First knife completely finished.

Well guys here is the final update on my knife build. I quenched it in linseed oil and wrapped the handle with leather. The sheath is from the same leather as the handle.

Let me know what you guys think.

It followed me home!

Here are a few pieces I hammered out since the last post.

The spine of the blade, I was quite happy with my first knife being so straight. Now the tricky part will come this weekend when I temper and heat treat the blade.

 Here is another of my chainmaille armour pieces, this time I made a spiked 4-1 chainmaille bracer that extends from wrist to just past mid forearm as you can see.

 And for those of you wondering how on earth I put it on, here it is, a simple leather thong that holds it all together.

 Well look at my new acquisition from the weekend, It fairly jumped into my hands and for R400 bucks it was a good steal. It was a part of a whole set of stuff that the bloke had from a deceased smith (rest his soul) and was just what I was looking for to start my portable outfit. All I need to do now is find another washing machine motor for my other blower and ill be set!

 This thing weighs in at 30kg so its quite light compared to my 60kg brute I use normaly.

 Here you can see the brand on the forge bowl is millenium.

 This is where the blower will be mounted and the nice part about it is its adjustable so I can make anything fit in there.

 I had to dismantle the poor guy to get it home.

 All the little bits and pieces, thankfully the whole thing was covered in grease which kept almost everything mobile and loosenable.

 I say almost everything because this little fiend was holding the 4 toed foot at the base and the nut had rusted shut, if you can look closely you can see the bulge around the intersection between the nut and the bolt. There was thankfully just enough space to wedge a hacksaw blade in and start sawing, but woe to me the only blade I could find was from my neighbor and it was almost entirely flat. I counted 20 teeth along the whole length of it, so as you can imagine I stood there for quite a while.

Hey guys, here are some pics of my first knife made from a section of an old leaf spring from my moms bakkie. It still has to be tempered and heat treated and have a handle put on but Ill do all that next weekend hopefully. Tell me what you think?

This is the orrigional piece of steel I used, it was cut from a section of leaf spring.

The rough shaping at the forge.

The final shaping and cleaning. All that needs to be done now is to temper and heat treat the blade, then Im going to leather wrap the handle.

My grandfather trying out my chainmaille coif I am working on.

Keep reading guys.

Assagai finnished!

Well here is the final product, the handle is varnished and the blade is engraved with the clients name. I wrapped the join with some leather to soften the tansition a bit and all in all it was a great success. Ill be meeting the client in two weeks to give it to him as it is for his fathers birthday.

Thanks for following this one guys hope you liked it.

Almost finished the assagai

Well here are some more pics of the assagai, all I have to do now is to engrave the clients name, varnish the handle and the blade and then do some leather wrap on the butt and the join and Ill be all done.

Burning the tang into the shaft of the spear

You can see the black line coming from the shaft onto the blade, thats where a little mini flame thrower happened every time I pressed the tang into the blade.

 The final almost finished piece.

Thank you for reading my blog guys keep it up. If you want to place a comment feel free to do so, or just send me a msg on facebook.

Well the forge was fired up early this morning and I managed to complete what I planned to do which was the assagai spear blade for my new order and the Lily I started a while back but hadn't finished.

This is the rough blank before grinding and shaping.

Initial cleanup of the blade.

 Final cleanup, look how shiny it got lol.

The final piece.

All I need to do now is attach it to the shaft and varnish it and I'll be done.

This is the lily I made, what I would do differently though is make the stamen shorter next time.

Thanks for supporting my blog and reading it, without you guys I wouldn't do it.

Long time, but busy!

Wow, just returned from a awesome two weeks in Mozambique with the family!

To be greeted with an awesome opportunity!!! There is a Medieval market (https://www.facebook.com/events/280394055434011/) happening on the 26th of October and I am frantically making bracelets and pendants for then. My goal is at least 150 bracelets and I've already made 25! Im going to run out of rings Im sure. Here are my wares.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106410897860917927001/albums/5919304961236316897?authkey=CNDVjebVisThnQE

The forge has also been busy and I made my second order just before I left to Moz, it was a set of 10 cheesboard handles with a leaf flourish (still need pics of the finished product) as well as a set of 12 hand rail supports for my Grandfathers handrail project And it looks fantastic.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106410897860917927001/albums/5919308675174270193?authkey=CMnH6teaiN-zhwE

This weekend Ill be making a lily for a friend, a knife blade or two and a zulu asagai.

Happy forging and thank you all so much for reading.