Ted Stocksdale

Those are really beautiful. Congrats on JS and the really lovely picture too!

So, the decision about a choil was made for me - in getting the plunge curved, I nicked the edge badly enough that I had to put it in. I sanded it and sanded it some more, and then sanded it... I also made my own fabric-resin composite for the handle scales So, the first version is approaching done at last. I am thinking about doing a second try at it, but I don't know if I can finish so at the very least I'll have this one.

I wanted to pick something that was challenging but (hopefully) within my relatively new skills. I settled on this shape: I decided to try a prototype first, so I took 5.3 inches of 1 x 3/16 1080. (5.33 * .1875 * 1 = .999) As I worked on it, I decided I wanted more of a drop point. But it didn't go so well and I pounded scale so far into the blade that it was not going to work, so I started over. I took some time out to try to make damascus... I'm not very good at that yet, and I don't think I'll get finished if I don't move on... so it's going

Been a little busy with non-knifemaking tasks, but I have managed a few things: This is my first "sort of machete" that I made out of 6150 for my wife. It's for cutting down the thick weedy stuff that grows around our yard. This was the shape she liked best. It works really well on the weedy stuff but not on anything more woody so I think I'll make a more traditionally shaped one for us as well. Speaking of which, after seeing this my brother wanted exactly that so I made him one Also out of the 6150 (the handle picture was before it was quite

I got the Shop Fox version of the grizzly for $640 because I couldn't find anything else that looked at all reliable for less than a couple thousand. It's still a lot cheaper and for me even that price was pushing what I could possibly afford. It's... better than the $200 "bolt on to your bench grinder" 2 x 36 I had before. I prefer the single speed (1725 RPM) the shop fox has over the 3800 rpm the old thing screamed away at, but you do notice quickly that it is neither slow enough for fine work nor fast enough for coarse work, as was mentioned earlier. Because of that,

Having spent FAR too much time replacing all of the fittings on my copies of that circled item... Learn From My Fail That is a 3/8" 90 degree male NPT to 3/8" male flare elbow. NPT is what most of us would consider a "normal" pipe - slightly tapered so it gets tighter as you go, but otherwise looks straight. Flare is that weird beveled thing. I would strongly recommend you get a parts list from someone who's figured out the easier way to do it or you run a high risk of spending a lot more money than you intended and end up with a bucket of oddl

Along the "do you have" lines... do you have anything narrower? Your store is creeping up into 4-inch land, and I usually use stuff more on the 1.25 side of things.

That's amazing. Really love it.

This weekend, I forgot that brass gets hot when you sand it and burned my fingers on a guard Besides that bit of brilliance, I worked on the machete made from 6150: I finished forging it out and ground it to shape, and got it sanded down to 120. Ran out of time to go any further, so more sanding and heat-treating ... some other weekend. I also made an attempt at my own micarta sort of thing with epoxy and some fabric

I can read... yeah, my FORGE is probably the size of a 30-lb tank (but I made it from sheet metal, not a tank). My tank that I use for the gas is a 40.... And I would listen to Alex because honestly mine was so big that I put extra kawool inside to make the interior volume smaller (on the plus side, the outside doesn't get as hot as it once did)

It does depend on your reason, I would think. I got a 40-lb tank just because it's a long drive to the most reasonable filling station and I don't want to do it very often - I only get so many hours in a weekend, and I'd rather spend them forging than driving to get propane.

I just tried an experiment of tracing through a piece of paper. As long as you draw "dashed" lines (trace a short distance, then pick up the scriber, then another short distance), the paper holds up well enough and the design is visible enough that I could easily "clean up" the lines. (I don't have any blue tack, or I'd try that: that sounds nifty)

You can't see all the layout dots very well, but what I did was measure the distances from the center and scribe a little dot at a number of locations: then it's just a game of "connect the dots". You can also always just cut the paper shape out and trace around it - the blue doesn't take any pressure to scratch off. The blue is also nice because to "erase", you just paint some more on over the lines you don't like.

I use blue layout fluid to put a layer on the steel, then use a carbide-tipped scriber to etch on the design (looks a lot like a pencil, but with a carbide tip instead of graphite) Amazon.com: Dykem 80300 Steel Blue Layout Fluid, Brush-in-Cap (4oz): Industrial & Scientific Amazon.com: 6 Pieces Engraving Pen Tip Scriber Includes 2 Tungsten Carbide Scribers with Magnet, 2 Double Head Scribers and 2 Replacement Tip, Metal Etching Engraving Pen for Metal Glass Ceramics Stone Wood: Home Improvement It ends up looking like this:

That's the kind of burner I have I could not weld with just one, even after fixing the other issues with my home-made forge, which included - Bricks: these are a heatsink, even the soft insulating kind don't insulate very well. Fiber wool works so much better - Uncoated: you need an IR coating. - One of those stainless steel burners: I could not weld with only one of those: it takes two even after fixing the insulation and coating. There is a frequent member here named Wayne Coe who runs a site that has really good deals on the materials. He'll be