Eric Morgan

Brilliant!

Excellent work sir. I’m sure your friend will be very pleased

My grandfather’s casket was made from WV wild black cherry. It was beautiful, as is the wood you posted. Cherry wood, at least the more commonly used varieties age very nicely also.

Beautiful work sir

As soon as it isn’t either a monsoon of biblical proportions or a cold snap of Day After Tomorrow proportions, I’ll get some pics. Promise guys. I did get the steel in the other day for whatever that’s worth

Ever a swift learner, the boy soon mastered the rudiments of the blacksmiths trade. The rise and fall of the hammer, the movement of the steel under it, and the way the steel seemed to live and breathe became the backdrop for the boy’s life. He spent his days forging nails, tapers for hooks, even fitting the odd horseshoe. In time he helped the blacksmith with a few smaller blades, learning what he could of the process. In the late evenings, he began carefully working on his father’s sword. After disassembling it, with an intense focus he removed material affected by the crack. Then, he carefully upset the ground-back edge onto the thicker section of the blade. He then set about reshaping what was now roughly a flat bar of steel with a tang back into a knife, shaped according to the standard profile of the day on the frontier. Satisfied with his work, he began working on smoothing out the forging marks, filing and smoothing out his work. Satisfied finally he began heating the steel, readying himself for the uncertainty of the quench.

I did too lol

Looking good buddy

Wow!

Very nice sir

It’s kind of a mix of truth and fiction of my own. I grew up reading books like Zane Grey’s Spirit of the Border about men like Lewis Wetzel and other Indian fighters/long hunters. Dont wanna ‘spoil’ my lore, but the reforged blade looks like it may end up being a venerated object with ‘big medicine’

Something along these lines is what I’m imagining... maybe 15-17” overall length

So, I believe I have settled on the ‘lore’ of the blade I am making. Feel free to let me know if this doesn’t fit the general theme of the KITH this year. The son of a Palatine immigrant inherited from his father determination, a keenness of both mind and eye, and his tall frame. And what remained of a family heirloom, such as it was; a broken hunting sword. From his youth, the warrior-who-would-be recognized something intangible in the failed blade. In spite of its flaws there remained a feeling of movement, of grace, and a terrible deadliness. A Huron war party caught his father alone in the mountains while hunting, leaving him stripped, scalped, and mutilated. They took his game, rifle, and possibles bag. The broken sword was left, presumably deemed to be of little use. The boy who would be known only Death-Comes-With-Him became a man somewhere between the finding of his father and the burying of the same. He befriended the blacksmith in the settlements, seemingly forsaking his broken past, applying himself to learn a trade. But his father’s sword was ever on his mind, as were those responsible for his death.

That’s one reason I like the longer-cure time epoxies: more time to clean squeezeout away. You can use acetone, alcohol, or lacquer thinner to clean the epoxy off; as handle materials allow, of course.

I’m pretty smitten with it myself!

Very nice!

While I am still torn between two ideas for my submission, I went ahead this morning and ordered some materials. I’ll be posting up some sketch ideas and hopefully get some feedback from you guys on them... I am planning to really push myself on this build, no matter which direction I decide to take it. Anyway, wish me luck guys

I agree with Jonathan. Hickory or ash would both be as strong without the working issues that oak has

Very nice!

This storyline better continue... I'm hooked already

Love that series

You’re quite welcome Steve, and Happy New Years to you as well sir.

Here is a pic of two blades I did recently... 1080 quenched in warm canola oil. No claying, but I didn’t dip the blades in past the choil area. Anyway, after the instant coffee etch (I use enough warm water to cover the whole blade up to past the handle and about two or three cups worth of the instant coffee mix) you can see the transition from hard to soft from what I think would be called an auto-hamon. The filter i used on the pic to being the colors out really really exaggerated color shifts in the blade itself as well as my fairly low grit grinds, but there is a very clear transition from the coffee etch

Oh I really like that!

Fantastic work sir!