Here's another knife

[Tuckahoe]

Just finished this one today.

Started off with about 4 1/2 inches of half inch round steel (well actually it was once a spring from a Ford F150).
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Finished hammering
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File work underway
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Filing finished, then hardened and tempered
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Then the handle
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[HikerMom58]

Impressive!!! Now show us how sharp it is... can you cut something with it?

[Another Kevin]

Lovely piece! I know that leaf springs are tough, so that will be a robust blade. Let us know how it takes to the honing - I know it can be rough to find scrap steel that will harden to hold a proper edge!

(It's good to hear from a smith with higher ambitions than shoeing horses, as necessary as that work is.)

[HikerMom58]

Lovely piece! I know that leaf springs are tough, so that will be a robust blade. Let us know how it takes to the honing - I know it can be rough to find scrap steel that will harden to hold a proper edge!

(It's good to hear from a smith with higher ambitions than shoeing horses, as necessary as that work is.)

Are you saying that it can't cut anything yet, AK? I know nothing about making a knife obviously. I'm impressed with the progress so far.

[Drybones]

Good looking blade Tuck. The high speed planer blades we used in the wood industry could only be sharpened down to where there was about 1"+ left, I'd take them and make knives, best I've ever owned, would hold an edge like knothing you can buy, took me 10 hours to hollow grind one by hand, the only knife I've owned that didn't gum up and get dull skinning a deer.

[Tuckahoe]

Lovely piece! I know that leaf springs are tough, so that will be a robust blade. Let us know how it takes to the honing - I know it can be rough to find scrap steel that will harden to hold a proper edge!

(It's good to hear from a smith with higher ambitions than shoeing horses, as necessary as that work is.)

In this case these were coil springs, but I do have some leaf springs recovered from an Austin Healy that I have been ssving for something special

Now, a bit of professional pride here, but horseshoers are farriers, not smiths. And as a smith I wouldnt know the first thing about the feet of either a horse or an ox. But then again while I can beat out a knife, I wouldn't call myself a bladesmith or a cutler either. Those guys do some amazing work.

Are you saying that it can't cut anything yet, AK? I know nothing about making a knife obviously. I'm impressed with the progress so far.

Oh trust me Hikermom, its plenty sharp, and you are going to have to take my word for it cause right now I am laying here on the couch in my underwear and I aint getting up.

[HikerMom58]

In this case these were coil springs, but I do have some leaf springs recovered from an Austin Healy that I have been ssving for something special

Now, a bit of professional pride here, but horseshoers are farriers, not smiths. And as a smith I wouldnt know the first thing about the feet of either a horse or an ox. But then again while I can beat out a knife, I wouldn't call myself a bladesmith or a cutler either. Those guys do some amazing work.



Oh trust me Hikermom, its plenty sharp, and you are going to have to take my word for it cause right now I am laying here on the couch in my underwear and I aint getting up.

Ah.. ha ha, Tuck...I believe you buddy, just stay right there on the couch in ur underwear..funny dude! Good work as always! :>)

[tarditi]

Very nice work - I prefer a full tang and scales for the handle, but I am very hard on my knives. This is a great example of craftsmanship!

[Mobius]

Nice work! How does the handle attach to the tang? (I'm a wood guy, not a metal guy.)

[Tuckahoe]

The tang is just a rat tail, and in the wood for the handle I drill a hole a little smaller than the tang. Square the hole up with a hot piece of metal. Raise up a couple burrs on the tang and then drive the handle onto the tang.

[Another Kevin]

Now, a bit of professional pride here, but horseshoers are farriers, not smiths. And as a smith I wouldnt know the first thing about the feet of either a horse or an ox. But then again while I can beat out a knife, I wouldn't call myself a bladesmith or a cutler either. Those guys do some amazing work.

I thought what distinguished a smith from the other metal trades (say, a tinker, an ironmonger, or a tin man) was that a smith labors at a forge. A farrier might take horseshoes made by a smith and fit them to horses, or he might ply both trades and forge his own horseshoes, in which case he's a (rather specialized) blacksmith.

I refuse to discuss whether foundrymen can properly be called smiths. Hot metal men are a breed apart in any case.

And you do seem to aspire to cutlery. That boar spear looked to be an honest weapon. And I could tell even in the pictures of the heat treatment that your knife was soundly forged, likely well tempered, and balanced close to the hilt. It's good to see a craftsman take pride in his work.

[Tuckahoe]

And this is where things get fun...

For us modern folks it is often difficult to appreciate the degree to which trades were specialized. Part of that is that all we are taught and only in passing are blacksmiths and farriers. And we are further taught that blacksmiths made everything and put the shoes on horses too. But its all mythology.

Ever so generally smiths are metal workers -- blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths and so on. And in turn it is proper to say that smiths are those that strike hot metal, especially when we are talking of those that work the black metals. Blacksmiths are smiths, but an armor maker is an amourer, not an armoursmith.

Sooo...

Blacksmiths were generally, repairment/mechanics and generalists. Took small production jobs, custome work and so on. Bloomery furnaces and finery forges would emply blacksmiths or hammermen to turn iron blooms into iron bar

Farriers may or may not make their own shoes, and often relyed on production shops to manufacture ready made shoes. Shoes and metal were not as important as treating the feet of horses, mules, oxen and working goats.

Trades and unskilled workers will get rather specialized so that there are...

Nailers, pinners and needlers. Each unskilled child labor producing large volume. Think of the blacksmith being quite able to produce nails, but at best 200 daily (my best is 160), while a nailer is reaching 2000+ daily. The slave boys in Thomas Jefferson's nailery each produced between 400 to 800 nails

Loriners and spurriers made stirrups, bits, spurs, rings and buckles for the saddlery industry

Cutlers, bladesmiths, grinders, polishers, pommel makers and handlemakers, well they produced knives and swords.

There were chainsmiths, anchorsmiths and anvilsmiths. Gunsmiths, and those in that trade that specialized in the stocks, barrel making and those the lock parts. Not to be confused with locksmiths making locks and keys.

Tinkers fixed those things made from sheet like copper kettles, whether they dammed holes or retinned the kettle.

Foundrymen are not smiths simply because they are not striking the metal... boy we could go on all night.

Because of the nature of my work, i have made nails, knives, axes, hammers, planeirons, stirrups and so on. But I do these thing as a blacksmith rather than the specialists that would have actually produced these things on a regular basis. I approach the work as a blacksmith and therefore often have to work backwards (if that makes sense)rather than as someone who was trained in that spacific specialty with the proper tools for that trade.

An achor shop
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A small nailery. Notice the wheel in the back opperated by a dog that would then run the bellows
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An armourer
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[JAK]

Beautiful work.

[Another Kevin]

Because of the nature of my work, i have made nails, knives, axes, hammers, planeirons, stirrups and so on. But I do these thing as a blacksmith rather than the specialists that would have actually produced these things on a regular basis. I approach the work as a blacksmith and therefore often have to work backwards (if that makes sense)rather than as someone who was trained in that spacific specialty with the proper tools for that trade.

Right! And you mentioned the fining forge up above - there's an example! I'm sure that when you succeed at producing a bloom of iron, you'll simply be hammering it out at the forge in your shop, while even in Roman times a finery would have had a helve hammer to do the repetitive striking, with the hammerman handling the workpiece and controlling the process of turning a bloom into a bar. Now there was a technology that lasted - all the way from ancient China right up to the 18th Century. (By contrast, the steam-powered drop hammer lasted less than a generation before the rolling mill made it irrelevant for everything but shingling.)

(But the tourists would rather see a blacksmith than something that in their minds too closely resembles a modern factory!)

[jeffmeh]

Beautiful work.

[Tuckahoe]

Finally found the engraving of the fining forge...
PSM_V38_D183_A_forge_trip_hammer.jpg
The smith in the foreground is developing a bloom on the end of the iron rod as the pig iron is decarborized, while the men at the trip hammers are consolidating the blooms into bars.

And you are right, tourists want to see the village blacksmith in the quaint lil village and sometimes it is hard to grasp that production was indeed specialized factory work pre-industrial revolution. A blacksmith could have never met the demands of a community For the production of goods. Its also hard for Americans to remember that we were once the backwater and we relied on the Iindustrial might of Britian for their quality and affordable consumer goods (while we provided the raw materials). More American Bowie knives came out of the cutlery shops of Sheffield than were ever made in the US. And the American gunsmith was more likely to import and service an English made fowling piece than ever make a rifle.

Anyway sorry for geeking out... back to backpacking and the AT

[moytoy]

But then again while I can beat out a knife, I wouldn't call myself a bladesmith or a cutler either. Those guys do some amazing work.

I think your being modest. Nice work.

[HarderthanNails]

Beautiful work !!

[msupple]

So cool! I used to be into Blacksmithing as a hobby and still have all my equipment. I haven't used it in years but you may have just rekindled a former love.

Cat in the Hat

[Luddite]

This is awesome. How long does the entire process take?