From "The Ol' Home Place"....

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
5,667
I had a customer who inherited the Old family farm along the Mississippi river between Illinois and Missouri.
The family decided to tear down the old farm buildings and divide the place up into rentable camp sites.
During the destruction, they unearthed a few ancient files and an almost-rusted-away splitting wedge.
They cut up some of the barn timbers, which I went through to get enough of a piece of old oak to send off and get stabilized.
The file used here was an old "Arcade" with a logo like a horse shoe.
I didn't etch the blade but the hamon in that file blade is phenominal. I just thought it would clash with the file teeth.
Now maybe I can get busy with the Blade Show!
clubb4-1.jpg


clubb5-1.jpg
 
Really really cool. I like your work in general, I like file knives, and I like a knife with a story behind it. That's a homerun, man.
 
Very nice Karl :thumbup:

In my spare time I love to go metal detecting. I have a literal pile of old farm implements, axes, adz, picks, files, the list goes on and on ............
Your use of the word "unearthed" is profound. I'm amazed at how Mother Earth can swallow things up like she does.

Again, GREAT looking knife !!! I can honestly say I've not seen a single knife you've made that wasn't IMHO, top shelf :thumbup: :thumbup:




:cool:
 
Karl, You are rapidly turning into a Master Scrounge. Your ability to find something good in a piece of shit is top notch! Great looking knife!
 
that's a great story/legacy knife Karl. I bet the owner couldn't be happier. It will be around for generations. Nice.
 
wow, that looks awesome, i have heard of people makign knives out of files, but never really seen one. Its very interesting, is it a fairly simple process to get the file ready for blade making? i know that files are very very hard, and it seems like they wouldnt take well to grinding and shaping in their "natural" file form.
 
supasuprab0b said:
wow, that looks awesome, i have heard of people makign knives out of files, but never really seen one. Its very interesting, is it a fairly simple process to get the file ready for blade making? i know that files are very very hard, and it seems like they wouldnt take well to grinding and shaping in their "natural" file form.
Click to expand...

Once you get it up to around 2000 degrees and start banging on it with a hammer, it starts to "submit" to your will.
Honestly, when they're hot like that they turn to buttter.
 
ahhh, so you have to heat em up? is that so you can kill the temper that was put on the file to harden it?
 
supasuprab0b said:
ahhh, so you have to heat em up? is that so you can kill the temper that was put on the file to harden it?
Click to expand...

Look at the file in the top photograph.
Then look at the knife.
The knife looked just like the file when I started the forging process and I created the shape of that knife by forging the file TO that shape.
There was no grinding done yet at this point.
The cutting edge being pulled down, thinning the blade taper and creating the point, the guard shoulders created and the tang drawn out were all done with hammers.
This can only be done when the steel is hot enough to move with a hammer.
 
Very good looking design. I really like your handle style, with that nice deep finger notch by the guard. Pretty swell photography, too.
 
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