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I have an old Flather lathe from I believe 1906. It’s a pretty good lathe, but the bearings are really bad. I’m guessing that they are babbit bearings. I haven’t ever done babbit bearing replacement before. Is it ok to start taking it apart, or is there stuff I should do before hand? Any good...

I’m thinking about getting one of those pneumatic dental drills. Been looking, and there seems to be quite a bit of variety to them. Right now I have a Dremel with a flex shaft, but I would like higher RPMs, and just an overall upgrade. I do like the torque of the Dremel. Do the dental drills...

I was just looking at my latest blade on a real final kinda bit of shaping, and there was something that looked “off” about it. I couldn’t measure anything tangible, but when I looked at it under bright light, it was kind of weird. I decided I would polish up my mirror super good and inspect it...

Figure I’ll share how I do some of my handles, after the thread about wa handles. I did not come up with this idea, this came from an ancient Finnish knife I had. They would burn the tang into a piece of wood, then carve designs into the wood handle, wrap the handle in damp leather, and pour it...

I really really do not like making sheaths. I find leatherwork boring and tedious, and I’m not “great” at it by any means. I was wondering what people think of knives where the knife is sole authorship, but the sheath was made by someone else? Is that ok, or do the sheaths “have to” be made by...

This stuff right here. “Amazing Mold Putty” by Alumalite. It’s a Play-Doh like silicone putty. You mix it in equal parts in your hands and it sets up into a hard kinda rubbery solid. I use this stuff all the time. I put the picture of the stag crown to kind of show one of the uses. Say you are...

Whenever I can get my grubby mitts on some apex ultra, I wanted to try doing a pattern weld in the neighborhood of 500 layers probably with 15N20. I see we are warned not to heat it beyond 2050F. Or it can irreversibly damage the steel. I do have a DRO on my forge, and can control the temp to...

First sword, that is! I’ve always wanted to make a sword, and now after banging on metal for 30 years I am finally getting around to it. I wanted one for myself mostly, and finally figured out what I wanted to make and how I was going to do it. So, this one is drawn up is based off of a 16th...

Seems like as soon as I park the motorcycle for the winter, I already can’t wait to get back on it. I gotta get some saddlebags. Any riders out there that have recommendations? It’s a 2012 Harley Sportster 1200 XLC. I want some with fringes on them.

So, Santa left me some extra money this year, and I want to get a real etching machine to replace my mess I built. I’m looking for variable outputs, and quality build, with a budget of $1000. I was looking at the Personalizer Plus, but I see that it’s max output is 24 volts, and I’ve seen guys...

I’m thinking about getting a mill/drill, specifically this one. Anyone using one? I’ve looked at it at ACME Tool, and it looks pretty well made. Better/cheaper options? Advise?

Does anyone here do any Japanese lacquer? I’ve been looking online for techniques, and I can find a lot of cool examples of various textures and finishes, but I can’t seem to find “how” it’s done. I’m interested in doing this to chef knife saya, and I don’t plan on using actual Japanese lacquer...

I’ve been thinking about attempting to make an AO liner lock for myself, since I have some scraps of Damasteel that are too small to make a regular knife from. Main problem I’m running into is: I don’t know how! I have a pretty good idea how the tang has to engage the lock, and how to locate...

I don’t know if a lot of people do their handles the same as I do, but I’m sure there are a few. I drill two parallel holes 3/16 diameter, then wobble the drill bit to turn it into a slot for the tang. The slot ends up being roughly 3/16, but my tang is typically around .100”, so I bed the tang...

For the people who work with kydex, what glue should I use to glue it up? I don’t want to use rivets, just glue. Is there a glue that works good for this? Thanks, Nate

So every nakiri I have seen so far has a pretty universal shape. Pretty much a rectangle, with the front having an angular face where the spine is longer than the edge, and slopes back toward the edge. Does anyone know why this front edge is not simply square with the edge? Does it serve some...

I’ve been making knives a long long time now. I think I started in ‘92. Over the years I have bought about a billion dollars worth of equipment. I’ve broken more knives for testing than most people have ever owned. Volumes of books on metallurgy have been read, techniques for jewelry...

So, I have some Takafu Shiro 2 that I wanted to forge out into a chefs knife. I’ve never worked with this stuff, kind of bought it on a whim. Looking at its makeup, it appears to be kind of like 1095 with around .2 chromium and about 1% nickel. Sort of in between 1095 and 52100. Anyone work with...

This only lets me do one picture at a time I guess. First one here is 10” chef knife, laminated SS/52100, with copper hardware and spalted tamarind. I like the old Sabatuer knives, kind of went in that direction with it. I didn’t like the way a ferric chloride etch looked on it, so I used...

I don’t know why the picture insists on loading sideways, but here is what I built. I started trying to stabilize with a stainless vessel with a 1/2” Lexan lid, and first my vacuum pump crushed the chamber, so I built a stronger one, then it broke the lid. I decided to go a little heavier this...