What's going on in your shop?

[John Wilson]

A new maker maker friend has been struggling with getting shoulders squared so I made him a quickie file guide. Just a simple one of hardened 1084 to get him going.

One side is glass smooth for filing shoulders. The back side is flat but raw, to use as a guide for grinding plunges.

 

[J. Doyle]

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

 

[luciusx5]

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

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Yep. I would say that etched quite nicely. Looks great!!

 

[Daniel Macina]

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

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Good lord! Never seen anything like that! Awesome!

 

[Sean Jones]

That's amaz

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

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That's amazing!

 

[Johan Nel]

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

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Yep, not too shabby this time around...

 

[John Wilson]

Well.............that etched up okay I guess.

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Guess we know who won next years “Best Folder”!

 

[Von Gruff]

When I showed the "patriot" table knives on the Bladesmiths forum it was suggested that I should do a fork to go with them so this morning I got a piece of 1/8 in stainless (from an old riving knife off the bench saw) and made up a pattern from one of our english silver ones to see if I could get the prongs cut evenly. Getting the curve to the fork will be a simple procedure as I will make the shape on a piece of 1 1/2 square stock for both top and bottom and press the shape in before HT. It was the cleaning up of the prongs after cutting them that caused a bit of head scratching but with the slack belt I think I can get it about right. My grinder is running with a belt speed at over 3000 sfpm and it is very easy to get the fork caught and flung away as it did when I was trying it but I have the 2 HP 3 ph motor to be wired in soon with a VFD so I can slow the belt speed right down to about hand sanding pace so the catching effect will be eliminated.
The forks will get a similar handle treatment to the knives.

 

[Volkert Forge]

Wow Gruff!!! Those forks are pretty sweet. If you lived in America with that Patriot set, you could make a mint

 

[Von Gruff]

Wow Gruff!!! Those forks are pretty sweet. If you lived in America with that Patriot set, you could make a mint

I have an agent there Jason so all that I make will be headed there anyway. The top fork in that pic is one from our cutlery set that I used as a pattern to make the flat pattern I will use to make the actual forks. This was a trial just to see if I could get the prongs right on a similar thickness steel. Will probably make them from the same .1 thickness 12c27 as the knives

 

[Ty Adams]

The forge I ordered from Mathewson Metal came in. This morning I fired it up to cook off all the paint. Not wanting to waste propane I forged a leaf..... then my add kicked in and a couple hours later I had my first forged knife.

 

[luciusx5]

Had a small scrap piece of Damascus. Made the wife a cross for a Valentines gift. Notice the "fish" on the right side? Wasn't planned, it just came out that way. Thought is was kinda cool.

 

[Dennis Morland]

The fish is pretty dang cool.

 

[Von Gruff]

The fish is pretty dang cool.

And symbolic as well.

 

[J. Doyle]

Here's a blade I'm currently working on. It was a few scrap chunks of Damascus that I forge welded together. I loosely twisted it to make it more interesting. But that left the pattern pretty open in spots that can be tricky to finish evenly. I was planning a coffee etch to darken it up and even it out but after seeing this, I kinda like this brighter, more polished finish.

 

[John Wilson]

Here's a blade I'm currently working on. It was a few scrap chunks of Damascus that I forge welded together. I loosely twisted it to make it more interesting. But that left the pattern pretty open in spots that can be tricky to finish evenly. I was planning a coffee etch to darken it up and even it out but after seeing this, I kinda like this brighter, more polished finish.

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That’s cool! Looks like burl wood. This blade with a burl or heavily spalted handle would look very interesting.

 

[J. Doyle]

That’s cool! Looks like burl wood. This blade with a burl or heavily spalted handle would look very interesting.

That would look pretty cool. Hadnt thought of that. However, I'm already underway on the handle in a very different direction.

 

[Daniel Macina]

That’s a beauty!

 

[Sean Jones]

That's going to be outstanding Mr Doyle. I really like the pattern.

 

[luciusx5]

Here's a blade I'm currently working on. It was a few scrap chunks of Damascus that I forge welded together. I loosely twisted it to make it more interesting. But that left the pattern pretty open in spots that can be tricky to finish evenly. I was planning a coffee etch to darken it up and even it out but after seeing this, I kinda like this brighter, more polished finish.

View attachment 67615

I really like that bright finish too and I would be tempted not to etch it. Hard choice but I know it's gonna be nice either way.