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So this is my fourth blade and its been a long time coming. I took a very long hiatus from smithing because of my son and career change yadayada so this blade is my first completed one in a few years. Blade is w2, fittings are bronze and handle is antler and yellowheart. I wanted to make something really grim hence the skulls the whole concept ended up sort of going in a barbarian pirate direction which is cool. Anyways here ya go. The lady who I made it for wanted something personal worked into it and her boyfriend is of irish decent so I carved some celtic inspired stuff on the wood.

I don't know if this counts as curly oak but it has a very nice grain. In california a giant oak tree in fron of my freind's house was going down so it was cut and my freind got all of the wood for firewood. I pulled these two peices out of their wood pile and they let me have them. the tree must have been 5 feet across! crack run about 3 inches deep into the larger peice. the texture against the grain: some refuse: a side vew of the grain: top vew of the grain: I will post more after I start cutting the smaller peice.

Hi guys, I know there is not much metal work here but this has been taking up a lot of my time over the last few months and I wanted to show it off anyway, I figured some of you may be interested... my Sister spins and knits, and recently a family that has a herd of sheep for wool (as opposed to eating ) has moved in near her home. so last year in a moment of weakness I promised to make her a spinning wheel! since I didn't know the first thing about spinning, this started several months of online research and visits to local museums. the result (after about 250 hours of work) is: I had made the promise for her birthday in June but gave it to her for Christmas... since she had to take it home on an airline, it is disassemble-able and all the pieces are sized to fit in an airline acceptable luggage case, and the present included the extra bag fee. in order to make it, first I had to analyze all the bits that a spinning wheel has and determine what they are for and how to make them. the most hair raising part was definitely edge turning the groove in the 20 inch main wheel on my lathe. almost the whole thing is made of plywood laminated up to different thicknesses for the different parts. then stained and varnished. This was a very fun project, and now that this is done maybe I can get back to some metal work!!! Hope you like it, Taran

Pretty much what the topic says. I'll try to be brief. I know that maple is a well liked handle wood, but have heard mixed reviews on the Silver variety. I ask because I happen to have an absolutely monstrous tree in the backyard, (it actually is multiple trees that were planted together and coaxed to fuse together as they grew.) If it's an acceptable wood I wouldn't need to worry about getting materials until skill level warrants extra expenditure for aesthetics/style. If I'm correct, pine isn't a good choice, but might help with this next part. No vacuum station for treating wood, but I do have pine resin (if it helps) flax/linseed oil, and beeswax. I can get turpentine if I need to, but would prefer to avoid additional spending at this time. If anyone has any advice on these subjects I'd appreciate it.

So the other day when I was taking a walk, I saw for the upteenth time my neighbor's woodpile. Knowing that that wood had been in the same location for several months, I made a guess to say that they weren't going to use it. I ask and was corrrect. Perusing the lot, I found the reason they had to trim the tree: rot. Most of the wood is too rotten to be any good. but the few bits I picked up were alright. These are what I've processed so far. All of it got two hours in the oven at 170 F turned every half hour. The warpage and cracking was minimal since most of the wood was already. What I got thought has me excited for my next handle. Oh one more thing, has anybody used maple bark as a sheath? I'm thinking I could use some birch bark glued to maple bark to make a sheath. Cheers!

Hello everyone! Since this is a category in which you can post whatever project. I thought i'd show one of my past projects. A few months ago I made a pipe out of a block of oak. It was quite a hard thing to do because had to drill the shaft at an angle to end in the tobacco chamber. It was a lot of sawing and filing to get the result. Afterwards I sanded it to 600 grid, carved some decoration into it and waxed it with turpentine wax. I also filled the carvings with gold paint to give it more fantasy style. The pipe is fully functional. I figure that I could definitely use these crafts in making scabbards and sword grips. Jasper