Great weekend start

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My son had some surgery,so I told him I would keep the kids this weekend. My grandson,Zephen, is 11,and loves to go through my knife cabinets.We were at a friends place for lunch and Zeph spotted a Loveless knife and admired it.I told him about Loveless, and told him he and I could make a knife like it in my smithy.When we were back at home he mentioned it again.I opened Lloyd Hardings files (Thanks Lloyd) and we picked out a drop point hunter he liked.We imported it into a paint program,stretched it in and out until it fit his hand (print on heavy paper and cut out for a trial fit).Glued the print out on a sheet of 1075/15N20 damascus and went to work.30 minutes later we had a profiled and beveled knife blank.Zeph picked out some select buckeye burl from the wood cabinets and pre-shaped the scales.Sat him down and gave him a short course in metallurgy concerning hardening.Then we stuck a bar of 1075 in the forge and normalized it.Had him bend it in a U in the vise.Re-heated it to critical,soaked at 1650 for 3 minutes,and quenched in water.Put it in the vise and he barely touched it and it broke ( you should have seen his eyes!)re-normalized it and it bent again.Now that he understood the transformation from Austentite to Martensite,and saw the difference between Martensite and pearlite,he was ready to harden the blade.Heat,soak,quench in fast quench oil,file skated (Big smile).Its in the temper oven now,and he knows why it is there.
Tomorrow will bring re-grinding,smoothing,polishing,etching,and niter bluing. Might get the scales on by bed time. Next weekend starts Leather Working 101.By the time he's done we will have about $75 in a knife worth $400.He will have learned a lot ,an have a good start to his collection.And ,hopefully,a new bladesmith will be born.
Will post a picture of Zeph and his knife when it is done.

 

[Dan Gray]

Right on Stacy
I wished more at that age would see this stuff,
once they get (not much) older they seem to have things directing them around and they're ears seem close up too..

 

[canranger]

Very cool he is a lucky young man and you must be proud with good reason..

Abe

 

[ddavelarsen]

Stacy that is really cool! Zeph is lucky to have a grandfather that will take time with him to show him how to make a knife and even cooler, demonsrate the part of knifemaking that makes it a knife. My hat's off you you man, thanks. And great support vibes going to to Zeph!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Thanks,guys.we are heading out to the shop to start sanding the blade now.
Stacy

 

[Ivan Campos]

Your grandson is really lucky. Starting at this early age and having a good teacher will be a great advantage to him.
We are waiting for the pics!