Tim Lemke
Member
I have been trying my hand at blacksmithing for about 4 years now, and it's slow going I don't get much chance to practice, but recently I tried my hand at a reclaimed bearing race ring knife, and though I'm stuck on the handling phase due to lack of epoxy and funds, and I don't think I treated the reclaimed 52100 right even though it skates a file and whatnot... well, I am intrigued at the prospect of more knives in my future, and would be happy to start asking questions and answering beginner stuff, generally adding to the maker's conversations.
It will probably take me a few years before I start selling knives, and yes I know I can't do that here without paying for the right. For now I'm just talking about knives that are gifts, or test fodder, or both if it's family hahaha. These are not a for sale yet, I am not at that level of confidence in my product yet in any case.
We don't have much in the way of finnese equipment here. Just anvils, tons of hammers and struck tools, a propane torch for the kao wool and castable refractory lined big steel can forge, bending jigs, cutting hardy, hammer drift, cut and upset blocks, angle grinder with buffer wheel, wire wheel and cutting disks, bandsaw, circular saw, soon to have a drill press, we've been making our own tools and finally we have ordered a tap and die set. Haha it's tacky but works like a charm. I'm essentially the casual apprentice, and I'm proud to say I do things like saw off hammer blanks off of a forklift tine, or, well my stepdad keeps teasing me that I'll be tapped in for some striking, and I'm waiting eagerly for that! Smithing is all I can think about, and I've been getting really good at watching color change in steel. This is all the thermal control I have, and I know I should probably wait to do any serious stuff, especially anything
It will probably take me a few years before I start selling knives, and yes I know I can't do that here without paying for the right. For now I'm just talking about knives that are gifts, or test fodder, or both if it's family hahaha. These are not a for sale yet, I am not at that level of confidence in my product yet in any case.
We don't have much in the way of finnese equipment here. Just anvils, tons of hammers and struck tools, a propane torch for the kao wool and castable refractory lined big steel can forge, bending jigs, cutting hardy, hammer drift, cut and upset blocks, angle grinder with buffer wheel, wire wheel and cutting disks, bandsaw, circular saw, soon to have a drill press, we've been making our own tools and finally we have ordered a tap and die set. Haha it's tacky but works like a charm. I'm essentially the casual apprentice, and I'm proud to say I do things like saw off hammer blanks off of a forklift tine, or, well my stepdad keeps teasing me that I'll be tapped in for some striking, and I'm waiting eagerly for that! Smithing is all I can think about, and I've been getting really good at watching color change in steel. This is all the thermal control I have, and I know I should probably wait to do any serious stuff, especially anything
