I forge this very small integral to carry as a dress knife. It started off a forging exercise. I had a small cut off of 1/2 inch spring steel and forged it into a 2 inch blade with a tang and bolster.  

It started this way.


Here it is finished. I dont have my name on it since I did not plan on it being finished. I kept messing with it till it got done. I will find a way to mark it and show a photo later. This will probably stay with me. Sorry for the cell phone photos. Now for a sheath.
 

Lin,  Lovely knife!

I sure want to try an integral like that sometime.  Out of curiosity, did you use a spring fuller to make that curved transition from the blade to the bolster and how did you finish it?  The transition at the bolster where it goes back towards the handle looks very crisp without rolling that edge.  I really like the knife.  Maybe you should try more forging exercises if this is what turns out   .

Jeremy

I love that knife, Lin. It is a piece of "man jewelry" of the finest making. Hard to believe that a small lump of metal like the one shown in your first picture could be changed into the beautiful object shown in the last picture. You are amazing, my friend. If you decide you need to try making another one, let me know! By the way, do you ever use 52100?

Allan

I will do this one day...  Transform a piece of ugly scrap metal into something beautiful and functional.  Hopefully, that journey starts today.  I'm attending a monthly meeting of a local smith club after church today.

You love that ironwood, eh Lin?  


So do I!

Rusty

great knife lin looks very compfy in the hand

Lin,
  Did you pound this out using the Lil Johnny or coal forge? Nice work    

Mulkey's Hammer-in this weekend was a good time. Had some good demos and fair sized crowd. As usually for these type events everyone you meet is courteous and friendly

Thanks guys, I was away and you have questions.

Allan, I have some 52100 but have not used much of it. I sometimes carry a Ray Kirk knife and it's 52100. Good stuff.

Dan,
     I forged this in coal.

Rusty,
      The wood is Cocobolo behind blackwood. I do love Ironwood though.

Jeremy,
        I did not use a fuller. Could have though. I hammered it on the edge of the anvil and ground it to refine the shape and then used a round dowel wrapped in sand paper. As for the tang bolster transition ( this was the first step in forging this blade ), I forged the tang as tight as I could on the anvil, then I inserted the tang into a plate with a hole drilled into it. The hole is slighly larger than the tang but smaller than the ricasso/bolster. The plate lays on the anvil with the tang poked through the plate hole and through the hardie hole. Since the blade itself was not yet forged, I could hit directly down on the end of the bar which serves to upset the rough transition and square it up. I had to reround the ricasso sides and reupset the transition repeatedly till I had it close and could file and grind things to finish shape. Make sense?

This picture might help. I dont have a picture of it in the plate hole.

 

Lin, you are the man, sweet little knife
Dana

you make everything sound so simple lol.  that looks super hard id hit everything around the knife but some how still miss it completly working on such a small knife blade. i tip my imaginary hat to you!!

Yup, makes complete sense, Lin.  Thanks for the explanation of your process.  I always find it interesting how smiths come up with different processes and end up with a similar product.

Jeremy

You are just amazing! Every knife you make is perfect!

Thanks.
I've been studying blacksmith techniques and one of them is to use what they call a bolster (the plate with the hole in it) to make heads on spikes, bolts, pins, etc. I used this same idea to form the ricasso transition to tang. This was just an exercise in forging to explore the possibilities of larger projects. The knife is so small (6 inches OAL)that I did not use any pins. I did file notches into the tang to insure a good grip. I cant imagine this knife will have too much torque applied to it. Normally I would use some form of mechanical fastener.

Hey Lin, I found an anvil in an old barn the other day,would you have time to forge a ship for me? Saw the hammer you forged,now this awesome little knife.A ship shouldn't take you any time at all!!

Good grief...what a beautiful little knife!  Just beautiful!    

QuoteOriginally posted by dcmeckel:
Hey Lin, I found an anvil in an old barn the other day,would you have time to forge a ship for me? Saw the hammer you forged,now this awesome little knife.A ship shouldn't take you any time at all!!

Wow!!! Thats what I call a masterpiece. Im proud to know we have such craftsmen left here in America. I probably shouldnt ask but should we expect to see a few more of these beauties?

Whats the trick to getting the round part so round? Looks like it was turned on a lathe. Is that all hand worked?

                Mark

AMAZING BUT NO SURPRISE.<><