Knife making-Day 1

Today I spent the day making a knife over at Pieh Tools Blacksmithing Supplies, where I took the blacksmithing workshop last year. This year it is a knife making workshop with world renowned knife maker, Ray Rybar. With the Holidays around the corner, the timing wasn't great, but I could not pass up a chance to learn from this extremely talented crafts person. We started off with a section of coil spring. I was a little late, as today there was school, but i'm assuming it came off a car. Before beginning, we heard about the different kinds of steel, and the best ones to use for knives. High carbon steel is quite strong, but can be brittle and is difficult to work with, so we used a medium grade, which can also be quite strong, and somewhat more forgiving than steel with a higher carbon content. Then a demo, and off to the forge.

I forgot my D70 in the morning, so I didn't shoot the early couple of stages. First we had to straighten out the spring over the anvil, then we used the power hammer to flatten it out. In the above shot, I have started to form the blade end.

That's Ray on the right and Amy, the owner of Pieh tools. It's always nice when the pro gives your piece a little help!

Starting to look like something...

I was working the handle end at this point, letting it cool so i could figure out a good length.

Almost finished for the here, the handle needs a little more tapering, then a grinding to get the 'profile', or general shape the knife will be before sanding it clean.

Ok, really, how COOL is that?!

Stay tuned....