iForgeBlades

52100 Tambotie Hunter

Francois — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:40:26 +0000

I must say I am really starting to hate working with non-damascus steels. High carbon blades should be damascus! Although this knife is top quality in terms of sharpness, durability, balance and usability I just hate that it is not damascus.

From now on only damascus!

The handle is a combination of tambotie and brass while the blade is 52100 high carbon steel forged and grinded into a drop nose hunter shape.

Tambotie Fighter

Francois — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:06:09 +0000

I made this knife for a guy named Edrich that works with me. He gave me a basic idea of what he wanted and although he wants it for hunting, it is more of a fighter style knife simply because of it’s size and the sharpened upper cutting edge.

He gave me the piece of tambotie the handle was made of. The guard is made of brass and the handle is secured with a decorative pin. The blade was forged from a big roller bearing so the steel should be 52100 high carbon steel. The long cutting edge has a hollow grind, while the top cutting edge is flat.

All in all a nice big knife!

Some more of my pattern welded steel

Francois — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:13:26 +0000

I had a buddy from work visiting my workshop and showed him how I make damascus.

It was kind of funny to see him burn his right index finger on a arc welded billet even before I stuck it into the forge. A big blister is the evidence this morning.

His Facebook album:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150872986059832&set=a.10150872921999832.514116.643244831&type=1

The pattern welded steel is made from my favourite combination of steels which is W1 and L6 with my unique patterning.

Another little biltong knife

Francois — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:40:06 +0000

I finished another biltong knife from the other half of the bearing I used for the previous biltong knife I made.

This one has a bevel on both sides and a more traditional type handle with brass and hardwood.

I tested it on some biltong and I don’t know what part I liked the most…cutting the biltong … or eating it.

Little Biltong Knife

Francois — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:43:29 +0000

My father requested that I made a couple of biltong knives to sell in his biltong shop and I had a small roller bearing lying around, so I thought to myself…why the hell not.

I forged 2 small blades from the bearing and this is one of them. This one has a one sided bevel and a simple 3 layer wood handle construction. The one-sided bevel would make this a right handed biltong knife because it is supposed to be used in a drawing action when cutting thin slithers of biltong.

New flywheel brackets and push-rod attachment

Francois — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 07:01:30 +0000

The new motor on Slut was working too well. It broke the flywheel’s brackets and forced me to replace them with much stronger one’s.

I am trying to use as little welding as possible and replacing the welds with high tension bolts where I can.

Integral round file knife

Francois — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:00:12 +0000

This is one of those knives that I call “My four hour knives” because it literally takes 4 hours to make. The parts that took the longest is the tempering and polishing process.

The knife is made from half an old round file of 15mm diameter and it has an OAL of just a hair over 25cm.

The blade has been clay hardened and selectively tempered.

I had the idea of using old round files for making integral knives for a while now and it works great as the handle already has a rough non-slip grip.

Better motor and new wiring for Slut

Francois — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:01:37 +0000

The power hammer’s old electric motor was tripping the power so it must have sustained some damage from all the abuse it took over the years.

I decided it was time for a stonger motor, so I exchanged the 37kw motor for a 75kw one.

I also decided to redo the electrical wiring so that I can completely unplug the motor in future if I ever needed to remove it.

Now Slut it hitting at around 160 hits a min and it seems with much stronger blows.

Yeeehaaa!

Spirograph Damascus

Francois — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:42:47 +0000

I figured out a way of making spirograph damascus with 2 forge welds.

I can’t believe I did not think of doing it in this way…it’s actually so simple, quick and easy.

The steel is a combo of 2 old files and L6.

Butterfly and cable damascus

Francois — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:25:38 +0000

Norman an I made this piece of damascus from L6 and steel cable with a piece of 5160 for the edge weld.

You can’t see the cable so clearly yet because it is still only on 300 grit and was only quickly dunked into the ferric chloride.

We cut in X’s and drilled some shallow holes in between to get the pattern.