Zeb Camper

Sorry to hear about the shop. Wishing you the best. I know we're complete strangers, but I'd be willing to do a knife raffle to raise funds, or something if you are in need of any money. Espescially in these times. I hope your insurance helps at least some.

Oh, I got it! I wrote "break riff" but this is something to sing over. I hear "I been trying the best I can" I need to make a YouTube channel so you guys could help with lyrics!

Pretty cool, man!

I've been picking outdoors here sitting outside with a lil portable amp/radio. No lyrics yet, but I made a cool little riff and am working on the rest. Sounds ok so far, but definitely needs more sauce on the other parts.

You need a shwacker. A wooden club a out the size of a maul handle cut in half. You set the blade on the anvil on its spine and edge in the air and shwack that curve out of it. The handle needs to taper to a dimes thickness at the end and flare out at the end as well. If you need to cut material off that's cool. Looking good, man!

Thank ya! As far as hilting it, I had the blade length for a hilt, but had some questionable pits in the first 2" of blade, and not really enough tang anyway, so I ground two inches of blade away (was 65cm, I estimated the hilted ones at 68) and now I'm in the range of broadsax instead of type III langsax (I think) so, I think it will get a straight(ish) wooden handle. I might try to do some carving or something cool. I'm not sure. Its semi important to me to maintain accuracy, but I'll have some fun with it too!

Looking good!

If you look closely, you can see where the hardened steel stops towards the tang. All in all a success. Got the rough polish done half an hour ago.

Heat treated!!! Got a pretty good warp in it.

Good to see the still shots here! I would get everything ground/filed and even block sanded to 80 grit before heat treatment. Try and get that weight somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2lbs if you can. You should be able to get that much from grinding. Check everything for straightness before you grind (and during)! Look down the edge, but also hold the blade out in front of you and line the edge up to its center mass at the tang end, then pan your eyes to the tip to look for twists (make sense?). You'll want to make a wooden twisting jig as you'll likely need it after hardening too. Best of luck! I'm anxious to see it done!

So, I have to ask, why are you guys heating up 16" of Damascus? For the initial weld, or drawing out? I've always just welded up a 4" long billet real tall, popped it in the vertical, set the weld, and drew it out. Maybe it would be better to weld up the 16" bar if you had no press or hammer, but it seems like to me a safer bet to focus on welding 4" and then drawing it out. My vertical will get about 8" up to welding heat.

I respect Geoff's opinion a lot (he gave me pointers on how to build my forge and other stuff). But, For some reason I prefer to weld in a vertical and forge in a horizontal. Mainly because without a handle welded onto whatever it is you are forging in a vertical you have to hold the billet with tongs. Also, my vertical forge just gets hotter and heats more evenly. On top of that, the flux falls to the forge floor that I cast out of Mizzou. And a horizontal forge I have a longer heated area for heat treating big blades, and can cut one burner off to get a hot spot for small blades. I can sit lots of stock in it for mass production of scrolls and stuff too.

Been checking in every so often. Looking pretty right! Thanks for the detailed steps.

Well I'll be. You oughta invite me down sometime! You're welcome this way. Idk why I thought Charlottesville was so far away. Yeah, Charlottesville is 1h 45 min from the shop, so we likely share a supplier. Not sure where ACE or steel services gets their stuff from. We only go through BMG on special occasion. You probably right @Alan Longmire Edit: clearly memory has failed me, I looked at your profile, Gerald. Nor sure why I thought u lived in Charlottesville. I shall hush up now.

Well, I don't know what to tell you, Gerald. Just repeating word around the shop (which came from our local supplier). You are 3 hours away too. I hope you're right.