Archive for the Uncategorized Category

A Brut de Forge Dagger from 2016

Posted in Blacksmithing, bladesmithing, brutdeforge, EDC, knifemaking, Leather working, metalwork, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2016 by Jim

I met Joe Keeslar  this year at the ICCE knife show this year and I wanted to make a dagger in his style. Below are some photos of the process.

 

Here it the initial forging. I started with 1.5″ x 1/4″ 1084 steel:

hotdagger

Here is the forging complete:

finishedforgingdagger

Profiled and finish ground:

finishgrounddagger

Then a mystery wood handle (rosewood or ironwood, not sure – it was a gift):

finisheddagger

A handle detail showing the sterling silver and copper pins:

daggerhandle

I etched my logo:

daggerwithsmalllogo

I also made the sheath:

rattlesnakesheathcloseup

And here is the entire package:

daggerinsheath

This was a really fun build – it pushed my abilities in both blade and sheath and I am happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for looking – keep making,

Jim

4 Comments »

Blacksmithing, knifemaking, and knife filework

Posted in Blacksmithing, Forging, Gear Making, Hammers, knifemaking, metalwork, Tool Making, Uncategorized on August 30, 2010 by Jim

It was a busy weekend.

I spent a lot of the weekend painting the house but somehow still managed to sneak in forging a new knife. I have made several stock reduction (grind away everything but a knife) knives. I wanted to try making one mostly in the forge.

This is the knife sitting on a piece of the spring that it was made of. In this picture, the knife is shaped but not yet hardened and tempered.

Here is the knife completed. I hardened and tempered it then blued the entire thing with gun blue. I wanted it to keep that blackish look it has right out of the quenching oil.

It’s not a fun project if it doesn’t require making a new tool…

I wanted the knife to look like the steel had been lying on an abandoned barn floor in Montana for 50 years. Unfortunately, the blank my friend roughed out from the spring was smooth and straight. A few minutes with a fifty cent garage sale hammer and a welder came up with this texturing hammer:

Here is a detail of the ‘rustic’ area of the knife…

Here is a closeup of the file work on the spine. I tried to stay pretty simple in accordance with the rustic style of the knife:

Knife Filework on spine

This was a great project and I learned a ton. My blacksmith friend is teaching me more bit by bit. I am trying hard to soak it all in.

I hope you had a great weekend.

Go make something,

Jim

8 Comments »

A flood and a catfish – what a combination

Posted in Carving, Toy Making, Uncategorized, Woodworking on May 21, 2010 by Jim

Wow, the last two days have been about water. Squirrels in my yard decided that my gutter downspouts were lovely walnut dispensers. They brought walnuts from the other side of the house to stack in my gutters. It was like a giant Pez dispenser for squirrels.

Without gutters to give the rain something funner to do, it all ran into my shop. I have been moving water from one side of the shop to the drain on other side since yesterday.

On a happier note, I got to play with the new draw-knives that my dad made me (see post just before this one). They flew through this poplar like butter. I am finding that I can rough out a carving like this faster and more happily with a spokeshave, hand plane, and a draw knife than with power tools.

Hand Carved Wooden Catfish Toy with a crown

This little catfish survived the flood. I was laughing a lot of the time I was carving him. I have been making up epic tales of his exploits in my head. (Maybe I was breathing too many paint fumes in the shop…)

If you need King Catfish to swim in your pond, or to recite to you his heroic exploits,  he will be available on my Etsy shop here.

Leave a comment »