My First Forged Knife

Well, my first FINISHED forged knife at least! Second off of the anvil, but the first I am calling a learning experience! (Don't get the blade too thin, you've got nowhere to go!)

Anyway, here it is...



I know it isn't perfect. I can still see some marks I'd want to buff out if I were selling it. But this one is for my use to test the blade. I've got it sharp, but still need work on my sharpening skills. So I might take it to have a professional edge put on. Then I'll test the heck out of it and see how well the edge holds! That's always fun!

I have many ideas about future railroad spike knives. And due to the generosity of my mother-in-law, wife and kiddos, I have over twenty more railroad spikes to craft into knives!

Gotta go to work now.

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A Night at the Forge

Dad came up for another blackmithing class last night. It went very well! I decided to forgo the finishing of my tongs (as I can do these later) and started working on the classic beginners blacksmithing project of forging a railroad spike into a knife.

I got the basic forging done, hardened and tempered the blade and now have reached this stage...


(a before and after shot)

Now I can clean up the blade, do the final shaping and sharpen it to as close to a razor as I can! It's not jaw dropping great, but I'm pretty pleased with it for a first one! I'll be doing many more of these I think, as I had a ball doing this one!

Dad, in the meantime, completed his first tomahawk! He forge welded a piece of high carbon steel between a piece of mild steel that he had curved around, then tapered out the blade. Here it is just before we hardened it...



He's going to temper it next week, and our instructor had a piece of hickory that will make a fantastic handle. All in all a pretty impressive work! I think I may try one next week!

This blacksmithing thing is quite fun!

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Mother's Day

Today I am most thankful for the mothers who matter the most to me.

First is my wife, the mother of my kiddos. I am truly thankful that she chose me, chose to have kids with me. They are the light of my world, and without the Wife, simply would not be. Today we celebrated her!

Second, my own mom. Without her, I wouldn't be. Thanks to you Mom, for raising me with Dad. For the man I am today would have been much less without your influence.

Third, the mom of my Wife. Thanks for your amazing daughter. You must have done something right, because she's incredibly special. (And she obviously has good taste!)

Love to all of the moms out there. Thank you for being great moms!

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Blacksmith John

Turns out blacksmithing is a hoot! We've had four classes now, and they have all been instructional and fun. On the way there last time, we saw this...


A nice way to start the evening. Then it was on to class, where we made steel very hot and tried to form it into something.


I've spent the past couple classes making a set of tongs.


This is me cutting out the bad weld I made to try again. I'd like to say that it went great, but for some reason, I just could not get the two parts to stay together. After the three hour class was done, and I had fused those two pieces at least five times using various methods, I decided to just make the other half of the tongs out of a new piece of metal. It took about twenty minutes.

Next class I'll rivet them together and have my tongs! I also hope to start a railroad spike knife, as I have a great many ideas about making those! I'll show you one when I get one done.

That's about all for now...

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Multi-Post

The Wife and I celebrated our seventh year of being married! Now, as most of you know, our track record for anniversaries has not been all that great when it comes to spending time with just the two of us. For several years, there was a family reunion falling on that date, and we met up with my folks and my sisters family and sometimes others for a day of fun and fellowship. Though enjoyable, they were not really anniversary celebrations.

One year my aunt Bobbi had surgery to try and remove the cancer that ended up taking her life. That year just plain sucked. The whole clan and then some were gathered at our house from that date until May 8th when Bobbi went to my folks house. She died two days later on her birthday. We didn't even bother with the anniversary, it just wasn't as important as what was happening.

A couple years ago my sister was getting married (on the 27th - happy anniversary to them!) and her wedding rehersal was on the our anniversary. It was fun, but not exactly anniversary fun!

But this year, the stars all lined up right, we had some dear friends watch our two kiddos, and the wife and I went to dinner! We ate at a Japanese grill where they prepare the food in front of you. Sort of a dinner theater. And the management comped us a glass of Sake. Our first experience with that beverage. All told, we had a very enjoyable time together! I hope we can do that more than once every seven years!

April 25th
The Sweet Pea turned TWO! She gets cuter and smarter every day. For her birthday, we made a red velvet butterfly cake that the Boyo and I decorated.


And following in the butterfly theme, I made her a stained glass butterfly to splash some color into her room.



She calls them "fly-fly's" and absolutely loves them. She also got some very pretty clothes and a whole tool box full of hair accessories! She is such a girl! (and she's got daddy pretty well wrapped around her finger)

April 27th

Dad came up for the third in a series of blacksmithing classes we've been taking together. He and Weasel found their dads old anvil, and great-grandpa Jacobs post vise, which dad brought up to get a reading on from our instructor. Our instructor identified the make of the anvil (it's a Hay-Budden) and told us that those were, and still are, some of the best anvils a blacksmith could use. This one is still very useable, so I'm going to put it to work!


I did a little research on it, and found out that it was made either in 1897 or 1900 based on the serial number on it. It's an oldie, but a goodie. I'm going to set up a little forge out in and near the shop and add smithing to my list of hobbies/business ventures. (I'll be learning to forge my own blades so that I can make all parts of the knives I sell)

If anybody has any old blacksmithing tools they want to donate or sell cheap, let me know!

Anyway. I'm sleepy now. Family are all in bed, I should probably get there myself.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

This month has been crazy busy. Every day has had something planned, sometimes fun, sometimes not so much.

The Boyo has been keepig very busy with school and with teaching Sweet Pea all manner of new things. She for her part, has spent a lot of time looking cute and learning how to say new words... almost all of them acceptable!

The Wife and I have been adjusting to new work schedules and lots of recertification training.

Dad and I have started taking some blacksmithing classes. I'll get pictures of those up when I can. they are all on Dads camera. The first class we made neat little forge fire tenders. The second class Dad spent down in CR because Mom is in the hospital (more on that later too) I spent the second class making a cable damascus knife. Essentially learning to forge weld. Unfortunately, I welded so well, that the cable twist pattern got welded into a single solid mass of steel!

Ah well, a learning experience.

More on all of this later. Time is flying!

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Spring!

Continues to spring! So much happening, I don't know where to begin.

A new computer is in the works. That's going to be good. I'm keeping very busy with knives, glass and plants for the garden. Blacksmithing class is approaching. My Mom got out of the hospital. So lot's of stuff going well so far in April!

At the Good Friday church service, the sermon was on Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, and he started with Peter. During this, the Boyo was composing a letter to his friend, constantly whispering to me for help with spelling.

After the sermon, the kids were invited up for the children's sermon. Our pastor started with a question. What did Jesus do before the supper? The Boyo raised his hand and answered "He washed their feet!"

Whose feet? asked the pastor.

"Peter's" said my son.

It went on from there, but left me wondering how on earth he had internalized that information when he was clearly not paying attention during the sermon. So when he returned to the pew, I asked him.

"Oh," he said "I read it in my bible. There's a picture of it in there." And when we returned home, he pulled out his children's bible and showed me that sure enough, there is a picture of Jesus washing Peter's feet!

that kid amazes me sometimes.

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