Moran Hammer-In...Day 2

Daniel Koster

Daniel Koster

www.kosterknives.com
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
20,978
What a day!

Guys - I forged my first knives today. Great help from Larry Harley and the gang. They weren't that pretty, but at least they were straight and tapered. :D

...the knives, that is...:eek: :eek: :D :D


Anyway, lots of classes and demonstrations followed by a tour of Bill Moran's shop. The guy just doesn't know how to quit...he's a pretty amazing man.


After dinner, we had a cutting competition which was won by Charlie Snale, out of Illinois. He had a sweet lil' upswept bowie that barely whispered when it cut through the rope. You had to be there I guess...He managed to out-do even Fitch and Bauer. Prize = $100 ABS medallion.

Well, tomorrow looks to be a pretty good show, so gotta get to bed and get some rest...:cool:

Dan
 
Was there today and did not see you Dan
I spoke with Rob Frink and Terry Primos
also spoke with Larry Harley,watched Mr fisk grind a forged
hawk head out,This was very interesting.All in All a good
trip:)
 
Wow, Nathan. Can't imagine how you missed the big guy in the yellow T-shirt in the middle of the pavillion whacking on a 2x4 with a full table of khukuris...:eek:

;)


twas a fun time for sure.

I'm too tired to post a "Day 3" thread and since no one else seems to reply to them, I'll let it go...:rolleyes:

I forged another knife, by the way...this time a longer one. I promise to post pics once the all are done.

I swear I can still smell coal in my nose...:eek:

Dan
 
Hey I want to know how it was. Sounds like a fun and informative trip. Get some rest and post.
 
yah, what Bruce and Rick said. :D i am interested in hearing about them. Did Larry Harley bring any of his hog huntin knves? go any pics of the days?
 
I took my camera with me on Friday but it spent almost the entire time hung on one of the tent poles...:rolleyes:

I was too busy hammerin away...


I gotta take a poke at Larry real quick while I can...

When I started hammerin on my first bar he stopped me and told me I was doing it all wrong. He put the bar at his side, grabbed the hammer and said "When you swing the hammer, aim right for your d!ck". It was good advice and helped me control the fishmouth-ing at the end of the bar. But I couldn't stop laughing when a lady needed help hammering a bar and Larry was suddenly at a loss for words...:D

The other thing was the constant "you're going to hell..."

I think he just liked saying it...:D

If you're not familiar with Larry, he says that knifemakers go to hell for 2 reasons: 1 - hammering cold steel, and 2 - not charging enough.

I ran my first forged knives past at least a dozen other makers to see if anybody would tell me that they were actually crap...

Dang bunch of nice fellas...but not an honest one amongst the bunch...:D :eek:

Seriously though, I learned a lot from Larry and Tom Eden. Things I know I'll never forget. ;)

Dan
 
Thanks for the information on the hammer in. I was wanting to go but couldn't at this time. I am glad to see Charlie take one, he has come close several times and is always a competitor. He has some quick hands and sharp knives.
Bill Moran did the silver wire inlay at the first Hammer-In that I went to in Arkansas. The spring of 97'. :) A wonderful man that is always willing to help a stranger.
 
Pendentive,

That lady Larry was helping to forge was me. I managed to get one knife completely forged out (with alot of help from Joe Szilaski, Larry Harley, and Jay Hendrickson).

I also got another blade partially forged. The second blade was 500 times better than the first one (in a large part because of Larry Harley)

I had a blast! I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance.


Pam
 
Thanks for the info on the big event, folks. Dan, I bet they just have you use a 20 lb. hammer next time, big guy! You even look like a blacksmith,I think.I gotta know,'smiths are known to be tough. Do you shave, or just singe the your whiskers off every day or two?
 
I know it was you, Pam...;) Just didn't want to drag your name into it w/o permission... :D


John - no burnt whiskers this time around, but managed to burn a whole bunch of spots on my hands and arms...ouch!

The worst beard accident I ever had was getting the darn thing stuck in a high speed fan...yikes! :eek:

Oh, and my 1 yr. old who pulls on it with authority...:eek:
 
Dan
After you said what kind of knives you had out,I remember passing behind you when we were getting ready to go,You are tall.I am short and stocky.Everyone had jackets on when I was there I did not see anyone with a yellow T shirt on.I spoke with Terry Primos
and Rob Frink most of the time I was there,I was at kovals table
and the Bader table I bought some nice looing Mosiac pins:D
 
I finally picked up a KMG from Rob - great guy. I'll get it set up next week and let her rip - see what kinda damage I can do...:D

Shame we couldn't hook up. I sure wish they had more hammer-ins in the area. It was tough getting away for this one - and I was only 30 minutes down the road!

Dan
 
Dan, I'm jealous!!!

I REALLY wanted to go, but just couldn't swing it.

I'm glad you had a great time, thanks for posting the review!!!

Nick
 
Dan...

I have read with much interest what you have been up to,,,However I have never been to an event that you write of, so I dont even know what to ask or say,,,But please keep writeing when you can so that I am able to learn what such events are like ...
 
That hammer-in was really a great time. The cutting comp. was a blast. I didn't get very many pics, but here is one of Bill Moran and a walking stick he put in the auction.....sold for $1100.00!!!
Mace

P.S. That's Joe Keesler to the right.
eba00378100f00000001.jpg
 
Hey everybody. Had a wonderful time at the hammer in and Learned a great deal.
Dan I sat at the back row of the auction and couldn't help but notice this teen age boy with his shiny new kukri, wish you could have seen him showing it to his mom...

As I said, picked up a lot of cool tips and techniques, and had a painful lesson in the importance of TESTING! I had experimented on a new hardining technique for my competition bowie, and was rushed to get it done in time for the hammer in. Result: No testing what so ever. Secondary result: Bombing out of the cutting competition in the second event when my blade (that I worked so hard on) bent a bit during the 2x4 chop. It really sucked watching everybody else try the other events and not being able to participate.

The worst part however, was the show the next day when I had to say no to not one, not two, but three people who wanted to buy the knife. I had bent the blade back to perfectly straight, and touched up the edge, and it looked great. I just couldn't sell it knowing that it was not up to spec.
The up side is now I have an excuse to finally keep one of my knives for me! The down side is that sale would have been half a milling machine......

Anyway, I'll post a pic when after I read Dan's tutorial and get a good pic.

Mace, those Scagle type blades rock. I like your interpretations more than many of the well known makers that I have seen. Keep up the good work, and congradulations on passing your JS test. I think my next project will be inspired by the one you sold.

Ed
 
After hearing what you have to say about the event, I wish I was there myself!

Anyway, glad to know you had a great time, Dan. :)
 
for a lil' while there I was starting to wonder if I was the only forumite that had attended...sheesh...:eek: :D

Glad to see a few more faces pop in.

That young man went back and forth, back and forth trying to decide which was best and his mom's eyes only got bigger and bigger each time...:D

Then I offered him a chance to whack a 2x4 with my 17" khukuri...:eek:

She nearly lost it!


Yes, it was a great time. On the drive home on Friday after hammering the good part of a day, I thought my hands were going to be permanently stuck in the "grabbing steel" position...:D

Saturday wasn't so bad, so I must've learned something...;)



They gave Mace a bad time about his handle being 3/8" too long for the cutting competition - made him grind it down on the demo Bader and then drill a new lanyard hole..! :eek:


Burt Gaston said we should all strive to do the best we can at the grinder so we can all become Master-Baders...:rolleyes:


Daqotah - a Hammer-In is where a bunch of guys get together and pound steel, usually over a weekend. It's also an opportunity for new guys to get a jumpstart and for old guys to make fun and laugh at the new guys screwing everything up...:) Sometimes they have competitions, shows, exhibitions...sometimes not.



The power hammers that Bill Moran has in his shop are pretty cool. Same things goes for 2 "portables" they brought in - the portable coal forge and the portable power hammer that Neely(?) used to make his damascus (for the workshop).



Did anybody get a chance to play with Charlie's knife? It was amazing. Usually, a successful hanging rope cut makes a "shhhwip..." sound. When I used Charlie's knife, it was more like "swhhhhh...." - you could barely hear it cut the rope. Fisk told me he thought it wouldn't do well, but being a "convex edge salesman" myself, I knew that would be it's strong point. ;)

It was nearly fully convex ground and glided through the air. The handle must've been made to suit Charlie's hand because it was smallish in mine. But that didn't seem to matter too much.

He did his 2x4 cut in 10 seconds. At least half of the others did not finish before the 20 second time limit. Reason: the wood was treated pine and harder and knottier than usual - slowed down the cutting time.



Re: the contest. Fisk pulled a bone on this one...*groan*
Seriously, he went out and bought the kind of bones you give to your dog and used them for the competition. You only had one chance and had to go all the way through. Only one person even got close. The trick (revealed later) was to hit it at a 45 degree angle - most tried to overhead chop it at 90.



I'll try to post more later as I remember stuff...
 
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