Wednesday, April 7, 2010

NEGLECT

I have really neglected this Blog over the winter. I am into  farming again. Most of the garden is planted now and it is a busy time. I made quite a few knives this winter and a few of them were pretty good. By that, I mean they are functional and not TOO ugly to look at. I have been working on both function and appearance but function is always first. I need to work on design and better angles but have noted some improvements. My heat treating is much better. I salvage all my steel so it is a little more difficult to get the heat treat just right. I am learning to work-up a sample first and do some destructive testing before putting a lot of time into the knife. I've made 13 knives since I last posted. I really like three of them so that is all I'll post today. I made a little necker for my brother-in-law with a scrap of a grinder blade and some osage left over from another knife. It may be the best knife I've made. Very hard edge, soft back, and everything is well fitted. The other two are meant to be period knives reminiscent of the fur trade era. I plan to use copper tacks, horse hair, and rawhide lace to do more decoration. I also want to make rawhide sheaths for them that are similarly decorated. I will post that when I learn these new skills.

I really enjoy recycling scrap steel into knives. I need to study metalurgy and become more proficent at choosing and processing steel. I have buckets and shelves of metal that I think is suitable for knives. There a a lot of plow points, drag plates, and other farm implements. I also have several hundred grinder blades from a commercial meat grinder that makes good blades. I pick up files and rasps at flea markets and yard sales. My wood bin is also full. I am a packrat. If it looks like it could be useful, I keep it. I thought about buying blade steel to make it easier but decided to educate myself instead. I like the primitive aspect of using scrap to make my tools and knives. My great grandfather was stationed in Arizona with the  U.S. calvery from the mid-1850's until  1860. He told my grandfather that the Apache tribes would raid to get scraps of steel, files, etc. to fashion the many edged weapons they carried. I don't picture myself as an Apache warrior but is neat to think of primitve peoples fashioning weapons much like the ones that I make.