Bret

Beautiful man. I like em all but the little ones my favorite. Good luck ...Not that you'll need it.

Steel should not be crispy lol. If you are using color to determine heat then you may need to adjust. Are you looking at it in a dark setting or out in the beautiful Oregon sunshine? Either way what your working with is probably toast, good thing springs are easy to come by, just move on to the nest piece and at least work in the shade.

Hey Steve, the others are pretty much spot on here. I don’t know how large your band saw is but the surface speed of the blade is very important when cutting metals. The harder (or tougher) the metal the lower speed you going to run (generally). To be safe with whatever blade material you’re working with I would recommend about 50-75 SFM (Surface Feet per Minute). There are 2 more things I’d like to point out though. The TPI on the blade you are using must allow for constant contact with the material. Ideally you would have 3 teeth in contact with the material at all times, but if your cutting very thin stock this may not be practical. The other thing is the speed at which you feed the metal into the blade. Metal cutting band saws use hydraulics or pneumatics to regulate the feed of the blade into the material. When feeding by hand it is important to keep a steady pace (especially when dry cutting) to avoid work hardening. This isn’t so bad with annealed 1095 but if you ever cut stainless or an air hardening steel use even pressure all the way through and don’t stop till you’re done... or you will be. Surface Feet is calculated by taking the RPM of the drive wheel and multiplying it by the circumference.

Wow I just visited his site. The guy does some phenomenal work. He seems to be a "unique individual" don’t know if I could do the whole mindset thing he's got going on. Well the wife and 5 kids would make it a bit hard regardless. Anyway I ramble. I’m a machinist by profession so I kinda dig the whole done by hand thing. I could mill and fab up things a lot more precise than by hand and give me a cnc grinder and its on!! , but I do it by hand cause I like to do it that way. It’s a challenge. Hell I’m happy making the tools to make the knives. Rambling again…. A fine knife made by any method is a fine knife. The method of its manufacture does not in any way other than ascetically effect its usefulness or function. Whatever makes you happy. As for the bolster if its steel or iron drift it in. saw a guy at a Ren Fair 25 years ago or so “drift welding “ his guards on. Wrapped the blade in wet leather and clamped in a wood vise. Had the guard just undersize and heated the tang and guard together until what to my eyes looked high yellow. Placed a pipe around the tang and light tap moves the guard into place and it looks damn near like an integral. Wish I knew 25 years ago I’d be doing this I’d have asked some questions. Ok now I gotta try it. I’ll report back….

WOW Kyle, I dont mean to be offensive or anything but, man your just being offensive. Constructive criticism is one thing but, Im thinking this is borderline insulting. Just saying. My opinion. There are many people here far far better than me that could poor derision on my work and I am grateful that instead the are helpful understanding and informative. Thats why Im here. probably why your here. and in that spirit I think you would be better served following that example. You tend to get out of people what you put in. Slab very cool man

WOW .... just WOw

Very cool. I like making knick knacks. My wife would love something like that. Well she says so anyway. mine always end up...elsewhere though. maybe if I executed them as well as you... Ah well... Nice work man

Very cool I like it. Looks comfortable and useful. You'll be carrying it around for some time to come, I imagine and looking for an excuse to use it. Good job man

congratulations. now get a camera and show us . Its always exciting to make something your proud of

#1 Sold #3 still available

I have to disagree with this somewhat. An exact plan before starting is an "engineering type approach" I often start a project with a blind eye to where I’m going and just follow along with wherever the project takes me. I'm always suprised and sometimes quite nicely by what turns up. This is a valid approach. Making knives can be an art as much as anything else. Following a muse and seeing where it leads is what creates those things that really speak to us. Precision however is best learned by following a set plan. All depends on what your trying to achieve.

#2 Sold others still available Thanks Matthew. I was just saying as the maker I see everything I could have done better or different. There are many firsts for me on these, and I would have gone about it much different knowing what I learned from these. There is about 60 hours of touch time in these 3.

Congrats man.... wish you many more

absolutly beautiful... as always. Thats gonna make someone very happy. Mind if I ask how the blade is mounted?

Wow... very nice. thats one beautiful knife.

Looks really nice man. Beautiful finish work. Mystery wood ... Claro Walnut maybe?? hard to tell from the pick

Thanks Dick. The last one is my favorite too. Its the first blade I made in a while, so I decided on something simple, and got more than I expected. I really like it and will probably refine the design a bit and use it in future blades.

I haven't posted here in a while. Took about a two year break from playing at the forge and am still learning. That being said I would appreciate input (good or bad). Here we go I have 3 knives today. The first 2 were made as a set. 160 layer 15N20 and 1095, Ebony, brass, camphor burl, purple heart. The second Is W2 and Ebony with mosaic pins. 4.25" blade with 3.75" edge. 8.75" OAL Low layer guard $300 3.5" blade with 3.25" edge. 8.0" OAL pinged mild guard $300 5" edge 9.5" OAL $225 Will take Check or money order ship free in the states

I haven't posted here in a while. Took about a two year break from playing at the forge and am still learning. That being said I would appreciate input (good or bad). Here we go I have 3 knives today. The first 2 were made as a set. 160 layer 15N20 and 1095, Ebony, brass, camphor burl, purple heart. The second Is W2 and Ebony with mosaic pins. 4.25" blade with 3.75" edge. 8.75" OAL Low layer guard 3.5" blade with 3.25" edge. 8.0" OAL pinged mild guard 5" edge 9.5" OAL

So Bob, did you go with the programmable controller for ramp/soak or the manual? I am planning on building one myself and thought that would be a nice option. Put a batch in and have a programmed annealing cycle bring your weeks work back to a true neutral before grinding and heat treat.

A real beauty that one.

Thank you for your comments guys it's nice to hear some positive feedback from someone other than my wife lol. Im still working on improving, and I hope to have more in the future.

8" W2 blade 12 1/2" overall with active hamon. Red Latigo over buckskin handle. Turk's head on the Latigo thong. This is my first attempt at a sellable blade, and my first presentation to the public. All comments welcome.

got my 2 boxes today thank you again Don

Ray you heading down to Eugene this weekend for your demo? If so I'ld like to know the day and time as I plan on being there and would like to see it if possible.