New Whittler in Progress

This is something I did for recreation... a fast semi-integral whittling knife;-). The blade is forged to shape almost 100%, the integral´s shoulders have seen no filing whatsoever but have been set with a nail device. It is made from scrap spring steel from the junkyard and stag antler from a flea market. 65x3mm, selective temper.

What I did while Nick was busy;-) and the long way home

 The other day Nick had called if I´d come to go smithing with him;-). Turns out there was a birthday party scheduled that Volker forgot to mention, so surprise, surprise for him... but he put up to the task, for I was being late. He has an altogether different style of working with the kids, but that´s the point of it all- we all have. But in all those years we are working for the smithy, I have just received one negative feedback. Some four thousand customers, however, came and come back for more. The one negative feedback was quickly mended even so, and that customer now is one of our sincerest and oldest friends now. This feels very good, and Nick, working for us for, wait, is that two years now? puts up to the task in a very hearty and friendly way. Of course, there´s always room for improvement when the smithing is concerned, but that is so for anyone of us.

 He addressed the parents politely, but also with a firm stand, and treated the kids with friendliness and respect, but also a strong position. Great!

 I tend to criticize Volker a lot, I must admit, but I must say, he´s  had a hard life and has one still. At 67 years old, he works up to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, no weekend, for a ridiculous salary. Some of it is all his fault, but even then you have to admire him for his endurance and the friendly manner he has for everyone. He simply loves the kids. He may be absolutely crap for a blacksmith, but he does a great job with the kids. I have rarely seen a kid that did not leave with a sparkle in his or her eyes. I have rarely seen a kid not returning to the smithy. Not necessarily because of the blacksmithing, but because of Volker. He is subject to the city marketing of Witten, and recently opened his mouth and spoke his word that he was not to be treated little better than a slave. Of course, there´s now a right riot going on, with intrigues and a frenzy to modernising the Bethaus smithy and putting a scheme onto it that will not fit. I am currently searching for an alternative location just in case, for I learned this lesson far too well. And of course I will want to provide for my friends also, and this includes Volker.

 Was it a lazy day for me, then? I did four projects with the kids and the parents alike and some tutoring on making Damascus, and that was all of it. Then I retired myself to the murky boundaries of the shop;-) and did some filing and fitting and filing and fitting some more... and this is what came out:

 Viking age friction folder. Stag, brass rivet, and Zwissler seven-bar Damascus steel from tank cannon and tank bearing steel.

 Crude, of course, but that´s how it goes when you try to forge as much in shape as you can...

 I am a bit proud of the swan´s neck. The lever is a bit longer resulting in a very secure hold when opened, and I offset the slot a tiny bit to aid in keeping it in when closed.

 The blade´s spine is going from 3 - 1 mm resulting in a slicer. The blade is selectively tempered with the quench line including the rivet hole to add durability. It has a convex bevel, and the blade is 80 mm long.

 I admit I just forsake my principles with this Kopis knife after the Novgorod find. The handle is reindeer antler like the original. But, rummaging in my attic, I had come across this meander design bronze bolster. Now those meandrous design features are not authentical, neither to the Novgorod, Kiev or Birka finds. The culprit is, I am making this just for myself, and I just liked it. So I put it on.

 The file steel and crucible steel show a beautifully rustic pattern and, having done a superficial test already, I can say they can take a beating. I guess I will do a video test about it soon.

 The spine´s 4 mm thick, the bevels a mild convex one. The blade is exactly 120mm long, making it a legal carry.

 I did five projects that day...

Top to bottom: A mysterious little something for the lovely magic troll, may her beard grow ever longer;-D, the aforementioned Kopis knife, a blade from ancient spring steel with a stag antler handle, the aforementioned friction folder, and another Rus replica with deliciously smelling Corse juniper wood (smells like exotic pepper!) and reindeer antler (not so deliciously smelling...) for a handle, Damascus blade from 1.2842 and crucible steel I found in the woods, 100x4mm.

It was simply great to have some time for projects like these... and I need this from time to time.

After work we had some delicious meatballs and potato salad and a sip of beer with Volker, Sylvia and Uwe. All too soon time had passed chatting and I was on my way home.

My heart was filled with warmth and content, as I rode home through the night. But as it turns out, the story is not yet at an end:

When I passed the Nachtigall mine, my rear tire went flat. As I opened my rucksack, I realized I must have had lost my spare tube and repair kit. And my rucksack, loaded with some 50 kg of tools and steel and knifemaking projects, tore. So, out in the cold, I took out my sewing kit and fixed the bloody thing, muttering curses and insults to myself until I realized this was not taking me anywhere. So, I took the pack, strapped my helmet to it, and started to walk. It was a journey of 13 km through the dark, pushing a bike with a flat tire and a pack that weighed me down with every step. My working shoes chafed me raw, until I got enough of that and walked the last 5 km barefooted. Even so, I had developed some blisters soon that made a funny popping sound, exploding from time to time;-), weird;-). Knowing that to cry would not get me anywhere, I took out the Balistol from my pack to disinfect them and went on my not-so-merry way.

And guess what? I would not have thought this during the toiling along, but I arrived home two hours later. I was still breathing. The blisters subsided in one day. I opened a bottle of black beer, called my love, had a chat and a good night´s sleep. Message: Nothing is as bad as it seems.

Those were the days... an old knife rediscovered

 There is an advantage to being a chaotical character... you can always rediscover things you thought were long lost.;-) I recently found this knife in my attic-turned home and it made me a bit melancholic. It is one of the knives I forged in the garden of my old home with a dirt forge, with charcoal and an old vacuum cleaner for a bellows in, wait, is that 2002?. Originally the blade was a lot longer. It was forged from file steel, and it was intended as a seax. There also was a swan´s neck lanyard loop at the end of the handle. It´s a full tang blade, but the handle goes around the tang. Now I have always been a funny chap, and yeah, I know you do not throw seaxes at hardwood logs. But as it turns out, I did, and the tip broke off, for I had my heat treating not that wired in ´em days. I always used very little tempering, misjudging the need for monstrous edge retention;-), meaning, many of the file steel blades I made in these days were so hard (and brittle) they could easily cut glass. I was that naïve I was even proud of it!:-D This took the beating relatively well, for it had been quenched in a Bainite concoction after the "curicus und offen hertzig wein artzt" from the 1700s and has a monstrous spine thickness.

So, the damage was done, but it was a great knife so far out of a great steel, so I simply heated the thing all in all, with a wrapping of wet rags around the handle and took the hardness down to 59 - 60 HRC and then redid the tip with careful grinding and even put a kind of hollow grind and a fuller on it. Since the proportions were so awkward after that I hacksawed off the swan´s neck and put a butt cap on. I also carved the burned-coloured stag antler handle with some spiral ornaments and made the somewhat weird leather sheath for it.

The steel, the heat treating and the grind now work in unison to make it a most able cutter in spite of the spine thickness.

 

Whenever I am a bit doubtful about my work I remember this knife and then I realize there´s always more than one way to do things, and you can save a lot by improvising.

New En-Nep EDC with damascus

Had this piece of damascus lying around leftover from a knife I made some time ago for Drui (remember, CUTIE;-), when I used to give you complete knives? Those were ´em days...;-)), and I made this En - Nep from it some time ago and fitted a handle recently. The blade is 120 mm long and 2 mm thick. It has a selective temper that was a right challenge to do, for it warped this way, then the other and another still. I had to straighten it after quenching on a wooden block with a wooden hammer while tempering with the spine heat. I can tell you, I wished I had five hands;-)! Just a tiny bit of warping in the tip was left, and I ground this down with a water stone. It has a convex bevel, and it bites like your little sister, making it a great snack knife, yet it is way tougher than I expected, for I bend it 30° each way and it came out straight. I like it and have already a sheath in the making waiting to get tempered itself. Watch this place...

This is a knife that is certainly built at the limit of my personal ability, and I like that. It is funny that when you look at real tribal knives, they often tend to have very thin and slicey blades, even those made for hard backwoods work. The thickest spine of a tribal knife in my collection is that of a Syrian curved dagger, and this comes at 3,2 mm. A Touareg dagger I own measures just 1,8 mm, another even just 0,8 mm(!), a Turkish Zelim even comes at just 1,5 mm. Those are knives made for cutting, and this they do extremely well. And do not get me wrong, those knives certainly have seen some pounding in their lives, judging by the scars and nicks on the blade surface. And still their edges were in great working order.

The smiths that made them often have only marginal equipment. Often there´s just a hole in the ground for a forge, a plastic bag for a bellows and a lump of iron for an anvil. And yet, making knives like those that they make is a right challenge to me.

My respect to them!

New integral from steel I found in the woods

This is one of my current projects "on the bench", a semi-integral from quite an interesting piece of steel. As it seems, the steel rod I found was from an old corporation producing shears, saws and spades and gardening tools from the late 19th century up to the 1950s. I found an old receipt lying nearby, nearly unintelligibly, for 50 shears. Since I found ingots and spillings from a smelting process closely by, I assume that the bar might have been crucible steel. Spark analysis showed a carbon content of roundabout 0,8-1,2% with little othe ingredients. It forged best at roundabout 1000-1100 degrees Celsius and had a relatively small window of forging. It took a  good temper in an edge quench with conservative annealing, and it still carves iron rods;-). We will see what happens when I etch it... Also, I will make a butt cap, and there she goes...;-) Lousy pic, apologies for that. The handle is burned stag antler.

A children´s birthday party- and the birth of a shaman´s damascus knife from fire and ice and song;-)

 Volker called the other day and asked if I´d come to work on Saturday, so I saddled my steed and rode through the snowstorm to Witten.

 When I arrived, the snowfall subsided, and we could light up the forge.

 Soon the kids arrived, some really great children celebrating! It shows in the kids if the parents are not half-mad;-). We certainly had fun working with them, even if it was cold. here Volker greets the kids and explains what we will be about.

 Then it was party on... even if licce Kevin does not look the part, he enjoyed himself making his first own knife. We made the knives from mild steel. I am not quite comfortable about that, mind you...;-) but I work-hardened the edge some by coldforging. So, the knives were a bit more useful than being utter crap, and the kids used them even for whittling some sticks that were left over from fire building.

 ...

 Since it was that cold, we lit up another fire for warmth. Cozy, huh?;-)

 Then, suddenly, the kids were all gone, and I set to work on another project of my own. I forged a spatula and inlaid a piece of 1.2842. Here you can see the first three layers of the billet. I folded it some, and got 24 layers, forged it square, did some torsion on the billet, folded it unto itself, then welded another layer of 1.2842 into the middle for cutting prowess. Did not work as well as last time, and I messed up the direction. In the meantime, it was snowing hard again, my muscles were sore and my back was aching, but a thought occured to me. It was like a song that was hard to describe, but I thought: This is the raven´s song! No clue what and why, but this is what I thought.

 A very peculiar atmosphere it was, the roaring forge, the red-hot metal, and the snowstorm blowing and howling. It was hard to work under these circumstances, but I was grateful to be able to experience something most people do not even deem possible. You do not need grand words for it. It was just snow and a forge, and Volker providing me with coffee and cake;-) (Thanks again, bro!). Now and then I paused to take a swig of water, to have a cake and coffee, to chat with Volker and to collect my thoughts and concentration, and then continued to forge the billet into a Hadseax shape, but alas, a portion of the tip had a deep dent in it, don´t know why. So I normalized the blade and ground that part away. Cheating, I know, but what should I do? Then I put a coarse grind on the blade and tempered it.

 Then I said goodbye and thankyou to Volker and rode home over snowy trails in the darkness. It was another peculiar experience: The soft powder snow, just high enough to be fun to ride in and low enough to offer plenty of traction, the glittering snowflakes in the light of my headlamp, the howling wind in the vent holes of my helmet... and, apart from the sound of some ducks and geese, and the rustling of little animals in the underbrush, utter and complete silence.

 ...

 At home, I did some finer grinding and some etching with vinegar, citric acid and salt solution... and realized I messed up the pattern... this is the "bad" side of the blade...

 ...and then I realized the other side looks like a bird´s head, a raven in fact. Can´t make heads nor tails out of that, but that´s okay with me.;-) I never said I wasn´t superstitious, did I?;-).

And YES, THAT IS A WELDING FLAW to the right*grml*ggg*, but it´s just on one side, and this blade will quite certainly see not a big deal of abuse, so I kept it as is.

 And since it has two faces anyway, I made a stag antler handle carved with a triquetta and a "valknut" on one side...

 ... and a raven head on the other.

And as it now has two raven heads, I found the val-knot only appropriate;-). I find this is a nice example of how inspiration works. You do something, and it may be even something going severely awry. And word leads you from word to word, and work leads you from work to work...;-)

Study of a historical equestrian folding knife-flea market find

 It has been quite some time since I found this knife on a local flea market. It was lying submerged under a heap of trash, and you can think I was quite enthused I found it. Not exactly to use it, although I would love to, but because it is a historical piece, dating back at least to the early 1900´s. The combination of tools hints to a use as an equestrian or even post wagoners or wagoners use. The knife has beautifully aged stag antler scales, presumeably Sambar stag on nickel silver liners with a very delicate filework. It´s a slipjoint. It incorporates a hoof scraper, a corkscrew, a leather punch / awl, a saw, a main blade, a champagne hook, an oyster or walnut opener, and awl / drill, a wood chisel / scraper, and apparently a toothpick / pincer, which is missing. All blades are made from carbon steel. A manufacturing stamp is not intelligible, and the main blade obviously had been replaced by a former lockback blade, and the pivot is made from an old nail.

 The wood drill, apparantly it has seen a bit of reworking.

 The leather punch and the pivot of the hoof scraper, plus a detail of the beautifully wrought liners.

 The corkscrew apparently was hand-filed.

 A detail of the champagne hook and the oyster / walnut opener blade and the space for pincers and toothpick.

 The hoof scraper.

 Wood chisel, main blade and saw. Note the makeshift pivot and the beautiful filework on the bolsters.

 The backside and the springs.

 More detail.

This knife is a good example of a knife that was an essential and often used tool in everyday life. It illustrates a period of time not even so long ago, when a knife was a must-have for all the little tasks everyday life had to offer, from preparing food to whittling, leather tooling and whatnot. In those times it was mandatory for any gentleman to carry a knife. Self-understanding of any man (and woman, too, at that) indicated that one had to cope with what challenge life had to offer by themselves. I speculate that this has changed. The banning and deification of knives in general might have something to do with a change of attitude. If nowadays a wheel on the wagon broke, one would stand by the roadside and claim legal compensation from the manufacturer and cry so long until someone would help.;-) In those times one had to help oneself, and the more versatile and practical the tools were, the better. And even those tools were repaired with what was at hand. This knife tells the story. It had certainly not been repaired by the manufacturer, something you certainly would not see in modern times. It had been lovingly repaired and used to near extinction, by an individual who did not care for others patronizing him- or herself, but tried to put up to the challenge, in this case the breakdown of a beloved tool. Being able to do that, knowing some tricks to keep it going makes your life independant. And, it might be obvious, but this individual may have done many things, but one thing he / she certainly did not: Buy a new tool.

Dumb and unskilled and fearful people make better consumers, and consuming and throwing away are the main pillars on which our economy rests. It all comes down to the old question of being and having. This knife to me is a lesson, and I am right grateful for that.

A walking cane for my mother

 This is a walking cane for my mother. She´s getting older, and has some severe arthrosis in her knees, and, even though she would never admit it, she could use a kind of support. She never would use an orthopaedic cane, so I tricked her into using one by making her something she´d rather use instead.

 I put a stag antler handle on it set with a blood agate.

The wood is vine-infested alder buckthorn, and I put a stainless steel tip on it. I really like the colour of the wood.

I hope this stick will prove itself helpful for her. I owe her a lot, and since I cannot always lend an arm, I hope this can support her when she needs it. She has done it for me, too, when I was a kid, after all.

New Birka style knife with handle...

I tried something new in this knife. The blade had been lying around for some time now. It is made from crucible steel I found in the woods, and I fitted a piece of stag antler into the handle, with no glue whatsoever. Blade´s 100x3 mm with a selective temper and a quench line. Was quite difficult to fit the piece into the handle, but I managed. And mistreating the knife, I can now say it can take quite a beating!

...like...*gg*

Pimp my blade;-)-Restored an old an trusty knife

 You might be familiar with this knife, for it has served me for some ten years now. Recently the pommel, which was tagua, fell off, and I catched the opportunity to refreshen it a bit. I am relatively pleased with the outcome. I etch-burned the ornaments and made a pommel out of blackthorn with a mosaic pin.

Blade is forged from an old chisel, tempered in a linseed-oil / urine / ash concoction after the "curicus und offenhertzig weinartzt" from 1723, which led to something like a bainite temper, making for a tough and flexible yet very durable blade. I recently sharpened it for the first time! I really love this knife now.

Sheath for the new Hadseax

So, I liked the new knife quite a lot and thought I´d practice my lousy leatherworking skills a bit, and this is what came out. Got carried away with the work a bit, so no photos in progress, but I promise in the future... The sheath also holds a Karesuando firesteel which throws sparks like mad-got it from Per Laks and I love it!!!

My Hadseax- Done!

Now, this is my new Hadseax. Blade is Zwissler seven-bar damascus from tank bearing, tank cannon and stuff;-), some 95 mm long, the spine is 3,8 mm thick. The blade is edge-quenched  and tempered to only 59 degrees Rockwell. Bevel is convex. The fullers are ground freehand with a Black&Decker power file. The handle is stag antler crown from a flea market and a copper ferrule from the plumber´s shop. The sheath will be more rustic and made from just plain leather without any Gotlandic mountings.