Well I am new to these forums. So hello everyone. I am also a novice custom knife maker in that I am knowledgeable in metallurgy, but my novice skills is in the actual "art" of the knife making. In simply my knives will hack a 2x4 in half three times and shave your leg, but they dont look the nicest! I am working on this "art" weakness of my blade smithing. I am very true to Tim Lively's process for working with 5160 steel. All my blades are annealed, normalized to magnetic north, tempered, and the edge is looked at with a electronic magnifier during tempering in order to get a perfect edge that doesnt chip, nor roll after the 2x4 chopping abuse test. Below is two knives I am making for family members for Xmas, and am making complete video\picture documentary.
OK well.. since the last 5160 project I worked on two things came about that stopped me dead in my tracks. First off my kids side tracked me and a piece I had worked on for hours just burnt right up in the forge. Second my wood trunk base holding the 25lb weight plate caught fire during my work session. I thought little of the darken burn, but throughout the night that smoldered charcoal wood burned out a chunk of the trunk rendering that anvil no good. So I made a new one!
Since then I've taken it slow, and gathered wood here and there when time allowed, and made my charcoal instead of buying wood charcoal costing me. I made my kiln more efficient, and thus using less fuel to forge which also is making things a bit easier. So this past week I have put together my focus on making these two Christmas presents for family, and this is where I am at so far.
New Forge made-
Notice to the top left a black bowl with charcoal, and mud\adobe mixture. I placed this mixture over the tin can area, and around the wind pipe only to leave the tweers visible. I also tightened up all my air passages from the moon walk blower to the pipe with some good ole fashion duck tape. This forge has used very little fuel to get my piece to non-magnetic. Time well spent!
-Put cuts into my wind pipe to make tweers
-Charcoal gathered
-Leaf Springs from a 70's model Catering truck
-Both of these pieces burned up. After forging with 01 tool steel, I can honestly say the upper critical temperature of 01 is why I burned these two 5160 pieces up, because they don't take the fire like 01. A lesson learned.
Of these two pieces I salvaged one, and made the smaller knife going to my sister in law. In which the small knife picture below is how it looks so far.
Of the above two pieces this knife came about.
A bit of bio for the reason behind these two knives.
My brother in law and sister in law in which I am making these knives for live on a 1000 acre ranch in a home in which is all provided by the multi-million dollar owner, and they were hired, and given the home to live in with their job being to maintain the land, and catalog the deer for the hunters, clean the vacation hunting house, feed the exotics, buffalo etc. So in essence my brother in law is a die hard outdoors-men, and so is his wife and I think these knives will get a whole lot of use. The reason for the bowie is my brother in law is 6'4, 275lbs, and I'm making the handle a bit bigger to fit. All of these pictures and video's are going on a video I am making which will be burned onto a DVD and gift wrapped with the knives. So any suggestions along the way will be much appreciated. My biggest problems so far is losing focus during the handle making process! The problem I am having with the bowie, is I don't have a drill bit long enough to make a handle longer than 4". I am aiming for about 5 1/2 - 6".
Here is the Bowie, and a video below of me pulling it from the forge prior to my forge rebuild.
YouTube - BigBowieMovie1.avi
-Here they have been acid washed using frozen concentrated white vinegar.
It works faster than just bottled vinegar let me tell yah!
-Turned at a slight angle to reflect some light.
-Note: Even though I counter bent the bowie, it wasn't enough after hammering the peice if you notice the tip has a slight backwards point to it. Cant turn back now, but lesson learned. The bowie's spine is about as thick as a pencil. The edge even at an annealed state is razor for both knives ( I get fixated on sharpening ). So I have high hopes of an edge holding once I harden and temper. We will see!
All work in regards to annealment, heat treating, and tempering are following the exact guidelines of Tim Lively's process.
-To Do: Tomorrow I get paid, and am buying an extended set of drill bits to make handles! I am visiting a leather hobby shop here in town, and will buy the necessary tooling kits for the sheath, and for future knife projects. I am going to wood stain the hickory, but I need suggestions here. I don't want the color being plain old hickory.
- I will be starting on a second big bowie for my father in law! That project will start near the end of this week. I'm buying a chainsaw to gather my own wood with instead of using this darned axe, or buying mesquite.
OK well.. since the last 5160 project I worked on two things came about that stopped me dead in my tracks. First off my kids side tracked me and a piece I had worked on for hours just burnt right up in the forge. Second my wood trunk base holding the 25lb weight plate caught fire during my work session. I thought little of the darken burn, but throughout the night that smoldered charcoal wood burned out a chunk of the trunk rendering that anvil no good. So I made a new one!
Since then I've taken it slow, and gathered wood here and there when time allowed, and made my charcoal instead of buying wood charcoal costing me. I made my kiln more efficient, and thus using less fuel to forge which also is making things a bit easier. So this past week I have put together my focus on making these two Christmas presents for family, and this is where I am at so far.
New Forge made-
Notice to the top left a black bowl with charcoal, and mud\adobe mixture. I placed this mixture over the tin can area, and around the wind pipe only to leave the tweers visible. I also tightened up all my air passages from the moon walk blower to the pipe with some good ole fashion duck tape. This forge has used very little fuel to get my piece to non-magnetic. Time well spent!
-Put cuts into my wind pipe to make tweers
-Charcoal gathered
-Leaf Springs from a 70's model Catering truck
-Both of these pieces burned up. After forging with 01 tool steel, I can honestly say the upper critical temperature of 01 is why I burned these two 5160 pieces up, because they don't take the fire like 01. A lesson learned.
Of these two pieces I salvaged one, and made the smaller knife going to my sister in law. In which the small knife picture below is how it looks so far.
Of the above two pieces this knife came about.
A bit of bio for the reason behind these two knives.
My brother in law and sister in law in which I am making these knives for live on a 1000 acre ranch in a home in which is all provided by the multi-million dollar owner, and they were hired, and given the home to live in with their job being to maintain the land, and catalog the deer for the hunters, clean the vacation hunting house, feed the exotics, buffalo etc. So in essence my brother in law is a die hard outdoors-men, and so is his wife and I think these knives will get a whole lot of use. The reason for the bowie is my brother in law is 6'4, 275lbs, and I'm making the handle a bit bigger to fit. All of these pictures and video's are going on a video I am making which will be burned onto a DVD and gift wrapped with the knives. So any suggestions along the way will be much appreciated. My biggest problems so far is losing focus during the handle making process! The problem I am having with the bowie, is I don't have a drill bit long enough to make a handle longer than 4". I am aiming for about 5 1/2 - 6".
Here is the Bowie, and a video below of me pulling it from the forge prior to my forge rebuild.
YouTube - BigBowieMovie1.avi
-Here they have been acid washed using frozen concentrated white vinegar.
It works faster than just bottled vinegar let me tell yah!
-Turned at a slight angle to reflect some light.
-Note: Even though I counter bent the bowie, it wasn't enough after hammering the peice if you notice the tip has a slight backwards point to it. Cant turn back now, but lesson learned. The bowie's spine is about as thick as a pencil. The edge even at an annealed state is razor for both knives ( I get fixated on sharpening ). So I have high hopes of an edge holding once I harden and temper. We will see!
All work in regards to annealment, heat treating, and tempering are following the exact guidelines of Tim Lively's process.
-To Do: Tomorrow I get paid, and am buying an extended set of drill bits to make handles! I am visiting a leather hobby shop here in town, and will buy the necessary tooling kits for the sheath, and for future knife projects. I am going to wood stain the hickory, but I need suggestions here. I don't want the color being plain old hickory.
- I will be starting on a second big bowie for my father in law! That project will start near the end of this week. I'm buying a chainsaw to gather my own wood with instead of using this darned axe, or buying mesquite.
. I will update the post with more pictures today!
.
