Bob Hewitt

Bit medieval that, impressive!

You often hear the expression, " that's a work of art," frequently aimed at some ridiculous lump of 60's concrete or something equally ridiculous, but in this case, Jake, your sgian really is a proper work of art. Antiques Roadshow in 200 years for sure! Love it!

That's a forged finish? It's going to take me pretty much the rest of this life and most of the next one to get anywhere near that level of skill! Damn!

I'm guessing that the Fairburn Sykes fighting knife was the original that you were working towards. Great job, a knife to be proud of!

That is one truly beautiful seax, be very proud of it. Great workmanship!

Here's a link to one I made a while back, it's over on IFI. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/40861-new-gas-forge/#comment-416980 scroll up to the top of the page. Size wise, just work out the size required to accommodate the largest thing you'll be working on, add four inches for the Kaowool, or whatever insulation you're using, and build your burner, or burners to suit! If you're in the UK, the best burners bar none are built using a part made by Amal of motorcycle fame. To save waffling on here about them, if you're in the UK, pm me for more details.

Wow! And to echo the surgeons performing the procedure, WOW! That's some serious napping there, how many gore broken before the knapper got a set made? Seriously impressive!

Fantastic! There used to be a thing a few years ago of taking a small deer foot, about muntjac size, and preserving it and setting it in the shape of a knife handle and then hammering the tang of a blade up into it. Your rendition of sculpted wood and superb shoe is better by far than of those old deershoof things. I'd be proud to bring that out after a successful hunt! Great job!

Damn, man, they're beautiful, just beautiful!

That scabbard is the business, and the lambs wool idea is sheer genius, I love it!

That is truly beautiful! Just imagine if that could talk...

Bit late this, but I've only just read your post! My Peter Wright is 386lbs and has the same size hardy hole. I mostly make my tools to fit, but on some that are way too small I run a bead of weld along the edges entail I get to the required size. If you look at the tools from below it looks like a huge Phillips screwdriver! Not an ideal solution, but it's worked do far! Just my 2 pennoth...

I've built burners with and without flares and, in my opinion, flares don't make any difference. As for safety, don't forget to fit an inline shut off valve somewhere near the burner for quick access and just work with common sense, in other words, don't do anything bloody silly! Check out as many other burner designs and setups as you can find and learn from them, they're all pretty much the same thing so if yours conforms to the universal basic design you won't go far wrong!

Yes, that's the style I like, great shape and finish with just a touch of the mountain man to it! Great job!