Andersen Forge has finally moved.

It has been a really, really long haul.
But, I have finally moved my house and shop 650 miles north to northern Minnesota. (I heard wolves howling across the river two nights ago!)
After weeks of pulling things out of crates and tubs, basically re-building my shop from scratch, from building walls, running electricity, gas lines, painting, etc., today I forged my first knife since leaving Illinois.
I forged this Brut de Forge from a damascus billet I had made in Illinois to make my last knife there before moving.
I will appropriately name this knife the "Illi-sota Hunter" and give it a little special treatment.
I look forward to good things coming from Andersen Forge in the near future.

Me in the new forging area:
(You can see a little of the finish room in the back ground.)





Beating on some hot steel:



The "Illi-sota-Hunter"

 

A peak inside the finish room, which is still a work in progress:

Not much exciting here - I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

 

So, here is the current condition of the "Illia-sota Hunter"



I wanted it to be a little different than the normal Brut de Forge.
So, I have often felt the need for a little better fit of the scale that I normally get. Some folks may not realize that with the forged-in finger guard, it's impossible to lay the knife flat on a platen or sanding surface to get the handle sides flat.
So - I milled mine in with a precise forward "stop" to the scales:



Now, for the scales I used a piece of stabilized curly walnut from Northern California that I got from a new friend who IS! the guy who cut down the humongous walnut tree known as the "Cujo tree", as it was the tree in the front yard in the Stephen King movie "Cujo".
This guy and his sons are tree specialist in Northern California and I've been able to get some really, really fantastically figured materials from them in the last few months.
So, I just wanted something a little special for this knife.
Here I have cut the block in 1/2 an am milling the mating sides:



Then, over to the small mill to mill the leading edge of the scales:



When done this way, they line up perfectly so the figure matches across the spine of the knife.



That's all for now.
The knife gets hot-blued this morning, final fit up (and I might mention the scales have three internal alignment roll pins. The spine has been mirror polished for the hot-bluing and I need it to go back in the same place for final fit up, which will include my "bulls-eye" pins inspired by Lin Rhea.
I'll get pics up tomorrow - I hope.
Thanks.

 

Paul, that's the spare. The other one is in the boat - this one is for the cedar canoe I'm building this winter!

 

This help, Matt?
30 X 40 with an addition coming in the Spring.