Latest knife project

We all make stuff other than pipes, so here's a place where "anything goes" as far as showing off some of your projects and other hobbies.
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KurtHuhn
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Latest knife project

Post by KurtHuhn »

I completed this bad boy a few weeks ago in trade for some AR-15 parts:
Image

And at the new owners request, I documented the entire process from start to finish:
http://www.ostrogothforge.com/images/co ... f_a_Knife/

Grinding steel is about as much I'll get to do until spring. I had plans to start building my coal forge this winter, including some modifications to the mini-barn, but I have almost 4 feet of snow in the yard, and drifts up to 6 feet! :huh: There's no way I can make the changes I want until this snow goes away.

Next project should be an easy one - a small kiridashi for marking wood when I'm building furniture.
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Philthy
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by Philthy »

Well done. Reminds me a bit of the Tantos I send to troops in combat. Beadblast finish?
I will seriously be envious if you get a forge up and running.
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TRS
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by TRS »

Very cool! I've come to the conclusion that you use these knives to bleed time from another dimension into this one so that you have 48-hour days to everyone elses' 24. Knives, forges, pipes, rifles, furniture, bowls, baked goods, space shuttles; is there anything you don't make Kurt? :D
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KurtHuhn
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by KurtHuhn »

Philthy wrote:Well done. Reminds me a bit of the Tantos I send to troops in combat. Beadblast finish?
I will seriously be envious if you get a forge up and running.
Thank you! Yes, bead blasted in the same cabinet where most of my sandblasting is done.
BeatusLiebowitz wrote:Very cool! I've come to the conclusion that you use these knives to bleed time from another dimension into this one so that you have 48-hour days to everyone elses' 24. Knives, forges, pipes, rifles, furniture, bowls, baked goods, space shuttles; is there anything you don't make Kurt? :D
Well, in all fairness, that space shuttle was half size, and only held one man and a goat. We made it to "space", but not quite orbit. Those jerks at Houston were a little miffed when we drifted into their flight path. Something something, top secret military orbiter - blah, blah, blah.... They can get really verklempt if they think you might see what they're doing. Buncha girls....
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by BriarWorldNick »

When your forge becomes successful please post the plans. My girlfriend and I have been wanting to get into blacksmithing, and if I could just have a forge in the backyard....even better.
There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it.

~ Knut Hamsun
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Alan L
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by Alan L »

BriarWorldNick wrote:When your forge becomes successful please post the plans. My girlfriend and I have been wanting to get into blacksmithing, and if I could just have a forge in the backyard....even better.
Nick, get yourself (and your GF) to the weekly meetings of the Rutherford County Blacksmiths' Association. The last info I had on 'em says they meet every Monday at 7 PM at Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village in Murfreesboro. Lots of other chapters around Middle TN, including Mt. Juliet, Lawrenceburg, Lynchburg, McMinnville, and Cookeville.

If you want, I can PM you the contact info I have for the Murfreesboro group.

Smithing is not hard, but figuring out how to start unassisted is. Beginners tend to overthink stuff, and it's just a hot fire and a hammer after all. :wink: Hot steel works like really stiff play-doh, and most of the safety stuff is pretty obvious unless you go with a gas forge.

I'm one to talk; I spent years collecting all the equipment which then sat in the basement until my wife (GF at the time!) told me I had to learn to use it or get rid of it, and even helped pay for an introductory class. That was in 1998. I haven't put down the hammer for more than a couple of weeks ever since!
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by BriarWorldNick »

Hey man yeah thanks for the extra push. That is the group she and I have been thinking about exploring. We went for a walkthrough one monday and it only cost like $30 a year, which I found to be an incredible steal. It is definitely the route we plan on starting with.

But Once he gets his up and going, it would be even cooler to have it in our back yard.
There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it.

~ Knut Hamsun
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KurtHuhn
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by KurtHuhn »

I'll be sure document the build - including any mistakes made along the way.

In the meantime, you can make yourself a very serviceable gas forge with a coffee can, some ceramic wool, a touch of satanite, and a MAPP torch. A similar forge has been my main forge for a couple years now. One of the driving reasons I want to move to coal is because it's way less expensive here than Propane or MAPP gas.
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by TRS »

KurtHuhn wrote:a touch of satanite
I thought this was a joke and had to google it. Can you substitute salamandarine or balrogorous for it?
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by KurtHuhn »

BeatusLiebowitz wrote:
KurtHuhn wrote:a touch of satanite
I thought this was a joke and had to google it. Can you substitute salamandarine or balrogorous for it?
LOL!! No, either one will get slimy if the fire is extinguished. :lol:

BTW: I get all my refractory supplies from Darren Ellis. Good prices, and great customer service:
http://elliscustomknifeworks.hightempto ... npage.html

The only thing I didn't buy from there is my insulating fire brick, since shipping was rather expensive, and I have a source locally.
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Alan L
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by Alan L »

BeatusLiebowitz wrote:
KurtHuhn wrote:a touch of satanite
I thought this was a joke and had to google it. Can you substitute salamandarine or balrogorous for it?
I have a bag of bubble alumina around here somewhere... I bet that a pipe lined with a thin layer of Satanite topped by bubble alumina with a thin layer of ITC-100 would not only never burn out, but would increase combustion efficiency by something like 1100 percent.

Just think, use a little care when packing, and one single light will do the trick. The ITC-100 is an infrared reflector so the center of the bowl will stay hot, the bubble alumina reflects the whole spectrum and insulates (and is also highly resistant to alkaline fluxes if you like to add borax to your tobacco...), and the Satanite resists very high temperatures, thus keepng the wood cool, even if the bowl wall is only .002" thick... :endofmankind:

Sorry about that, I just had to write it. :lol:

Nick, Do go check 'em out. You'll get a lot of ideas about how and where you want to build your own forge. I prefer commercial cast iron firepots to homebuilt ones for coal forges because most people who make them at home don't know what they're doing before they fire up the welder. The cast pots are shaped by 150 years of experience with what works. They are relatively expensive, so if you can study the ones they have at Cannonsburgh and replicate one in 1/2" or thicker steel plate that could work. However, I've been running a Centaur Forge cast pot for ten years with zero problems other than sometimes having to chip clinker off the clinker-breaker ball, but that's part of the price of admission with a coal forge anyway.

Here's my forge.

Image

Wooden base built from untreated 2x4s supports a 24" x 36" tabletop of 3/8" steel plate with 1" angle iron edges welded on to stiffen it. There's a rough hole torched in the middle in which the firepot hangs by its rim, as it's designed to do. The hood is something I welded up from 11-gauge steel sheet to connect the forge with the chimney behind it. As you can see, the side-draft expansion chamber idea works REALLY well.
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Re: Latest knife project

Post by Uncle Arthur »

Scope out iforgeiron.com as well. There is a lot of good information to be had there.
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