Did someone say Neo Tribal KITH ?????

Josh Dabney

Moderator
I've been watching this with interest but really wasn't sure I was gonna find time to participate. Ahhh heck I'm gonna MAKE time if y'all will have me. Too much fun to on the sidelines any longer.

Fired up the forge last night and got started re-purposing a 1095 clip point bowie I had laying around that was half forged. Got too late to keep forging so she's not done in the fire but I got a fair start on her.

Current profile- subject to change a bit :3:

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Edge side-

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Spine side-

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So what say Y'all ? Can I play too ? :biggrin:

-Josh
 
Thanks for the warm welcome fellas ! Feels real good to be back KT :3: Life happens but ya can't keep a knifemaking addict down for long :biggrin:


I actually gave alot of thought as to just what Neo-Tribal means to me. Neo just means New- as in a a modern rendition of something from the past.

Tribal- This is much harder to define other than speaking of folks who live in a "tribe" which is a very general definition that could be anything from American Indians, to Alaskan Inuits, to Ancient Aboriganies (sp) or more modern hippies living in communes apart from society.

So I basically envisioned my own tribe who live solely by whats provided by mother earth and are more in-tune with the enviornment than us but also believe strongly in the ethereal world of spirits and demons, gods and dieties. This tribe is a caste system where everyone has a job they do for the good of the tribe. Of course there is a Chief and a Holyman or Shaman.

With this definition of tribal in mind I'm shooting for a blade worthy of the Tribal Chief, blessed by the Shaman and ready for war against neighboring tribes, presenting a sacrifice to the gods, or carving the roast boar for the annual Feast of Sun Gods.

That said, Lets make us a knife !

-Josh
 
Got the forge fired back up this morning and continued work on my blade.

Shunning all my great tools like drills mills SG height gage dykem and the like is kinda welcomed in a way. While all these things have their uses for knifemaking there is a draw to just going at it freestyle with the hammer and forge to create something without alot of the modern conveniences. I have been accused a time or to of having an Artsy side so I look at this as way to jest let it flow and see where it takes me. NOT something I typically do when making knives, LOL.

Anyhow, I'm gonna start by making a couple hot cuts in the end of my tang. Something like this-
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Home made tongs, hammer, anvil, old wood chisel in vise grips, and a piece of mild steel plate to protect the anvil face from the chisel
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Made the hot cuts on the anvil then used the vise like this to open up my cuts a bit
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Forged the top and bottom over to the side so I could get to the center piece for drawing it out a bit
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Drawing it out
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Nearly there
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I know I know... just where the heck is he going with this... Right ? LOL
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Forged some taper into the end of the tang
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In the spirit of of the kith I decided to harden my blade using the forge judging temps by eye and magnet. Getting everything set-up. Got a chair so I can comfortably see whats going on in the forge, long handled tongs for weenie roasting, and my bucket of quench oil
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Of course I normalized 3 times by eye prior to quenching. I also tuned down the forge towards the end of forging the blade so I was pretty well normalized in the 1600 range before starting my 3 cycles.

Now because I'm forging 1095 here and we just may get something cool happening during the hardening I tweaked my quenching procedure to try and encourage something interesting to happen.

I did two things here to encourage a natural hamon to occur. When bring my blade up to temp I got the thinner edge and forward 1/3 of the blade up to hardening temp while keeping the back 2/3 of the spine down to the choil area below critical temp. At a minimun this should produce a hardening line of some sort from the choil extending forward to the 1/3 2/3 division area. A full quench would have most likely given me something very similar to this.

Instead of doing a full quench though I gave it what might be called a "hovering edge quench" No restrictor plates or anything just freehanding it. The intial quench covered the entire edge from choil to an couple inches back from the tip on the spine. I held it here for a two count then slowly agitated in a hacksaw motion going a little deeper in with each stroke of agitation.

Caution !!!! - This type of quench is a MAJOR fire hazzard !!!

Anytime you have hot steel on the surface of the oil be prepared for FIRE !!!

I'm not advocating or recommending quenching this way but it is what I did :3:

-Josh
 
Cleaning the blade up a bit after quenching to see what I got
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I forgot to mention... I also did some decorative punching with my chisel and ot punched a hole through the tang-

The Screamin Demon-
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Other side at 50x
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Feather headed Shaman-
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Snapped a bunch of pics trying to catch the hamon, we definately got something worth keeping ;)
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Looks like we got our hamon down low and multiple "zones" up high.... score !
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Hard to see it in these pics but looks like some sweet activity in the front 2/3rd's of the blade.
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Size referance shot ;) She's a honker LOL
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In the tempering oven for a standard 2x2 @ 400.

Could be jumping the gun but I'm thinking this HT= success !!!!!

Take care Fellas- Josh Oh, and Happy Easter too !
 
Looking good! there is surely a good hamon under there. Polish away, man... I like the screamin' eagle, too. Glad you have joined us. This is gonna be fun!
kc
 
Key up music- Chris LeDoux- Stampede

The tribal bladesmith belives that steel has a living breathing soul. The Warrior is forged for his destiny, tempered for clarity of purpose, and honed for keen service of his duty ... and such is the life of a blade. Nurture and Nature merge to determine both it's purpose and worth.

Our blade here was born under the skies of the angry Gods. Layers of thunderhead stormfronts filled the horizon embedding the dark powers of the Heavens might into the steel. Harnessing the energy of the earth within the soul of the blade is task of the tribal bladesmith. Mystical and misunderstood, this power of the bladesmith brings both fear and respect from the tribesman.


Here we are gound out to 220x and given a minute or so in the ferric. At 220 nothing is popping but it's enough to give those experienced with hamon a real peek at what we've got going on
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Sharpened up quick and dirty on a wore 400x for some testing
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Twice through the 2x4
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And a single stroke through the 1" free hanging rope and we're looking sweet :3:
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Moving forward I'll be working on polishing the blade to bring out the detail of the Hamon.

Take care- Josh
 
aha! I bet you have some of the 1095 that is lower in manganese. It is tricky because there are two versions of that alloy generally available. You got the right steel. It makes a huge difference. Its like learning balance before you learn fighting or athletics. It is a must to begin with, before you can move on to the higher level stuff.
That looks like it will be beautiful. I am really impressed with how it looks - wow - was my first comment, too. That is some of the best results I have seen from that type of quench.

kc
 
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Appreciate the comments fellas !

Kevin, Not sure of the certs for this steel but it is 1 1/2 x 1/4 1095 HR from Admiral. I've since switched to Aldo's 1095 but this blade has been laying around for quite awhile in it's half forged state.

This is merely an example that knowledge and experience are power. As my understanding of shallow hardening steel grows so does my ability to coerce it into doing cool stuff. My result on this blade is generally what I expected to see and yet still a little suprising with 3 competely distinct lines and the addition of some great cloudy activity in between. While not a clay coated blade I still wouldn't consider this a "Natural" hamon as I utilized my heat and quench techniques to encourage the steel to behave exactly as the science tells us it will. Cool Stuff ! Once you get hooked there's no looking back, LOL.

Lots of great stuff to look forward too in the future for me. Eventually I'll get around to playing with some W1 W2 and the low Mn 1075 in addition to my beloved 1095.

Here's one from Kelly Couples' 1084 that was torch hardened and full quenched. No clay on this one either.
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Amazing... this stuff we call steel :)

Missed out on the shop last night but should be back on tonight.

Take care guys, Josh
 
yes - once you learn some of the basic rules, you can sort of predict but it is still a lovely surprise. That is my experience, too. I will be showing a hamon from clay and water - interrupt- Parks with low manganese 1075. It will be pretty dramatic in its own right. I just love this stuff.
Keep your pics coming - this is working out nicely!
kc
 
Josh,
We are going to start calling you the "Neo Man". Great wip and knife. That last pic really shows how sharp that thing is, cut your hand off and no blood.:biggrin: Wade
 
Let the polishing begin

Neo-Man Bwaaaaa Haaaa Haaaaa Wade ! It's gonna be difficult to continue with only one hand :lol:

This Hamon is FULL of pleasing suprises !!!! A quick glimps at the blade isn't going to reveal all the magic it holds and like a good movie the more you studying it will present some of the more subtle detail that may have been overlooked the first time or two.

So just what do we have here thats soooo interesting ????

Deep within the steel... rarely caught on film..... and perhaps even considered Voo-Doo by many non-believers lies a piece of the bladesmiths soul. Yes... An actual piece of the smith is contained in the steel as they become one spiritually in the fire and on the anvil...

Under the correct lighting and in the correct state of mind having become the blade itself we have captured this Blue-Eyed Heathen lurking beneath the surface of the steel......

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Betcha y'all didn't know any of that did ya ? Mwaaaahhhhhh ha ha ha ha !

:46::16::hammer:
 
On a more serious note we really do have some cool details here.

I'm not even at a good polish yet but I gave it 10 seconds in the ferric to check out my steel. I'm hand sanded completely to 600x (45 degrees to the edge) and maybe 1/3 of the way to 800x (in line with the edge) on this side of the blade.

The upper-most transition line is not a boring straight line- The trained eye will be able to notice that in the middle and lower portion of the blade we have what I'll call "activity within the activity"
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While very welcomed this was a suprises to me. We've got a bit of activity similar to Ashi lines in a traditional clay coated blade. Some beautiful pearlite colonies swimming in a sea of martinsite. NICE :biggrin:
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The detail between the uppermost and lowermost transition lines is extremely hard to catch in a pic but there's some cool stuff in there as well. Polishing to a much cleaner surface and multiple etch polish cycles may help bring out the detail here but we'll see
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This pic shows some of the cloudy goodness in the wide center transition area and highlights those downright offensive 600x scratches. Polish polish polish !
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That's all I got for now fellas... stay tuned for some more !

-Josh
 
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