Gerhard Gerber

Well he's German so never wrong, and I'm 50% German so I didn't listen to him

I was recently at probably the only practicing blacksmith in the country, a very skilled young man. I first visited his shop several years ago when I was thinking about building a forge, he was adamant that because we have LPG instead of propane gas forges do not work.... He was wrong, and he's even realised that, during a recent visit he did a demo of his new forge, single burner he built himself, the rest is form the same "fire bricks" as mine with a bit more steel on the outside. Important thing is he's tuned his burner so you can easily have a conversation right next to the forge, it's hotter than mine (slightly) and much more efficient. I need to build a new burner and forge, and this changes things a bit. What I'm considering now is these fire bricks at the bottom and Koawool for the rest, that should at the least be a bit more efficient.....until I can get refractory cement.

Missed this..... I've been sitting with a piece of kaowool for a while now, no refractory cement...... I've seen the contrary so many times I have to ask: So I can line a forge and safely run it without refractory cement lining without killing myself slowly?

I'm hesitant to give advice, because it's advice of the slow kind......which means you can't economically produce knives You've been warned..... I never finish a handle in one day, once it's been rough shaped I spend at least one evening in front of the TV handling it. Squeezing the handle tells you a lot..... I don't think there are copyrighted handle shapes, I believe you can use any handle shape you can pull off

Over here you're supposed to get a pinch and a punch when you get a new car......no idea why.........but pinch & punch & enjoy your new ride! Personally that's not my style, not sure I'd fit and my knees would not thank me I would love a rat rod, or one of those bikes with the diesel engines, all very unlikely. Second choice would be an 80's or 90's hot hatch, and in my book the VW Golf 1 is the only choice. If I'd been able to keep working at the mine I was employed at 5 years ago I'd be driving a Toyota GT86 by now. I get no pleasure from going fast, I like to go through corners on the limit, nothing better

The Spyderco SharpMaker works on serrated edges, not sure about yours if I understand the description correctly.

That fully lived up to expectation, excellent work Rob!

Thanks for all the info. Forging went well, it is a bit difficult to move, but I let it get a bit hotter and used a bigger hammer .....but forging the fork is a different story I'd thought up an "order of operations" that quickly went to pot, and my second plan of attack also failed. I'll do some more research before the next attempt, at least I rough forged a little 52100 blade so it wasn't a complete waste

Funny story, will be sure to take a few photos before I start... Few years ago I had a VW Caddy "company car" and with the help of a friend and approval from the boss we built a roof rack for the Caddy so I could transport my kayak.... I had a piece of 304 flatbar left, and right at the beginning of the craziness, knowing less than nothing, I decided to make a big full tang chopper out of that piece of stainless.... I had nothing but files and a hacksaw, I did not get far Thanks for the warning, public holiday tomorrow, might start this afternoon.

I generally go for big holes spaced evenly between the pin holes, then a few more smaller ones where appropriate......which I take to mean anywhere that won't weaken the tang. I think a tapered tang, which I've only done by accident & semi-successful, along with holes for the win. For something meant to cut you'd have to get the holes placement very wrong to weaken it any. As far as holes acting as a glue bridge, I can testify how effective that can be, depending on the handle material.

Excellent, thanks Alan!

One of my last two knives turned into a carving knife rather than a chefs knife....by accident With everybody from @Ross Vosloo to Alec Steele getting in on the fork action, I figured making a friend for the accidental carver might make it better. Don't want to use knife steel, only other stainless I have is a bar of 304......will that work?

Looks good Brandon, will give that a try! I've been making a lot of rolled micarta with everything from linen to hessian, just choose your width, slobber on resin and roll up as tightly as possible. I make them bigger than necessary, wrap in wax paper and apply some pressure to get rid of most gaps. When I want something very tight and "accurate" I've used a loop of wire to catch the inner end of the material, once it's rolled up tight I snip off the ends of the wire and pull them out.

Thank you all and you are more than welcome to do the same

My best micarta is made from wool material I bought on impulse, it's green and easy to get spectacular results, but less polished the grip is amazing....and it's wool, all natural an what not. This is the only woolen material I ever found, so a while ago I go the idea to just buy wool. My usual material shop only had fake wool, apart from (very expensive) "brushed kid mohair wool" Pondered for several months how to use it, then hand an idea. I needed a bolster for a carving knife, started by winding up wool on the tang until I was sure there was enough for the bolster. Use 4 pieces of wood clamped in roughly the right place, mixed up some resin, dumped the wool in there and started winding it on between the "guides" I put one layer of masking tape on the blade so when the resin had set I could tap off the fitted bolster to shape it. Some black tint mixed with the epoxy completely hides the gap between the bolster and the blade. Bonus is the mohair micarta has even better grip, right where you need it.

Excellent work Ross!

Hi Jerrod I suspect these concerns are more relevant to me heat treating 5160. What I've been doing is putting the blades in the kiln when it's passed 600C. The blade is then in the kiln while it gains the last 200C. Results have been good but I do worry about this, and I need to (and do) adjust according to blade size and thickness......but largely by "feel" As far as my mentor's comments are concerned, he's mostly standardized on Elmax and Damasteel, and his treatment is slightly different from the official specifications.....based on what he was told at the factory, and specifically for his application.

I'm Namibian, we have Rosewood. Your statement is 100% correct, and I'm glad you said it because I can't say it within forum rules They've just arrested 2 ministers and others involved in the FishRot scandal along with Icelandic(k) partners, plumdered our fish stocks and crippled the fishing industry. The plunder of Rosewood and others from Northern Namibia and the bordering countries continues.

I've been having good results with normalizing at 870C and hardening at 830C

Several manufacturers we "busted" running these super steels too soft, perhaps for ease of sharpening, but you loose a lot of performance. It also seems many companies mess up the steel sharpening on belts, I've watched several videos (different steels and manufacturers ) where the improved performance considerably by sharpening on stones, and several repeated sharpenings to remove some of the damaged steel. Personally I was gifted a Spyderco Mule in Maxamet with very small chips on the edge. It wasn't difficult as such to fix the edge, but it did completely kill my Lansky rough diamond stone.

Been said already but 2 hours is way too long, my mentor has been to a (the?) Bohler factory specifically for advice on heat treating, and he varies soak time according to the general size and thickness of the blade. A 6mm thick 330mm long blade soaked the full 30 minutes, 4mm and half the length 15 minutes. As he put it, whatever is going to happen inside the steel has happened already. He puts a layer of newspaper around the blade, and what really surprised me is the top of the foil envelope where the wire hook protrudes is not really sealed at all, basically squashed flat and bent over with little ears to either side. On Sunday my job (with wet gloves) was to unfold the ears, press on the side of the envelope to open it up, then he pulled out the blade and between the plates it went..... Haven't got the HRC figures yet but last time was 62 before tempering, no decarb and very easy cleanup sanding.

I get good results using Kevin Cashen's recipe, but I got good results by before I had the kiln. All my sharpest knives are 52100, its a lovely steel.....

Add a heat wave to the worst drought in recorded history, consider the year is on it's back......I've done close to nothing since Wednesday. My mentor dropped by early Sunday morning to heat treat three Elmax blades, went considerably smoother and learned a lot, almost bought some M390 last week, definitely need to get into these super steels.

Hi Tiaan I'm told by those I respect (here ) that I'm slow, so I'll be happy if I can do one in a week. I have one of those wooden knife kits, a little canoe, plan on using that as a template, just waiting for 1070 from South Africa early next year. I took apart a knackered Joseph Rodgers my grandfather gave me to try and fix a scale, never got it back together.....

Stunning knives Tiaan, well done. I would be very happy if I can every achieve a slipjoint even approaching the quality of yours.....will try in 2020