Pieter-Paul Derks

Thanks guys, making hammers is a lot of fun! She is marked 209 kg, which translates to around 460 pounds, It is a really great anvil, with nice rebound and really flat faces after a hundred years. The maker is Soeding&Halbach from germany which was renowned for its cast steel anvils.

I made myself a hammer I´ve wanted for a long time: an english style dog head hammer. Forged from 60mm square c45 steel (1045 basically) with a curly walnut handle, just because I wanted to be fancy. weight is 1500 grammes so about three pounds. This thing was a lot harder to forge than a normal hammer, the wedge shape keeps trying to shoot away under the hammer. Good thing I also have a grinder It feels nice to forge with so far, I have to see how I like it when I start forging a new knife.

I have a feeling that the wooden handle is tge original and the bronze a later(victorian?) Addition. It is not so much the rivets as the knotwork that looks "wrong" and modern to me. Of course I could be totally wrong, I'm far from an expert on these matters.

Copper is actually really nice to forge, you can work it both hot and cold and it is a lot softer than steel. When working copper cold it hardens with hammering and will eventually crack, to anneal it you heat it up to a dull red and quench in water, this will make it really soft, the oposite of steel. One important thing to remember is that copper conducts heat super fast, so you cant hold one end while forging like you would with steel, well fitting tongs are a must. When grinding it the same heat conductivity is a problem again and you will burn your fingers easily, files work better. for forming bowls you will need a domed hammer and a stump with a dent in it, for the rest the same tools for iron work great on copper.

I really love this one. The damascus is one of my favourite I have ever seen, very free flowing and random. Are the wide bright layers thicker stock?

An amazing blade and an equally amazing handle, I love how soft the lines are, it looks more nature made than man made sonehow

Those are fantastic knives! I love the bolsters, I like how the hexagonal handle has clean lines but still looks soft and comfortable

Great work Kris! Im always a big fan of your sabers. The chandelier is amazing too

Really nice

beautiful spear and beautiful workshop.

Those seem like reasonable prices, I myself would maybe go a little higher depending on how complicated the knives will be. I always try to remember than pricing too low can be as bad as pricing too high, many people who buy custom knives like higher prices, because it makes them seem exclusive, just like an expensive car or coffee maker. Ofcourse you also don't want to scare off customers with too high prices. I struggle with this dilemma myself, one of the hardest things about knifemaking in my opinion.

Not really in my shop ´´today´´ as it is a school day but last weekend is close enough for this thread I think. I fired up my drum forge to heat treat my first sword and all went without problems, unlike the last time I tried to quench a sword. (let's just say that I made a nice impression of the shards of Narsil haha.) My friend suggested that the contraption made of barrels, an old barbecue, clamps and a weedburner looks like a rocket, while my mom likes calling it a pipe bomb. Luckily my forge works a lot better than it looks, I am really impressed with how simple and effective it is, I could evenly heat a two feet blade without any issue and i have no doubt that it will do longer blades as well. At the moment I am doing a lot of hand sanding and working on handle parts, the blade came out dead straight and I am very impressed with the 80crv2 steel so far, even with a 250celcius spring temper it passes a brass rod test just fine.

I like how the lacquer has some different reddish color in some spots. I look forward to seeing the katana

Great stuff as always! this is a very ´´sleek´´ knife.

Nice knife, I like the slim shape. What is the handle and sheath made of? The times I used farriers rasp they through hardened all the way in canola oil, I think water will harden the whole thing as well, I'm not totally convinced the steel usd for these rasps is 1095, but I do know that it makes a fine blade.