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So I started quite a few weeks ago and have been doing a little bit when I can. The last couple of weeks have been tough. Lots of traveling, bronchitis, oh yeah and this thing called a job..... Anyway, I figured I post up some photos before I totally forget what I was trying to do. I was originally going to use the Stanley flat bar and just do a standard single steel blade, but then the wife says to me: "Why are you saving all those bandsaw blades?" And I got to thinking.........So, here is my drawing. All the notes are in the upper right corner about what the materials and design elements will be. Here are the materials. There are 15 used bandsaw blades for my porta-bandsaw. Typical blades you buy at Home Depot. Also from HD is a piece of 1x4 red oak with some cool looking grain, the flat bar, and a 4 ft stick of #5 rebar. At Ace Hardware I got the 5/64" music wire, 1/16" brass rod, and a small sheet of 16 gauge carbon steel. OK, so I didn't really BUY that at Ace, but I could have. It's just that we buy that stuff in 4 ft by 8 ft sheets and I happen to have half a sheet in the shop so......whatever. Please don't ask why the rods look pre-twisted, they are not. It's just a funky camera thing. Then the hard part. I needed a piece of white bone for the spacer. After digging through the dog chews at the local feed store/pet supply I found one that might work. Oh yeah let's not forget the sheet of white construction paper from the CVS pharmacy in the school supplies section. If anyone thinks that CVS is not on our "approved vendor list", let me know and I'll leave that bit out. So I took the band saw blades and cut them into pieces. Now I have 120 short pieces of steel roughly .06" thick, .5" wide, and about 5-1/2 inches long. (photo taken after the heating) These blades are covered with some sort of lubricant coating that could really Jack up the forge welding. So, I heated them up in the forge to burn that stuff off and after several hours of wire wheel work, put them in the drill press vice to prep for the forge weld. Weld the ends and attach handles. Then into the diesel fuel, forge, and press. (or is that presto?) This photo was taken after I ground one face off to remove the teeth and see if the welds took. Tomorrow I go to Tucson for the gem & mineral show. I am showing a buddy of mine how to make Damascus on Sunday (so that video of the press doing hot work should be ready by Monday night). I might have some time Sunday night to do more on the KITH project, but don't bet on it. Probably next weekend.