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Nice. Here's mine. You can see the handle hole where there used to be a handle. I've found it easier to hold it on the blade by hand. Always felt awkward with the handle. I'd suggest people to try one out if they haven't. Don't really need it but it speeds things up for me.

I love using my flatter. Quick and easy way to clean up flats. Mine was originally a wooden handled flatter but the handle broke. I removed it and I've found it a lot easier to use since then. I just use it as a hand-held flatter now.

That is a tiny vise! That's a really good idea. I'll have to keep it in mind and get back to shopping for a surface grinder, haha. Thanks for the tip.

That looks great! One thing that seemed to help me lock in the black oxide was to boil it in water for a few minutes shortly after etching. Can't hurt to try and see if it helps in this instance. It's either that or let it sit for a couple days. That said, it's been a while since I used FeCl...

I've wanted a SGA for a long time. Almost bought a big old used surface grinder at some point. The only reason I've never pulled the trigger is that I was concerned that it just wouldn't do what I want it to do. Basically I would want to surface grind both sides of my ricasso. The problem I'm...

Interesting that you would say that considering that is exactly what you are doing. I'm assuming I'm one of the "noisy few" considering you haven't responded to anything I've said. Notice I haven't mentioned stock removal or forging or my own steel selection. I've just been stating some basic...

I'm not sure what your point is here. In your original post you have a paragraph talking about how it's unfair when they give someone 3 different steels on FIF. I agree with you to an extent. But it's also a challenge that an educated maker can overcome using blade geometry and heat treat to his...

I watch the show. It is entertaining which is the purpose. It's not always clear to me if they know what steel they are using or what is in their quench barrel. Unless they are salvaging steel from a car or something like that, they are usually all given the same steel to work with. Even if it...

Yeah, I think we could go back and forth on that for eternity. Pretty much any bar of steel has been forged somewhere down the line. A stock removal guy can purchase a san mai billet or a damascus billet then grind the knife out. I highly doubt he would advertise that knife as "forged" even if...

There is a whole spectrum of amount forged vs ground. It usually comes down to the maker. I've seen lots of makers that only forge the profile. And others that forge crazy close to shape. I don't see the point in only forging the profile unless it is an extremely thin blade, but that's just me...

Hey Ken, I have a big roll of Nickel 200 that is 0.020". I just cut strips out of it with tin snips. That said, IIRC at the time, I was using 1/4" thick core and 1/4" thick sides. Then just smushed all that down. So that 8 thou might work depending on what you start with. This nickle always...

Yeah, it's the nickel in 15n20 that helps keep it resist the etch. That's looking pretty slick! For some reason I never etched my San Mai blades. Though I used to put a thin piece of pure nickel on either side of the core. The nickel would look slightly gold tinted after it was hand sanded...

I see. Yeah can't help you there much. Never tried it without flux. My welding forge I use for damascus is solid 3" thick castable all the way around so flux doesn't do much to it. Oddly enough, my first 15-20 knives were all san mai neck knives. I was just blacksmithing but got inspired by...

Oh okay. Sorry. Looked like there was a little gap there. Hard to tell. That is what I was looking at

Nice! Looks like there is some minor delam between the layers. You grinding all the sides nice and clean and fluxing before it gets hot enough to form any scale?

I really like the look and feel of dyed/stabilized giraffe bone. One of my favorite materials. One of the "features" of my stabilizing chamber is that is has an extra ball valve on it with a hose hooked on to it. The idea is that you would pull a vacuum on the piece before putting any...

I used to say that all the time. I have eventually learned I'm just fooling myself. I just ordered my 3rd 2x72 grinder and I have no place to put it. Been having to put wheels on just about everything. If only I could get a surface grinder, I might just be done...... :eek:

Yeah, every picture I've seen looks like a stamp to me.

I used to almost stop doing anything but forging in the winter because I just couldn't stand doing grinding and finishing work with freezing cold hands. Just got a propane heater for the shop. So now I've got the 500 gallon tank running my forges and heat. It makes a big difference. :)

I'm kinda with Daniel on the simple thing. I've looked at the new KMG and TW90 and all the fancy new features. I haven't used a tool rest on my KMG in several years. I tried early on and it just always felt like it was in my way so I got rid of it and never looked back. Give me a smooth...