Full Circle

When we moved to our current place three years ago, I set up a charcoal forge in a shed in our back yard. Because the roof was so low, I had to dig a pit to stand in so I could lift my hammer above my head. After doing that for a while, I made my first gas forge and ended up abandoning the shed for the garage. I currently have my gas forge set up there, but there are many times I want to use a charcoal forge. I set up my charcoal forge out in front of the garage, but that was less than ideal because it was totally exposed to the elements and a bit of a fire hazard in our wildfire hazard prone state. To be safe I used to wet the ground all around when using it. Anyway, I was given an old blower that didn't work right and didn't have a handle. I worked on it and had it working pretty well, but unfortunately something is wrong with it, and it isn't working again. There's a tapered spacer inside it that acts as a sleeve for the propellor shaft and I think there's something wrong with that spacer. Anyway, when we were over at Jeff's recently he hooked me up with a blower that he had lying under his work bench (thanks, Jeff!). It too didn't have a handle, so I made one for it. I oiled it up real good and it seems to be working ok. Getting this blower inspired me to set up a better charcoal forge situation. The best place was back at the shed. The area I had used before is now used to store hay for our goats, but the other end of the shed looked perfect. After some work I am once again set up to forge with charcoal. I like this setup even better than the one I had before. I will be standing in a pit again, but I don't mind that at all.

'Hawk Making With Tai

On Saturday Tai came over to Jeff's and began showing us how to make 'hawks. It was one of the colder days we've had this winter, so I didn't enjoy that too much, but I'm a real wuss when it comes to cold. Jeff had a washtub he wanted to convert into a forge, so Tai cut a hole in it and had her fired up in no time. For fuel we just used big chunks of pine wood. It worked out pretty well. Working at splitting the wood was a blessing as it warmed me up. After forging the 'hawks, we started converting old ball peens into hot sets, but I'll cover that in a separate post.

The Ever-Sniffing Scrap Hound

I can't really complain about the weather here compared to the rest of the nation, but it's pretty nasty right now. Snow and freezing rain have been coming down all day. Ice is building up on the plants. Wish I could be out in my shop, but I've got plenty to do inside, so I'm kind of glad I'm being forced to do it.



Sniffed out some goodies along the highway a few days ago. Found this pile of treasure. It includes some nice tools and pieces of steel. Along with these were three nice horseshoes.



Also found where a semi had crashed. There was this heavy pipe with what looks like an axle in the end. The axle is 2 1/2 inches in diameter. I could grind the end a bit and sink it in a bucket of concrete for a great stake anvil.

Season Wishes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I hope you are enjoying quality time with family and friends.

Tai's Fuller Tool

Here's a custom tool Tai made recently to carve fuller grooves into blades. You can see the results on that last integral of his I posted.

The Knife That Feels Right

I think we all have a knife that just feels right to us, and it's the one we carry most often. What determines this "feeling"? I think it's a complex combination of our upbringing, the way we use our knives, our aesthetic tastes, our experience with various knives, our physical builds, and the influence of others. I've been trying lots of different styles, carrying them out into the field, using them to whittle, carve, chop, whatever. And I just keep coming back to this knife. It is the one that feels right to me. Now, whenever I go out for some desert experience, this is the one I take. It's the one Tai made during my lesson with him. It's tribal, and I spent the first 18 years of my life with Indian tribes. It's just the right weight: not too heavy, but not too light. At first I thought the socket bush knife was too heavy a design, but I've changed my mind after carrying this one. I can do fine work like making a fuzz stick with this, but the design also makes it an excellent chopper. It's just beyond being too small for a good chopper, which means it's as small and light as possible while still excelling at that task. Growing up, that was the major activity for which we used knives: to chop. Much of carving tasks can be done with skillful chopping (Even Ishi did most of the work of making a bow with a hatchet). We chopped the heads and bones of fishes and animals we needed to kill or clean. We chopped down saplings for bow and arrow use. The one thing this knife will not doing well is intricate carving that requires dishing out, like for a spoon or bowl, but that's fine with me, since it does everything else well. I'll probably make a little crooked knife and try some spoon carving. Anyway, that's my two cents for now on the indispensable knife.

Some of Tai's Tools

Here are some of Tai's tools. It is always worth studying the tools of a good smith. He takes pride in them and they are used regularly, so the design is good. Some of these were made from old ball peen hammers, and idea that I like.

Young Knifemakers

A single mother who is a friend of ours needed to leave her kids with us for a couple of days. Today I took the older boys out to the shop and we made a knife. I had them forge the distal taper and bevels, file, sand, and perform the dunk for the quench. They loved it. Another time we'll put a handle on it and maybe make a sheath.

Some Filing Progress

Got in a little filing today.

Finished Forging the Little Integral

Couldn't get more process pics because it was night, but I finished forging out that small integral.

Integral Basics

Started another integral. I'm going for a small one that will take a cholla handle.

First I forged the tang. Then I forged the end into a square point.



I then rounded up the square point.



Using the corner of the anvil and the cross peen hammer I started the transition from bolster to blade. It's important to flip your piece 180 degrees and try to keep both sides the same.



And a little more.



Top view.



Albert asked about my hammer so I'm adding a shot of it here.