Matthew Stone

My humble addition. My little little one man smithy (mostly blacksmithing & now working into blades) is called Florentine Fire. The art & craft of the Italian renaissance has been a inspiration to me since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Especially that originating in the city of Florence. So my mark is also a tribute to the city. Was adding a FF on either side, but it looked tacky.

For what its worth, I've been using a big 16" Brazilian made Nicholson half round single cut pipe fitters file for rough stock removal for several years now. Its held up well through my stupidity (wasn't always night enough to grind off or vinegar soak the scale first). I've also been happy with German made Pferd files for general work. But I'm starting to see the occasional non German made file from them. Don't know about those personally. Good thread.

That's pretty. I like it. Wenge definitely does like to splinter out. I've moved to using high speed cutters in a dremel to work it, verses chisel & scrapping. I love it with an oil finish after it darkens up some more.

Yes sir, that is what it says. Carving Wenge is known to me. I've used for several scabbards in the past. With fair to middling results. The Texas ebony is a newer one to me. I've never personally worked it as yet. But I'm somewhat eager to give it a go. Except for the price of screwing it up. The stuff sure ain't cheap. Wood work is an old hobby of mine. I made gunstocks & pistol grips once apon a time. I'll probably stick to the Wenge since this is for a friend & I'm more comfortable with it. Then use the Texan ebony for something personal. Thank you for the input.

So a friend of mine has been bitten by the genealogy bug & is wanting a Sgian dubh to go with his new kilt. Me being me, I said I'd give it a go. I'm always willing to screw up in new and interesting ways. Its how I learn. Taking advice from others here, I've tried drawing something out first. Please forgive my poor artistic abilities. Drawing has never been a strong suit for me. Hopefully everything is in the picture & please feel free to shoot holes in my design. I've never done ones of these before. I plan to light the coal tonight. Thank you

Oh no sir. I didn't take it as a personal attack. Not in the least. Ive got two 15 year old daughters for that. They be vicious!! I ask for criticism & critiques from those who have a better eye than mine, so I know where to work towards improvment.

I'd like to say that it looks worse in the picture than in person. But that would be a half truth. The phone camera does suck, but wasn't given leave to do a few things I wanted to which I think would have helped. I don't like the guard. It detracts from the whole thing. Doesn't flow at all in my opinion, but its what the kid wanted & he was paying. So who am I to argue. Much. I wanted to polish and rust blue the blade. Would have been a nice contrast with the lighter tone of the wood. He wanted something simple to touch up finish wise though. Not sure it gets easier than scotch brite. He did want a finger hole in middle of the blade. I managed to steer him away from that thankfully. I'm old enough to still believe that the customer is always right. Even when they're wrong. That's all of my excuse making. I do need to work on my fit & finish. That is absolutely correct. Ive never been a good design person. I generally tell folks to draw me a rough idea of what they want & then try to turn their idea into metal & wood. If its something for myself or as a gift from me, I dont even do that much. I just wing it. I believe this to be a short coming on my part & I would probably make a better product with a better eye for design. I don't mean for that to be an excuse. Just an explanation. I'm always happy for any pointers & criticisms.

Been lurking here many a moon soaking up y'alls info. So I figured I may as well share something of my own. So here is my 1st posting here. Made for a feller at work to replace a skinner he lost in the woods. He wanted something with a short blade & a fat belly. With a guard of some sort (I'm not thrilled with the guard). Started with a 1/2" thick chunk of 5160 2"x4" or so. Forged to the rough general shape. Kinda over grown puukko ish in shape. Went with a hidden tang, despite that I hate making them. Ground it to the final shape & profile before normalizing again the heat treat. I like a convex grind, over a hollow grind. So its what I do most of the time, with the occasional flat grind as well. This one is convex ground. Made a piece of copper & nickle mokume gane to do the gaurd. I really should have stuck with quarters here. My sheet material did not want to diffuse. Lost a lot of material from delamination during grinding. But ended up with enough to be usable. Not particularly happy with it though. Went with hard maple and bronze pins for the handle. Epoxy to fill & seal the tang sanded to 1000 grit & finished with paste wax. Doing a simple scabbard out of wenge for it in the next day or two. Gots a San mai billet & a damascus billet to finish welding up tomorrow. Gots a long seax in mind. In all honesty, I've not done much with blades in a while. I did stock removal back when & found it boring. So I got into blacksmithing & forgot about blades. Then I got finagled into forging one a few months back. Now it's almost a sickness.