RobertMunford

Alan called the city of Washington IA and the chamber has no record of any business of the name there. So going to take a chance and use as is. Worst that can happen is I get a phone call saying hey stupid I already own he name. I will say sorry and change my name then. robertmunford aka Bob

Please do not let this go away I can't wait to try this out. I have given up on many tongs because I get something backwards and then fling them into the deep hole at the back of property. LOL Thanks for taking the time to document the making. robertmunford aka Bob

I need short words because I plan on having this laser etched on my products. I might just go with old goat blades or old goat smith. You got me thinking Ron thanks robertmunford aka Bob

Thanks Alan I didn't find any mention of it using my browser. Went to Google and emailed the city manager to see if there is actually a business there with that name. Thanks again Alan Robertmunrd aka Bob

I finally cam up with a logo and I guess you can say a name for my little forge. LOL I am posting this to see if anyone else has already used the logo and or name. I am known around town here as the old goat so I kind of thought it might be appropriate. Thoughts please

Hmmm I never thought about doing what you suggested Steve. I think that maybe just maybe I can make the next knife both robust and manly as well as sexy. I made a wooden mockup of the blade will try different handles on it and see where I go from there. I certainly do like the idea of making the handle sexy looking though because as you said it just might make it easier to fit in the hand. Thanks for the suggestions robertmunford AKA Bob

Mike I didn't take it as criticism. I read everything that is said and take it in and some suggestions I use and others I keep for future reference. :) I like your idea of pin alignment, both horizontally and vertically and will keep that in mind when I make the next knife. Thanks for the suggestions robertmunford AKA Bob

Thanks Jerrod looks like I have a little break in the rain for the next couple of days so will try to straighten the little buggers.

Richard That is what I thought right up until the customer specifically showed me how he wanted the handle shaped. Hard to argue with a customer, being as they are always right. LOL You are correct it should flow and I was skeptical at first, then once I had it cut out and could hold it, it did feel good in the hand. I have had several other people hold it swing it and everyone liked the feel. I have three more to make for sure. One is a gift and then two more that will be purchased. One of those purchased is by a gentleman who does a lot of camping and hunting with his brother and he had it in his hand only for about 5 min and said make me one. The other is for the lady who is going to be doing my laser etching. robertmunford aka Bob

Is that interesting as in looks good and will not hurt the knife or is there some issue with the placement. If I made a mistake please tell me because I now have 3 more to make with a 4th possible. Need to know about my mistakes so I do not make them again. I had them all inline when I marked them. Went inside for a cup of coffee and when I returned to the shop thought it looked like crap. Put it up and worked on the grinding jig I was building and the next day experimented with different pin placement. That seemed like I would hold the wide part of the handle a little better and to my novice eye it was pleasing. Showed the person that I was making the knife for and he liked it, so there it is.

I finally got the knife completed. It was quite a journey, and required a lot of listening to some very great advise from the folks on here. The new owner wanted me to get it marked and I finally found someone to laser etch it for me. If you want to see the story about the journey I placed a short story in "The Way" called The story of a camp knife. Room for lots of improvement some I can see from looking at other peoples work, and I am sure that there are some I haven't even thought about. So any comments are greatly appreciated. There are quite a few more pics in the story in the way.

Thank you Geoff and Aiden for the advice. Soaking it up and when the rain stops or at least lightens up some will try to make them straight. I put them on paper towels so they wouldn't cool completely before getting them into the oven. The paper towels may have been damp from humidity and then stacking them on top of each other didn't help either. So will hang them individually. I will have to figure out how to do it quickly because the lady that will be going my laser etching wants 6 to 10 of them to put in her display case. Thanks again Aiden and Geoff for taking the time to answer my questions. I value the advice that I get on here, this is the only forum that I have visited that people were friendly and willing to answer questions. No one has wrinkled their nose or called anyone stupid or dumb, and that means a whole lot to me and I am sure many others as well. So THANK YOU one and all. RobertMunford AKA Bob

That Gerhard will teach you several different languages.

ok here are some pics. the problem I have is I do not really have a spine on these ulu's. the pic with the circle on it is where the high spot on both blades is. I laid them on some paper towels I don't know if that was enough to hurt them. they are traditional grinds only on one side, which allows for them to be used for just about anything that you want to use them for. One lady that I gave one to used it to skin her deer, cut it up, and then to cook with. you DO NOT want to get on her bad side. LOL I am using a gallon can for my oil and had it some where around 130-140.

I went straight down and held still. The bi-metallic I can not tell as I do not know. If you consistent grind by is the bevel the same all the way around the edge, yes it is.

Yes three is a charm. Now all I have to do is make them look better and keep the quality of the blade where it is at.

I had made a wooden mock up of the knife and let the person take feel before I ever began the real blade. He liked the feel and I was on the fence. When finished the heavy blade weight made the handle real comfortable. I chopped on some oak firewood and it was real comfortable to swing and cut well across the grain, and split it well with the grain. I liked it and several people that I have showed it off to liked as well. I now have three more to make so it was a hit. Two of them I will get paid for and the third is going to be a gift to someone that drooled over the one I had finished, he happens to be the partner of my youngest daughter so will make him one.

I will begin by explaining what happened in the past and then what happened with these 4 blades. I have made 5 blades from saw blades in the past and had no problem keeping them straight during the heat treat. This time I made 4 blades again from saw blades and had everyone of them warp. So the first part of my question is what made these blades warp. I normalized them x3, and had my oil at about 140 degrees F. I know there are probably a multitude of different things that I did wrong, so I plan on sorting through all the advise and find the two or three things I didn't do. Second part of the question is would it be possible to normalize and straighten then reheat treating or would it be a waste of time. As always any and all comments are welcome. Thanks to everyone on here that is willing to share their knowledge. Robertmunford aka Bob

I am very new at the art of making things from steel, and have made a grand total of 7 knives like objects, lol and half a dozen ulu’s. So after showing off one of my ulu shaped skinning knives that I had made, I was asked if I could make a camp knife. And there begins the tale. My first design received a definite no!! The second design after some tweaking on his part for the fit to his hand and blade shape was finally settled on. Then the horror begins. LOL I don’t have pictures of the fist blade as it is somewhere deep in a hole in the back of my property. It was a nasty day when I did the heat treating and had laid the blade on my ASO tip on the elevated side and the handle on the base. OH BOY what a mistake. As I was picking up my tools to put in shop I accidently dropped a 3 pound hammer on the blade and it snapped into 3 separate pieces. I quickly learned 4 different foreign languages. And promptly threw the pieces as far as I could into the washed out hole out back. My ASO Then foreign language lesson number two. LOL Got ready to drill holes in handle for pins and found it was still too hard to drill. So fired up forge and put the blade into the fire. Got side traced by something don’t remember what, for all the young folk this happens when you get old, 71 years young here. Anyway when I remembered that I had steel in the fire I rushed over and grabbing some tongs pulled the blade minus a burned off handle from the fire, and so began the second lesson on languages. I did not throw it away as I am going to make a smaller knife from what is left. I then began on the third blade and with many questions, much looking and research, as well as some much needed advice from forum members I now have finally been able to make a blade that is ready to finish. After much elbow grease and much advice from the folks on this forum I am ready to attempt a heat treat. Heat treat went well no pings or warps, and carefully this time into the oven for tempering. success I finally got it sharp and after agonizing for 3 days I went out grabbed a piece of oak firewood and hacked and chopped on it. Whew still paper cut sharp when I went back in. The handle didn’t give me much of a problem, used some nice popular with black streaks running through it. Finished the handle with 8 coats of semi-gloss tung oil. Then tweaked the edge a little and started on the sheath. Made a taco style sheath and laced it up with a saddle stitch. For a second attempt at making a sheath it turned out alright. Seen where I could do better though. For a first attempt at a large heavy knife I was pleased with the outcome, the new owner is pleased with the outcome, and everyone is happy. As I was showing off the finished knife to some friends I now have an order for at least one more. The finished product lots of room for improvement but my customer was satisfied.

Nothing is hurt was out this morning and looked. I had a cough with mine and hurt for awhile. My doc caught mine early enough that it didn't get to bad. Feeling good enough to go out and putter today. At my age all I do is putter anymore. LOL

I have 4 inches of crushed lime stone in smithy area so that stays reasonably nice in normal rains but this was a frog strangler of the bull frog size. LOL Water is all gone this morning so just the mud getting there. Shop floor in building stays dry, I had 10 inches of blocks that it was set on just for the reason in the picture. Delivery man wasn't to happy with me but set it up and made it nice and level. Many years ago about in 81 I think it was. I was in Bremerton on a ship going through the yards. This was back when "wasted days and wasted nights" was a popular song. The skipper played it on all the speakers of the ship when we pulled out, boy did he get a nasty gram from the admiral up there. LOL Have a great day

Sorry to hear about your drought. I see blue and Etosha above you. Is that supposed to be a large lake. I went to aerial view on my map and it looks like it is almost dry. And then I look to the west of you and see a desert so you must be very dry in the best of years. With so dry you probably don't get to fish much. so happy hiking and hammer hard in the forge.

Yeah that's where my shop is but that is the only place I could put it. I'll be okay I'll raise up the outside floor just a little bit more and I'll be okay

I didn't do anything today. four inches of water where forge is at. needed chest waders to get there. lol dry shop stayed dry thank goodness. stayed in had chicken soup and continued getting better from type a flu. it is now 8:30 pm and still raining and my toes are starting to grow webs. and I keep wanting to say quack quack. Lol