A Lovely Friday

Temperatures were below zero for the past month.  The day we got back from Tucson, we saw one bank sign that claimed it was 43 degrees below zero.  That's 75 degrees below freezing.  That's as much below the temperature of freezing water as 107 is above it.

That's cold.

But this week, we have seen as warm as 20 above zero!  Hooray!

I turned on the torch and melted some glass yesterday and the day before.  This is what I made:

 They are simple glass icicles.  My wife made the little purple one at the top, but I made the others.

What to do with them?  Glad you asked!

There are a couple of local trails where we walk our dog that have spruce trees with ornaments on them.  Winter is long here and there are folks who will do that little tiny bit to make life more colorful and a bit whimsical.  Here's an example:

Just a tree beside the trail.  Couple of classic glass ornaments on it.  These ornaments can be there for years.  People either don't take them or else someone replaces them.  I'm not sure which, but I will see the ornaments for a long time and even in summer it makes me smile.

Today, while the dog got her much-needed walk, we did our part to add to the random, playful whimsy.

Christmas in Arizona!

For the first time in 7 years, we spent a couple of weeks of winter where it is warm!  I don't like to let the internet know when I'm out of town.  So, now that I'm back, here are a few highlights of our trip!

First, we went to see the petroglyphs at Signal Hill.  This was on Christmas Day, December 25th.

It is a fairly short hike up from the parking area to some really intriguing pictures on rocks.  One entertaining sign along the way:

After that very comforting message, we followed the trail up to see a truly stunning view from the top of the hill.

And, of course, what we were here for!  The pictures on rocks!  The Hohokam people made these pictures a long time ago.  It is fascinating to just look at them and imagine how bored the folks up on the hill must have been.  They passed the time by decorating the rocks.

On the way down, here's what the trial looks like.  Beautiful.  I love it in Arizona.  At least this time of year.

If it hadn't been for a fellow with binoculars looking up from the trail, we would have missed this view.  It doesn't show up really well on the camera, but click the picture to get a larger version.  The side of the hill has a lot more pictures on it and I bet most folks who come to look at the petroglyphs miss these.  All because we don't look up.  So, thanks to the guy who chose to check them out just as we happened by!

New Project! Viking Folding Knife! (sort of)

School just let out for the semester and I was able to finally get something fun done in the shop!  I don't know how much I'll get done over the break, since temperatures are dropping to -30 this week.  The propane condenses in the hose and I can't get enough pressure to run the forge if I have the door open.  (And anyone who doesn't want to poison himself with carbon monoxide will want that door open!)  So for now, here's the recent project:

I've actually been wanting to make this knife for more than 20 years, but never did until now.  I discovered a book about that long ago in the local university library with the lovely title of Viking Artefacts.  Yes, that's the correct spelling.  There are only a couple of knives in the whole book, but one of them is this one:

(Please note, this particular photo is taken from warehamforge.com, not a scan by me.)

I wanted to make this because it seemed such a clever and useful knife.  I do make some changes to the design, as you'll see if you read on.  Still, the basic concept of a friction folder with two blades remains.  At any time, one of the two blades will be out.  The other will be in the handle.  At the time I discovered this, I hadn't heard of anyone else making one.  However, it seems to be a common knife for historical bladesmiths to make now, so I'm hardly the only one to create another one and very certainly not the first to put it online.

Since much of the early work is the same as any other knife, I'll skip right to the part where it starts getting a bit different.

This is what the blades look like:

As is my normal practice, I work on two blades at a time.  Two irons in the fire is a saying that comes from blacksmithing.  One can heat while the other is being hammered.  This saves time and fuel, since burning fuel in the forge is wasted if there's no steel or iron being heated by it.  The picture above shows one blade just out of heat treating and the other right after being finish-ground.

Both blades finish ground.  As is my usual aesthetic, I like to leave some evidence of the hand forging in the form of texture on the blades.  There needs to be some good flat steel where the pivot happens, but I think I struck a good balance here with the visible texture and the flat-ground steel.  

A trial fit-up.  I chose maple instead of bone for the handle scales because I like maple so much.  Plus, I have maple in the workshop and I don't have bone scales I can use at this time.  All the bone I have is too small for these handles.  I'm not trying to make a strict reproduction, just to make a knife that works from that same inspiration.  The spacer at the butt end is a modern thing.  I also put the butt pins in a different configuration from the original.  This is what worked for me and I freely admit that it is a modern knife, not an ancient one.

Once I'm confident that the pins are in the right places, the blade at the pivot area is adjusted right, and everything is flat, I can put another scale on top and pein the pins down to lock it all together.

These have the small blades out.

Now, they are shown half-switched.

Long blades out.

These are both a little stiff.  Friction folders depend on a tight fit to stay in position.  After a while, they do loosen up a little (just normal wear will compress the wood slightly) and if they eventually get at all floppy, the owner will have to tap the pivot pin with a hammer a couple of times.  Still, friction folders have been in use for at least 2000 years (I've seen pictures of one from Ancient Rome, so the idea of a folding knife is not new).  Something doesn't last two millennia if it doesn't work.

Carrying a knife like this means you really need a sheath.  I did toy with the idea of trying to make a period-appropriate sheath, but these are really modern knives with ancient inspiration, not real reproductions.  I made my usual belt sheaths.  I really like the Oxblood dye for a sheath.  It looks somehow nicer than a black or brown sheath to me.

One of the sheaths is left-handed because it is a gift for a lefty.  This is another exchange on Primitive Archer.  The right-handed sheath is for me.  I've wanted one of these for so many years, it almost hurts to give either of them away.  But I picked the nicer of the two (smoother folding action, slightly nicer grind detail) and that's going to my recipient when I go to the post office later today.

If you want to make one of these, I suggest you give it a try.  They are fun and a really cool novelty.  I suggest taking your time with the pivot area.  I actually have messed that up several times (previous efforts at making the same knife), so I know that it is possible to go just a tiny bit too far and ruin the whole piece.  But if you are more patient (like I was with these two), it isn't really all that sophisticated, so it won't be too daunting.  I'd love to see other folks make these and share pictures of them!

Fire Poker Video

Another of my basic videos.  You get to see the anvil, my belly, and what I'm making.  In this case, the fire poker from yesterday's post.

It isn't a really difficult project and nothing is especially critical in terms of measurements or design.  However, a good poker makes it so much easier to manage a fire in a wood stove or fireplace.

Not a Knife!

What?  This guy makes things on the anvil that are not blades?  I mean, arrowheads aren't knives, but they are arguably blades, right?

I'm still a novice smith.  I do it for fun and personal satisfaction.  And few things are as satisfying as making a useful tool.

We use a wood stove to heat our house as a secondary heat source.  There are times when we need to poke at the wood in the stove as it burns merrily.  Or not so merrily.  But we've used our ash shovel to do that for a long time.  Like 9 years.

Until today.

Took me a lot longer to make this than I expected, but it was satisfying.  I forged it out of about 13" of half-inch square bar.  Final length is about 18".  This is too short for a fireplace poker, but just about right for the wood stove.  

I took video of the project and once I finish editing it, I'll put it up here so both of my loyal readers can watch it.  Or not.  Very few people watch my YouTube channel.  Good thing I don't try to make money from it.  It is just a way to share with folks who may or may not be interested in the sorts of things I like to do.

Recent work

I've been ridiculously busy with school recently.  This blog has suffered, I'm afraid.

However, I have made a couple of things and now is my chance to share them.

 I had a friend over to make his first knife.  I normally make one along with someone who is doing it the first time.  That way I can demonstrate each step and then he/she can follow along and do the step just demonstrated.

Pictured above it the knife I made while he made his.  Nothing fancy or special, but it is a little larger than a lot of what I make.  I rather like it, actually.  I may end up putting it in my spoon carving tool kit.

When I first started blade smithing, this was the knife I wanted to make.  I just love knives that show the whole story in one piece of steel.  They are less comfortable and less practical than knives with proper handles, but they just look cool.  I made these one day when I had time to hammer out a couple of blades.  Still need to put a final edge on them and find them homes.

These particular one-piece knives are often called Viking knives.  The claim is that these were common (some seem to think ubiquitous) to Vikings.

Now, I'm not an archaeologist, and I am not an expert on Viking artifacts or material culture, but I've never once seen evidence of this sort of knife in an actual Viking context. I've seen a couple of pictures supposed to be from Novgorod that depict knives with integral handles sort of like these, but not very many.

The issue is that if I made blades with normal tangs that would fit into wood handles, I could make two blades from the steel in each of these knives.  Steel was a fairly valuable and relatively scarce commodity in the dark ages.  Heck, right up until the Industrial Revolution, actually.  I just can't see very many smiths making a blade that is less useful that consumes twice the resources when he could make two blades that would fit wood handles with the same amount of steel.

So, I don't think they are very historical, but I do know they are a lot of fun.

The Knife I Got in Trade

If you scroll back a bit in my blog posts, you will see the friction folder I made for a knife exchange.  It was well received.

Today, I got my knife from the trade.  Frankly, I think I got the coolest knife in the whole swap.  This is beautiful.  Here's a picture:

The picture doesn't really do it justice.  The edge is wonderfully straight and very sharp.  The stone has a slight translucence that just makes it almost other-worldly.  The fit of blade to handle is very tight.  I'm delighted.

Now that the summer is just about over, I think I'll have a little more time to work on some personal projects, so this blog will be updated slightly more often.  I hope.