking Tascall money, or a reward given in secret for information regarding stolen cattle. " To put a stop to this practice which they thought an injury to the tribe, the whole clan of the Camerons (and others since by their example) bound themselves by oath never to take Tascall money. This oath they take upon a drawn dagger, which they kiss in a solemn manner, and the penalty declared to be due to the breach of the said oath is to be stabbed with the same dagger; this manner of swearing is much in practice on all other occasions to bind themselves to one another." from: http://www.tartansauthority.com/highland-dress/highland-weapons/ sorry you will have to look at the small pics in the sites, they did not copy into here regards

Kerosene (you are really asking this, using flightengine-gas???!)is highly flammable pls. do not use on any hot surface unless you like to hurt yourself badly a little more attention to your writing would be helpfull for others, to understand the problem there is no prob with using propane for forgewelding, if the forge is build right bring the bar properly preparated up to the right temps, flux and weld remember that you do have only about 10 to 15 seconds after pulling it out of the forge for doing the right job, if you wait too long, you will have no weld, only reforming at best... my5ct J.

Hi Craig, super! The hammer just arrived at my home, first impression was that it looked like Thor's hammer in its package, then I unpacked it and it really looks great can't wait to use it best regards from Germany

holy-moly- I can see that you do not need any "lattering" od "x-ing" to produce a super fine structure, Niko soon you will have to give classes on how to make this kind of Wootz and there wil be quite some people ready to come to Finnland, too, be ready ja pysy terävänä!

OK, OK, I admit, we Germans could have never be reunited without Beer, everyone knows: we do have the best, the purest, besides some found maybe in Belgium and Czechia, sorry for the rest but you are happily invited to come over and try it for yourselves, but did you notice: they never talked about why those big communities and peoples are gone forever, in this film, did they?! not because of not enough beer one would assume, by the way, I prefer a good dry red wine anyway have fun

double, don't know why xxxt

try a look here: http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=15570

0,1% of carbon there must be some mistake, one per cent, with this nice and visible "hamon" seems to be more likely very rustic looking regards