Sidearms & Scatterguns Any knifemakers?

[bourbonbent]

I regularly see the threads pertaining to knives and knife selection, wondering if there are any other knifemakers around here?

If so, share some of your work.

Alternatively, if anyone has questions on steel selection, heat treat, construction styles, etc to help with the selection of a knife, post it up. Seemed to me like there should be a thread to ask questions and share work or favorite custom knives, etc.

A little about me. I’m mostly a bladesmith, I forge and do stock removal, bowies and other big stuff, hunting knives, fighters (as much as I hate that term for a knife), folders, bushcraft, etc. I do a lot of dabbling. My area of expertise is controlled heat treat of forging steels, and forging blades by hand. I also have experience with “super” steels such as Vanadis 4 Extra.

Here’s one of mine, same one that’s my avatar:

 

[diverdon]

I like your work. Very graceful lines. What is the Ivory looking handle material?

 

[bourbonbent]

Thanks! I try to make them nice to look at after I make them perform.

It’s ivory paper micarta, I didn’t have time to get a piece of walrus ivory that would have worked for it, but this stuff turned out pretty good. The guy that owns it now beats the dog shit out of it and is glad for the micarta.

 

[Aaros143]

Forged blades are a weakness of mine. Especially japanese blades.

 

[bourbonbent]

Forged blades are a weakness of mine. Especially japanese blades.

You might like this one then, I got kind of a wild hair and wanted to try a bunch of random stuff out and it happened to work.

It’s W2 steel, brass, fossil walrus ivory, stacked micarta, and mun ebony. I had a sloyd knife blade I’d forged and ground on a 14” wheel for a shallow hollow Scandinavian grind, for detail carving and light work, and wanted to try out a composite handle. I had no idea what the wood was until I cut into it and started working it.

 

[Aaros143]

Excellent work sir. A traditional japans tango is a thing of beauty.

 

[Mwalex]

James, I am guessing you are Mayfly Forge? Can you post some pics of your folders? Finished or work in progress would be great. Thanks so much.

 

[bourbonbent]

James, I am guessing you are Mayfly Forge? Can you post some pics of your folders? Finished or work in progress would be great. Thanks so much.

Yup, that’s me. I haven’t worked on much of anything in awhile for health reasons, but here’s the last folder I finished:

My take on a slimline trapper, with a forged W2 blade and spring. 6ALV4 titanium liners, G10 scales, stainless pins and an Ampco 45 bronze shadow for the pivot. Won’t be doing that again, but I like the knife and will be doing more of this pattern.

 

[Mwalex]

Beautiful build and I hope your health issues have gotten better.

 

[bourbonbent]

Beautiful build and I hope your health issues have gotten better.

Thanks! I appreciate that.

Sort of, I’m slowly getting back to work and knocking the rust off. I’ll have some stuff to post on IG here before too much longer then I’ll turn it back on. It needs to be about my work, not being sick. That shit is depressing lol.

 

[Maggot]

I regularly see the threads pertaining to knives and knife selection, wondering if there are any other knifemakers around here?

If so, share some of your work.

Alternatively, if anyone has questions on steel selection, heat treat, construction styles, etc to help with the selection of a knife, post it up. Seemed to me like there should be a thread to ask questions and share work or favorite custom knives, etc.

A little about me. I’m mostly a bladesmith, I forge and do stock removal, bowies and other big stuff, hunting knives, fighters (as much as I hate that term for a knife), folders, bushcraft, etc. I do a lot of dabbling. My area of expertise is controlled heat treat of forging steels, and forging blades by hand. I also have experience with “super” steels such as Vanadis 4 Extra.

Here’s one of mine, same one that’s my avatar:

View attachment 7084845

Nice work. Member Swirchblade is into making knives and another member sounds like he might be ...spblademaker. Drop them a pm,

Maggot

 

[Switchblade]

I'm just starting out, stock removal, bang some hammer finish into a few things. First blade for sale too. Tanto style blades. Currently working on 3 EDC Tanto's, and two kaiken's

 

[bourbonbent]

@Switchblade if there’s anything I can help out with, just let me know. Feel free to PM me. Knives are a whole lot of fun to make.

Here’s an 11” L6 cutter I did for camp use, color case hardened 8620 fittings and mortised tang curly ash:

That’s a hickory, that knife gets absolutely abused everywhere it goes.

 

[bourbonbent]

Figured I’d share this one too. I really dig forged integrals, and I only use hand hammers and an anvil with tooling. That’s just because I don’t have a power hammer or forging press yet.

Anyway, here it is. Forged from W1 drill rod, auto hamon/temper line, sambar stag pinned on with stainless pins.

I’m not the best leatherworker yet, and the machine is annoying to use so I’m going back to an awl and harness needle saddle stitching.

 

[Spblademaker]

Now that’s my kind of shizzle.

 

[Spblademaker]

We used to quench is some concoction my buddy called Godart’s Goo. Just did edge quench. It hardened the edge and point and left the spine softer, all in one shot.

 

[bourbonbent]

We used to quench is some concoction my buddy called Godart’s Goo. Just did edge quench. It hardened the edge and point and left the spine softer, all in one shot.

There are a lot of ways to accomplish a differential hardening, the best and most consistent way I’ve found is with a commercial quenchant (Parks 50, 7 gallons), and a controlled oven. I use Satanite refractory when I want to develop a pattern or a very defined line. The rest is steel selection. W1 and W2 are very shallow hardening steels, so is 1095, and will readily take a hamon. In fact, it’s difficult to impossible to get them to fully harden. This makes them ideal for use where a fully martensitic blade is not desired, or when a hamon/line is desired.

I’ve found that by quenching the entire blade down beyond the tang/ricasso shoulders, I get a more predictable heat treat. Steel does weird things sometimes. For a lot of purposes, I don’t want a differential heat treat. I use steels that want to through harden for those purposes. CruForgeV has been very impressive for me, and I’m using other steels for other things. I find I get my best results from known steels and a carefully controlled heat treat, everything after that is just embellishment and making it as strong as I can.

 

[Spblademaker]

I’ve used 1070/1080 and 1095 for forging, as with O1. My buddy uses 52100 and some handmade Damascus. We used coal forges. And I probably haven’t made anything in the last 5 yrs. spending too much time behind the trigger. And no one wants the learn the old techniques anymore.

 

[bourbonbent]

@Spblademaker I forge in coal and gas. Some things are better to forge in gas, some things suck to forge in gas, so I have the coal.

I’m working on this one for my brother to knock of the rust, as I’m able to work. W2 forged from 3/4” round in coal by hand, hot cut from the parent bar with an anvil hardy tool.

I believe in being versed in the old ways as well as the new, being well rounded is never a bad thing. Plus, coal is more fun. I actually prefer forged finishes and stuff like that, people just want to see more of the art leaning stuff and that’s fun too.

 

[Quarter Horse]

You do some very nice work. Do You forge stainless?

 

[bourbonbent]

@Quarter Horse thanks!

I do, but I don’t typically forge stainless blade steel. Just stainless for fittings and whatnot. Reason being, most stainless does not forge well without serious machinery, and stainless cutlery steels are also not usually designed to be forged. I plan to mess around with it a lot more when I either get a power hammer or build a press.

 

[Speedarino]

Bourbonbent nice work, do you have a website?

 

[bourbonbent]

Bourbonbent nice work, do you have a website?

I do, it’s not very good though. My Instagram account is the same as my username here.

Website here.

 

[Speedarino]

Thank you

 

[502Chevelle]

You guys are doing some nice work. I’ve always wanted to give this a try. Been motivated by some of the blending of old school with modern materials like they are doing over at Half Faced Blades. Also like the usability of the Dozier line. I do some woodwork and stuff, so worst case scenario, if I bought a grinder and it didn’t work out, I’d be able to use it for other stuff. Keep putting your pics up! I might get off my butt and give this a whirl.