For my girl

You're Awesome!!

It's good to know a bladesmith

My friend wanted a skinner to add to his collection and I told him if he waited a bit that he'd get a free upgrade to damascus steel.

The wait is over my friend.

I lost track of the layer count on this one,  I had too many billets going at once.  This blade is 1095 and 5160.  I started with 6 layers and then folded it twice and twisted it.  Then I made a billet using the first one with 3 pieces of 5160 and folded and twisted that billet a few times.

Moar Damascus

The new forge is being used to heat a billet of damascus.  I have an order for a little skinner to get done.  Forging the blades to shape sure saves on grind time and it make it easy to get the bevels started.

This is the knife that was in forging picture above.   I think with the eye it looks very shark like.  This is just after a quick soak in the etchant to get a peek at the pattern, I will put it back and in go for a nice deep etch.

A custom garden tool

No, that is a hoe not a saw.  But it is marked SAW.  It's a b-day present for a customer's wife.  I thought it would be neat to personalize the project.   The head is forged 5160 spring steel welded to a 3/8 in square bar.  It's quenched in oil to give it a rust resistant coating.  We then rivet the head into the handle so it will take a lot of abuse.  It is pretty small so it is light in the hand and makes quick work of weeding around sprouts and young delicate plants.

Sorry about the lack of posting...I blame the pain meds.

Here is some blacksmith themed stuff to fill the post until I get around to doing a real one.

I like iron.

Second blade from the first billet of damascus

I forged this guy much thinner than the other blade and it has a distal taper from about 5/32 of and inch to about a 1/16 of an inch on the blade portion.

It's pretty cool to be working with the damascus.  Because it is so time consuming to make damascus I have had to take more time forging the blades closer to their final shape and hammering in the bevels to keep waste to a minimum.  This has helped me refine my smithing skill and helped on other projects.  In the next few weeks look for damascus blades on the knives for sale page.

Opening Weekend at Moose Lake Arena Flea Market

It's the kick off to the first weekend of the Moose Lake Arena Flea Market in Moose Lake, MN.  HBI will be in the arena in the back (same as last year) from 9ish until 1pm.  Hope to see you there!