A new bladesmith few know about

Wow -- that is an awesome blade with a spectacular hamon!! She should definitely keep up the knifemaking.
 
Hi, Keith… and all

Just wanted to thank you for posting the pics of Maggie at work on the Bowie. As I said in an Email that I sent to you a few minutes ago, Maggie is a very shy gal… and was at first just about petrified that her photos were on the forum. But she settled down and is very appreciative of what you’ve done. Personally, I always enjoy seeing pics of people working at the craft… it adds a bit to the kinship I already feel for others who work with fire, hammer and steel. I wish more women smiths would post… since there are so few of them. I’ve had a wonderful time teaching Maggie and her friend, Dorothy. They’re attentive, smart, hard working and as quick on the uptake as anyone I’ve ever had the pleasure of instructing. And I probably shouldn’t even mention *strong*. Maggie can use a 4 pound hammer for hours at a stretch. I asked her after her first forging session… which was not with blades, but was basic blacksmith forging exercises… if her arm was sore. I got a quizzical look, and Maggie said, “No. Should it be?” Maggie and Dorothy both are stronger than many men I know… and when it comes to endurance (and patience), they leave me in the shade.

As I’ve told a number of collector and knifemaker friends of mine… just give it two years, and old man Fikes is going to be in a nice hammock in the shop with a fan cooling his fat carcass as he shouts orders to the gals through a bullhorn. “Get movig’, ya lazy wenches!! We’ve got orders to fill!!”

Ah! Now won’t that be the life. :cool:

Joss!

I have finally gotten your DVD of the old cutting tests from ten years ago in an envelope and ready for Maggie to drop into the mail today. You know me... old, slow and crazy... but I eventually get there. If you can ignore the shaky camera work and the blank spaces between takes, you will certainly get a laugh out of the hillbilly chit-chat, and might even see some good cutting ;) You’ll see where the phrase ‘cutting standing hair’ comes from after a friend of mine mows the top half of the hair on his arm, without touching blade to skin… and repeats the words ‘standing hair’ a dozen times in about two minutes. And other fun stuff… placing a knife edge across the width of a paperback book and pushing the blade through the book with no sawing… making downward cuts into an oil drum with a sword blade… blah, blah, blah. One fun part is seeing Maggie use the power hammer for the first time, welding a ‘full moon’ billet that Don Fogg and I began in December.

Thombrogan says that Maggie could start performing cutting tests ;) I agree 100%… and she already has, of course… the same tests my blades pass, each and every one of them before the knife leaves the shop. Her *first* blade passed the spine impact tests that checks for cracks formed during quenching… flex tests… edge impact tests (pine knots, dried bamboo, thick walled hard plastic pipe)… all with flying colors. As for edge holding, her blade cut 100 pieces of one inch manila rope and easily stropped back to shaving sharp. How many pieces of one inch rope will it cut? I have no idea, but several hundred for sure. The tests I mention here are the tests that EVERY knife passes that goes out the shop door… whether my blades, Maggie’s or Dorothy’s. I think at some point when I can find the time that I’ll do a video of Maggie forging a blade start to finish… and then the testing of the same blade. Testing takes time, energy and money… but it’s the *only* way to know whether any given knife will perform.

I know that there will be many Doubting Thomases out there. Any who would care to test my veracity are welcome to stop by my shop… or Baton’s next symposium… to check out the truth of what I say. I’ll have plenty of rope and a hand full of nice crisp hundreds. You bring your sharpest knife and your money, and we’ll see if I speak with a forked tongue :D How could you lose? They're just *girls* with only a few months at the forge. Hhehehehehehe.

I don’t have all that many pics of Dorothy at work, but will post the few I have if it won’t bore you guys into a coma... and if I can figure out how. I'm a computer know-nothing :(

Find reliable, hard-working ladies. Train them to make knives. Then pick out a good hammock. *That’s* my advice!

Thanks again, Keith, from Maggie and Dorothy and old man Fikes.

Warmest regards,

Jimmy
 
Jimmy,

What you are doing by training others is a great thing. The picture sequence is excellent.
 
Thanks for sharing the pics, Keith.
Great work, Maggie. The knife looks very nice with that temper line.
 
Jimmy, I really appreciate your input. You have a way with words that makes it very pleasant to read what you write.
 
I'd be proud to own one of her knives one day. Thanks for sharing those Keith.

Cerberus
 
Maggie asked me to thank Keith for posting the pics... and all you guys for the kind words, encouragement and orders. :D A nicer bunch of folks would be hard to find! Maggie was very tickled when she saw Keith’s avatar :) I've asked a friend of mine to give me the loan of two of her knives that he owns... a small utility and the Bowie that Maggie was shown forging and polishing. Just as soon as he drops them off, I'll get some pics to post on fototime and post a URL to the site.

I want to thank you all for accepting Maggie as a *smith*. She had wondered if being female would make a difference. I told her that it would certainly make a difference... that there were so few women forging that all us guys want more of them. ;) The gals are so much more fragrant and easier on the eyes than us lumpy old geezers.

Filling Maggie's orders will go slowly for the time being. Maggie and I are currently having to spend time catching up on some way-overdue chores and building a new hydraulic press, as well as continuing her bladesmith's education. But I think the wait will be worth it. She dearly loves the idea of making each and every knife as well as she possibly can. And that, folks, is what a *knifemaker* is all about.

This evening I'll try to round up some pics of Maggie's friend, Dorothy... and will set up an album at fototime for her pics. Don Fogg stopped by the shop once and saw a blade that Dorothy had forged. The edge was as straight as could be, dead centered in relation to the spine, and less than a 1/16 thick. Don's comment after looking at the blade from every angle was, "DAMN!!!"

I'll also be working on answering the Email this thread has generated. I'm slow, but I'll get there ;)

I didn't have any retirement plan until I married Maggie and met Dorothy. Now I do. They're my IRA. :D

Thanks again, guys.

Jimmy
 
Hey, Nick...

Both gals have picked up the forging incredibly quickly. I've taught a lot of people to hammer, but I've never seen anything quite like Maggie and Dorothy taking to forge, hammer and anvil. Maggie goes at the steel with a controlled fury, while Dorothy sedately coaxes the steel to shape... but even with such differing techniques, the results are almost identical. Don Fogg also wants to work with Maggie and Dorothy. His approach to forging is much different than mine... me having been a blacksmith (and still am) for years before going with knives full time. You know me... it's *get it hot and hit it hard*. But in this case I don't think 'too many cooks will spoil the broth'. I think that both women will wind up with their own distinctive styles, although right now they're doing as the OLD GROUCH tells em to do. Working with Maggie and Cat is the most fun I've had in a long, long time. :D

You do pretty damned well with a hammer yourself, Nick... at least from what I've seen. I'm definitely a fan of your work. It's fine now and will only get better as time goes along. Did you get the Email I sent regarding quench tank length and type of quencing oil, btw?

Keep in touch,

Jimmy
 
Jimmy-


Sorry, I could have sworn I wrote you back! I sure did get that email and appreciate your help very much! After talking with you and Don about it, I built a tank out of some 12" diam. pipe the guy at the Alaskan Pipeline Drilling Company office gave me. It's 12" X about 3' and holds 14-15 gallons. I've got a box mounted on the end that holds a switch and 25' extension cord to power up a water heater element. It works like a charm!

Maybe some day I can come out that way and get Maggie and Dorothy to give me some lessons!

I'm really interested in breaking down the steel on your big anvil and the modified RR track finishing anvil. I'm not following the chalk line idea just yet (I'm kinda' slow sometimes ;) )

Keep those pics coming Jimmy... they are an inspiration!

-Nick-
 
Sounds like Mrs. Fikes is just an online ramble or two with Mr. Goo from being a full-fledged bladesmith (though I personally think fledging is way overrated...). Her knife in Keith's avatar is awesome.

Jimmy,

Does your wife put edges on her knives like you do (the grind, not the sharpness that is)?
 
Hi, Thom

Maggie's knives are either convex or flat ground at this point. She's learning to forge and grind the 'chisel ground' blades, but they present more problems than is at first obvious... not only in the forging, but in the heat treating as well. The Bowie in Keith's avatar is flat gound with an edge rolled in. That's one of the knives I'm trying to borrow back from the guy who bought it... along with one small knife Maggie made... so that I can post pics of them.

Jimmy
 
Thanks, Jimmy!

I'm still too new to knives to fully appreciate chisel-cut blades, but maybe that'll change in a few days/years/decades. How they cut through hardened bamboo and other sundries impresses the heck out of me (so if the deacon asks why I've been skipping services, I can tell him I looking at Cloudcutter pictures on Don Fogg's website and had no more heck left for the week). Of course you said your wife's knives do that same type of fun and aren't chiseliscious, so I'm still confused.

Keith,

Thanks for posting those great pics.
 
Hi, Thom

Cloudcutter, an updated version of an old design of mine that I called a jungle honey, was convex ground. The blade was gently rounded from spine to edge. Don and I just finished another honey that we named 'Dragonfly'. It's flat gound, but cuts just as well as the convex grind. For me, the chisel grind (blades are flat on one side, beveled on the other) cuts just like a flat ground or convex ground blade. Blade geometry is a subtle thing and can be applied with success to all three grinds equally. I do a lot of convex grinds because I think it's neat to have a knife that looks totally different on opposite sides. But... then again... I'm pretty weird. ;)

Bi-lateral symmetry is not the be-all and end all :p

Hoochieman Fikes
 
Jimmy - you should nag Don to do his usual magic on a Dragonfly pic and then post it. Guys, I've seen it, and it's lovely. ;) ;)
 
Hey, Joss

I've been nagging the so-n-so to email *me* some pics of Dragonfly and he hasn't even done that... so apparently nagging does no good. As soon as Don's back from Atlanta I'll baste his ornery old hide with a stick until he posts some shots.

Will try to get a reply off to your email this evening... but for now I need to flog my lazy self out to the shop and get at least *some* work done. Otherwise Maggie's gonna get cranky on me.

Update: Hizzoner Don's hard drive has crashed. He was looking mighty glum about it when he arrived this morning for one of our thrice weekly workouts with the weights. No idea when it will be back up, but he thinks maybe as long as a week. So... no pics of Dragonfly for a while, Joss :(

But you've seen it anyway... so you don't need no blasted pics :)

Cheers!

Jimmy
 
Great thread, nice shots too, inspired work no doubt! :)

I'm sure that knife will cut severely, definitely need to see a final
shot of the finished knife.

Great to see you up and about OleyFermo!

G2
 
Hi, Gary :)

If plans don't go astray, the fellow who owns this particular knife of Maggie's has promised to stop by my home sometime this weekend so that I can get some photos of the Bowie and one small utility knife that he also has that Maggie forged. I know the guy'll demand tit for tat so that I'll wind up having to sharpen both knives. And as you well know, I can't put an edge on that you could cut your finger with.

Glad to be up and about again, thanks. It's hard to keep a mean, dull-witted, ornery old geezer down. ;)

Maggie's not very proficient at cutting as of yet, but I may just get her to do some hacking and whacking for pictures, if she'll agree. I may cut things better, but she's lots easier on the old eyeballs :eek:

Hope all's well with you and yours, G2!

Jimmy's evil twin, Oley
 
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