Newbie collaboration knife?

Apologies folks...I've been lying low...Forced OT at work, HOT summer heat, and then I've been in FL for a week as my Mom went into the hospital on Monday and has been in ICU since. She made some giant leaps forward today, but I'll still be here for a bit.

-d
 
Hey, no problem. I was just ribbing you a little. Sorry to hear about your mom, best wishes for a quick recovery...
 
deker said:
Apologies folks...I've been lying low...Forced OT at work, HOT summer heat, and then I've been in FL for a week as my Mom went into the hospital on Monday and has been in ICU since. She made some giant leaps forward today, but I'll still be here for a bit.

-d
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I'll throw a prayer your way.

Ickie
 
FYI, Mom much better today. In a regular hospital wards and giving the nurses grief...I'm hanging out here until her next stop/recovery plan is established, then it's back home to try to catch up on everything I've been missing....

-d
 
I just finalized my schedule yesterday! :) I'm headed to visit J. Neilson this weekend and will be using his press to do the heavy forging on this billet (the starting billet is taller than my hammer can do...oops). So, I anticipate having this ready to go the weekend after my trip (I'm going to finish the work on it at my shop, just welding and drawing at J.'s place).

I will need to know the dimensions required by our forgers so I can finish this up properly though. I figured on 1 1/4"x1 1/4"x4 1/2" or so for the 'hawk, but I need to know what sizes we need for the knives.

-d
 
Scott......send me the task list.....I forgot what I am supposed to do...lol.
 
deker said:
I just finalized my schedule yesterday! :) I'm headed to visit J. Neilson this weekend and will be using his press to do the heavy forging on this billet (the starting billet is taller than my hammer can do...oops). So, I anticipate having this ready to go the weekend after my trip (I'm going to finish the work on it at my shop, just welding and drawing at J.'s place).

I will need to know the dimensions required by our forgers so I can finish this up properly though. I figured on 1 1/4"x1 1/4"x4 1/2" or so for the 'hawk, but I need to know what sizes we need for the knives.

-d
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Deker,
I think it's best that you refine the bars for the hunter and the camp bowie to some sort of flat bar, to keep the pattern on each as similar as possible. The hunter is going to be 5-1/2" of blade length back to the guard, while the camp bowie is 10-7/8" back to the guard. It appears that the width of the final blades is being left up to the forgers, but that has to be taken into account. I personally like thinner blades. Since I'm the one forging the hunter, I'm thinking I need a starting bar that is 1/4" thick x 1-1/4" wide x about 7-1/2" long.

I'm also thinking that a 1/4" thick x 1-1/4" wide x 13" bar for Joe will suffice, but let's leave the finally decision for that up to Joe.

Joe Mandt,
It's best that you help Deker with the dimensions that you'll need for your starting bar. I made the suggestion above, as a starting point, so that you and I are starting with similar bars, without having to draw them out much. Drawing them out differently will stretch the pattern differently. However, the final decision on the starting bar dimensions is yours.

Also, please call me, so that we can discuss our two individual forging styles. I want to try and keep the patterns as similar as possible. For instance, some people forge the clip in, while others grind it in. Forging it in will distort the pattern, while grinding it won't distort it. Also, how we forge the blade tips should be done similarly, so that the distortion of the pattern at the tip of the blade is similar. You can reach me anytime at (330) 284-3103. I live on the west coast, so it's PST. Keep that in mind when you decide when to call me. I'm available during the daytime and evening at that number.

Ickie
 
Just got back from the Neilson's place. The newbie billet was the first into the forge yesterday and we got it welded, drawn, twisted (at 1 1/2" square!), and cleaned up. The billet is about a 1 1/4" octagon right now for the piece for the 'hawk. J. says that if we don't do the 'hawk octagonal that we're just a bunch of wussies. :)

We also got 4 mosaic billets done and parts of those will be going into a collaboration knife that J. and I will be working on.

I'll be posting some pictures of the newbie billet's progress (not too many, we were in the shop by ourselves and were too busy working to get many pictures). I'll also get some pics of the billet as it stands right now. It's a darned impressive piece of steel.

More tomorrow, I'm bushed.

-d
 
Can't wait to see it. So did you do a straight twist or did you start with something exotic like crushed W's?
 
deker said:
Just got back from the Neilson's place. The newbie billet was the first into the forge yesterday and we got it welded, drawn, twisted (at 1 1/2" square!), and cleaned up. The billet is about a 1 1/4" octagon right now for the piece for the 'hawk. J. says that if we don't do the 'hawk octagonal that we're just a bunch of wussies. :)

We also got 4 mosaic billets done and parts of those will be going into a collaboration knife that J. and I will be working on.

I'll be posting some pictures of the newbie billet's progress (not too many, we were in the shop by ourselves and were too busy working to get many pictures). I'll also get some pics of the billet as it stands right now. It's a darned impressive piece of steel.

More tomorrow, I'm bushed.

-d
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You da man! I can't wait to see pictures either.

Ickie
 
jdm61 said:
Can't wait to see it. So did you do a straight twist or did you start with something exotic like crushed W's?
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Just a low layer count lazy straight twist. Twisting a 1 1/2" bar is HARD WORK. With a large pipe wrench (18" long or so) with an extra handle welded on, it took both of us pushing as hard as we could manage to get it to twist. It got a total of 3 or 4 twists over 3 or 4 heats. The 'hawk section in the middle of the billet got this twist and then was forged down to an octagon. I'll be cutting the 'hawk out of the center twisted section of the bar and then forging the ends down and re-twisting them for the knife billets. As it stands right now, the billet is 1 1/4" octagon about 17" long and weighs 8lbs.

So, now I need to know how long a piece is needed for the 'hawk so I can get it cut (also no small task since I don't have a good bandsaw) and then start working on the knife billets.

Pictures will come a little later today once I get some running around town done.

-d
 
Here you go folks, the pictures as promised.

In the beginning, there were billets....the original size of the billet for this project was 1 1/2"x6"x3 1/2". I forgot to count how many layers. I'll count it up in the end of the billet once I etch a piece. :)

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The heat, weld, smash bit was taking our attention, so the next pic is after the twisting. I put a J. in this picture for scale...

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and the beast that helped do all the hard work....

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Yours truly squashing some steel...

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some re-heating before final shaping...

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and here J. runs the last heat for me to get things flat and straight. (hey, he knows his shop better than I do! :) )

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final product cooling on the anvil...

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The project is officially off and running! I'd like to thank J. and Tess Neilson for welcoming me into their home and shop yet again. You guys are fantastic and you have no idea how much I appreciate everything you've done to help me.

Now, somebody tell me how long a piece is needed for the 'hawk so I can get the rest of the work done and start shipping steel!

-d
 
Crap, nice job! Now that's some serious steel! I'm all psyched now!!!!
 
Good Lord!!!! Are we forging knives and a hawk or a couple of truck axles?:D If you or Scott will give m the final dimensions of the bowie blade and haow long you want the tang to be, Ican figure out how big the billet should be and then ad a bitfor safety. Did you say that you were going to draw the big bar out a bit and twist it some more for the knife billets? Also, since the pattern on the hawk billet is going to get stretched around a bit from forging itout, perhpas we should talk about how we want to draw out the knife billets and how we want to forge them in order to keep th patterns fairly similar.
 
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