The forge was hot, and the motor oil was there thick here at Hall Ironworks Friday night. Along with my friends Heath and Colin, we had one mission that night. We were going to bravely attempt to harden and temper some blades for the first time. We had three specimens that were to be subject of our trial and error. I had my second knife blade along with my hatchet/axe ready, while Heath had his knife ready. A little background about the knife my good friend was making, if I may.
One of the biggest allures of modern blacksmithing today is the idea of reusing old things to make something new. Just pick up an issue of The Anvil's Ring or The Hammer's Blow published quarterly by the American Blacksmiths Association of North America and you'll find guides, articles, and photos on how people have turned something old, rusted, decayed, and decrepit into a new thing of beauty. My step-father, Wayne, got his start in the ornamental blacksmithing/fabrication world by doing the same thing. He started out by making my mother a 6ft tall sunflower made from an old plow disc off of a tractor. He then used a plasma cutter to cut a few petals into the steel, heated the petals up, hammered them out, and welded it to a 3/8 in round stock rod and stuck it in a coffee can full of concrete. Oh, there were stems and leaves coming off of it, too. It was really a simplistic thing of beauty. Many of my mother's friends saw them and wanted one. Salvage, re-use, re-purpose. It's really big right now, and that's great because it helps the art flourish. You'll find that many smiths do enjoy conversing with each other and sharing little tips and tricks they've found.
This knife that Heath is making, it's very much the same thing. It's a beast of a knife, longer than 3 and a 1/2 inches for sure, but that's not the most striking feature of it. The most striking feature of the blade is that it is cut out and hammered from an old farrier's rasp. By old, I mean probably pre-1950's at the latest. Those old, thick rasps make great knives and tools because they have a high carbon rating. The higher the carbon rating, the harder the steel, the better edge it holds as a knife or the less likely it is to break being used as a tool (that's a REALLY watered down explanation, mind you). Heath's knife is beautiful, especially for someone's actual first knife. He and I have tinkered around, making a few knives out of horseshoes, rail-road spikes, and so on. However, this is his first knife that will actually be tempered and hardened accompanied by a nice wooden handle. It's fairly common for people to make knives out of old rasps, utilizing the beauitful texture left behind once the rasps have been hammered down and flattened. I only have one picture of his knife, and it's after we tempered it. You'll be able to see some of the really cool texture below in the attached photos.
My second knife that I have previously posted pictures of is now nearing completion. I'm fiddling with the brass pegs currently, trying to get a nice snug fit (but not so snug that they crack my handle). My original intention with this knife was to have a nice polish on it, but not a mirror finish. I wanted it to have a rustic, rough look. Many knife makers have a theme, and quite frankly that's the theme I like. I like things that are old, look old, and feel old in your hands. Our first heat for hardening was truly breath taking. Granted, Heath and I were probably nerding out (don't you love that term?) so bad that it would have been truly embarassing if anyone besides Colin were around. My knife had been polished with a 120 grit emery cloth quite extensively. When we opened up the gas forge, fired it up, and set my knife on the edge to regulate the heat, we were awed. Because of the finish of my knife, we could see the colors rolling across the blade and handle quite extensively. First a yellowish orange sheen literally rolled its way across the knife, then a light blue, dark blue, and finally a purple-ish blue before turning to red hot for our quench. After that step, we tempered them all, and watched the colors dance across the metal again. When the blades reached that pretty purple-blue, we quenched them in oil again. After this process, my knife held these colors really well, and the handle turned jet black. I really liked these colors, especially the dark colors against my greenish/gold poplar handle. So, I've decided to leave it that way. Can't wait to get it sharpened. That's my dad's gig. My dad, Fred, can put an edge on pretty well anything. He sharpened my hatchet by hand and put an edge on something that was probably considered pretty difficult to sharpen due to its thickness.
My hatchet is a unique little thing. It's folded and forge welded out of 1 1/2in x 1/4in flatbar (It may have been 3/8) with a tool steel insert for the edge. It's not meant to be a big, bad, tree felling forest conqueror. It's a nifty little axe made for making small kindling and maybe a bit of rough carving. It's a prototype, really. The handle is hand carved and drawn out of an 1 1/2in x 1 1/2in x 36 in red oak board. I cut it down to about 12 inches (I eyeballed it, really) and then took a draw knife to it and shaped it. I like draw knives, gives you a nice control over how much you're taking off and where. I think rubbed about 4 coats of mineral oil on it to bring out some of the color. The handle and the head have a rough look, and yet again, that's what I wanted. Hopefully these pictures don't bug out and disappear like the ones on my last post did.
Oh, and here's a picture of Colin's first attempt at doing Scrimshaw. FIRST ATTEMPT. Pretty awesome, right? It's on a synthetic wales tooth that comes with most beginner's scrimshaw kits.
Cheers,
Benton
