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So. I've been interested in blacksmithing for a very long time, but it's only this year that I've taken a good and proper, hard look at the mechanics and science behind it. How blades where made, hardening and tempering, that sort of thing. That coupled with my writing hobby, I was bound to think up a few fantasy blades. Most I scrapped almost immediately because they looked really cool and was about as useful as a toothpick, but I've been stewing about this one design for a long while now, and I'm willing to take the plunge to see what you guys think about it It's... A lot. XD You'll have to forgive my lack of artistic skill, but that's the idea I had. A sort of billhook-pick-hammer....thing. A sawbacked billhook-pick-hammer....thing. Two kinds of grinds in the blade, the chisel grind for the "knife" bit with a V bevel for the axe bit because it'd be easier to sharpen. THe handle I planned on simply being twisted metal, with a hook at the end to stop the blade from slipping out. I won't bore you with the details, but I tried to make a non-folding swiss army knife. If anyone has any design input, please tell me. It's why I put it there in the beginning

So I decided to be a bladesmith. The first thing that I find to be important is having the right equipment. I wont argue that amazing works can be made with a file, but I'm lazy. Over the coming months, I'll be building my own forge, 25 ton forge press, 2x72 belt grinder, tempering oven, tool cabinet, and probably some other stuff along the way. I'm very tempted to start with the belt grinder and tempering over. I could pretty much make a ton of good knifes with just that, I imagine. But I digress, project 1; Propane Forge! I've done a ton of research and learned a few things. Things I want to run by you guys as I explain my design choices. First off, I decided that the thickness of the metal encasing the forge is less important and it wont really get too hot if properly insulated. *except around the openings. So for the body, I'm going with .03" sheet steel tac welded to a fame of corner bar. As far as the door, imagine the whole thing as a block with the last 2.5 inches cut off, reinforced if necessary, and hung to another reinforced plate with 2 hinges. I'm going with a magnet and metal rod to open it and keep it closed. I figure I'll also put a harder holding hook on there when I wont be using the door, but rather the door vents. As far as insulation, I'm going with 2 inches of high temp ceramic wool and about .5 inches of high temp refractory. The floor I'm planning on lining with fire brick (2.5 inches) and about .5 inches of casted refractory. I am going to make the total inside area right around 800-850 cubic inches. The inner chamber dimensions will be 17 inches deep, 8 inches wide, and 6 inches tall. I plan on have a removable ceramic board wall dividing the chamber in half for the 95% of the time when I'll be using only 1 burner. I'm going with 2 venturi burners running on propane. For the vents, on the door I'm planning on a half circle 6" wide and 3" tall and on the back and dividing board, half circle 3" wide and 1.5" tall. That's pretty much it. What do you guys think?

Hello all, I have only recently started bladesmithing. So recently in fact, that I have not even made my first blade. I am still gathering tools and equipment, but I already have an idea in mind for my first knife. I have drawn a neat(ish) design of what it will (hopefully) look like, but I am not up to standard with proper knife design. Attached is the drawing I made, but if anyone could give me any tips on how it should look, please tell me. I am most concerned with the area where the ricasso joins the tang, and the back of the knife, as well as the area where the ricasso turns into the blade. Please tell me if there is any improvements to be made to this drawing, which will eventually be my first knife.

I'm planning my first forge and I have a couple of burner questions. In a 2 burner forge, if I only run 1 burner for a small project will I have issues with heat coming up the dormant burner and causing damage? My other question is about the burners. I've noticed the biggest difference in burner design is the tube. I've seen all shapes, long, fat, skinny, vertical, horizontal, and ones that start vertical and bend to horizontal. What is best for a beginner?

This is an ongoing project that I and two of my friends work on and intend to finish by next march. Since it is currently in the design phase, I post the topic here. The concept of the whole project arouse in a pub where we decided to make our version of war knives. However, instead of making a single design together through endless debates and bitter compromises, we agreed that everyone should materialize his own thoughts and see what happens. To be honest, we are not sure what we will use these blades for when we are done, but the way is what really matters for us here. Once again, the aim was to create an interesting fighting/survival chopper. And the results are: My humble design: https://cerberuscutlery.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/knife_1.jpg Peter's (one friend) concept: https://cerberuscutlery.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/kes_2.jpg Matt's (other friend) solution: https://cerberuscutlery.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/10486863_10201970616378965_1732100062_n2.jpg I cannot resize the pics properly, that's why I'm providing links. Anyway, if anyone is interested in the process, more can be read on our blog: http://cerberuscutlery.wordpress.com/ We already have a lot of work in this, so I'm eager to read any feedback. Also, feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to make everything clear. Thanks for reading!

So I'm wanting to do a historically-accurate seax, and would like some pictures of actual artifacts, or accurate modern ones. It's much easier if there are a bunch of pictures on one topic, rather than hunting through the forum trying to find a few pics.

This is my version of a tomahawk. the blade is 3 inches long and is based loosly on the dane axe. the spike is also meant to be used as a pickaroon. I want it to be useful as a small axe as well but this design itself would only be about .7 of a pound so I may go for a longer blade that gets thinner more gradually. the handle would be 1 inch by 18 inches probably round. I am currently working on forging a round drift from a 1.5 inch round bar which will take a large amount of fuel and time to finish forging. I am planning on using solid 1 inch barstock to make these becuase I don't think I could reliably forge weld a cutting edge on. I would like to know if there are any problems with my design. I would also like advice on how to make the eye, should I use a straight chisel to slit and drift or should I drill a hole in the material then drift?

Hello guys , I'm Emanuel. I'm a Brazilian and I'm very interested in knife making. I'm entering the journey of bladesmithing with my brother, we will build a little shop together. I have 3 books coming my way from Amazon (The Jim P book about the bladesmithing basics, the 50$ knife shop and The Backyard Blacksmithing) a few days and have been doing the reading on this forum for a week or two (i've a lot of free time right now, as I'm a response from a job interview). So I've read most of the basics from the beginners forum, but I still have some specific questions that I will ask in this post. First question (more of a tip asking): I've a right shoulder bursitis (it's like a permanent tendinitis), do you guys have any tips for hammering style so I don't hurt it more? As a doctor order, I've to do excercises and I think hammering would qualify as a pretty awesome one. Second Question: What would be safer for a forge in a house with kids? (Not that I will let kids play around the forge or any of the gear, but accidents happen and I want to minimize it as much as I can). Third question: I found many info about Venturi Burners and Blown Burners, but some of it was conflicting (specially about the psi involved). How much PSI is needed to run a Venture Burner? Do Venture really have a better temperature control? Can they get to welding temperetures? (I won't try my hand at welding at firt, but want to know that because I don't have enough space to build a dedicated forge to each task). And finally: Is this one a safe Venturi design http://www.rayrogers.com/venturi.htm ? Fourth Question: This is a picture of our usual kitchen gas canister, it has around 28lb 10oz of butane/propane mixture. Would it be a nice cannister or is it too small? With this cannister, will I generate enough psi to run a forge (my main interest is doing a venturi one)? In the space I've available to build my little shop, I'm thinking about putting it outside of the shop, dig a hole through the wall and put a hose to attach it on the burner (for safety reasons, if it blows up, it will be outside with a 8" concrete and brick wall between me and the cannister). Would it make it safer? Finally, my proposition: Could we try to create a pinned topic for steels and their equivalence on other steel name tables that aren't ALDO? I mean, for the most common steels used for bladesmithing (1095, 15n20, etc). We could post the steel and it's composition, and each of us find it on its country table. And after that, we create a unified table with the steels and their names on as many tables as possible. (I can try to explain better if needed ) Thanks for your time. Sorry for the long post and any english mistakes! If I find myself with more doubts, I will try to keep them all here Best regards, Emanuel Araújo

Hi all! I have recently made these design drawings. They consist of swords inspired by found celtic artifacts and I then gave it my own twist. The left sword is inspired by a Celtic shortsword and is historically correct except for the decoration on it that I designed myself. The sword on the right is a crossing between swords from two completely different times. The model of the sword is a 12th century crusaders sword, while the decoration on it is mostly La Tène Celtic. The throat of the scabbard is also Celtic, but I added the Futhark (Runes). The decoration on the pommel is a horse. These two pictures contain the same sword. The first picture was my original concept that I've drawn on scale 1 : 1, the whole thing is my own design and isn't inspired on any originals, except for the pommel and the scabbard decoration, which are inspired on a celtic originals. It's a two handed sword with a total length of 140 cm's or 55". In the second picture I designed a different grip for it, inspired on viking decoration. I also designed a wider double grooved blade. The sword is designed for myself, one that I won't sell once I bring it to steel. Here you can see the original I used for inspiration on the pommel. In my design I turned around the way to pommel should be fit on the tang. Above you see a picture of a similar pommel to mine but then fitted the way it was used originally. I didn't use this picture in my design, it's just to clear it up A little overview, and some of the materials I've used for designing. I hope you like it! I greatly appreciate comments and critiques. And ooh, there's one thing I am curious about, which of the two designs of the two handed sword would you choose? Have a creative day! Jasper