pipemakersforum.com

I saw there were a few other knife makers here, so I thought I'd share....

Various states


Hand rubbed with spalted maple burl


Tres Amigos


Working out a hamon


Another differential heat treat


O1 in African Blackwood

Nice knives man. Where are you at in N Texas ?

Thanks Edward. We're moving to Van Alstyne this weekend.

Nice knives Jeremy.
You need a website to sell a few.
When I got my 6.5x54MS I got a Styer knife for it.
Now I've got a 25/06 Sauer on the way and will look for an accompanying knife.......

Thanks Rolf. I have considered putting up a site, but:

A) I do IT for a living and pretty much hate it. If I get to the point where I decide to go full-time, I'll get one together.
B) When my day job sends me traveling (which has been a lot lately), I get way behind on orders and end up with a bunch of frustrated customers.

I feel humbly flattered that I've been able to keep as many orders in the que as I have just on word of mouth and posting past work on forums. But at the same time, I feel horrible when a customer has to wait several months because I simply don't get any/enough time in the shop.

I have some irons in the fire right now that I hope are going to change things and I'll have more of my life back.

I wish you luck. I know how you feel, I run a small engineering business with around ten employees and I'm over it too. It would be nice to get back to a simpler life with less worries and do something you want to do rather than have too.

Very nice Jeremy! I love O1 - in my opinion, it has got to be the best non-stainless blade steel out there.

Thanks Kurt.

I agree 100%. You have to polish O1 up pretty good to prevent rust, but it holds a beautiful edge. I always push my hunting customers that direction, but some insist on stainless.

There is still something good and pure about a nice hamon in 1095, but vanadium makes me happy.

I'm not a huge fan of anything stainless. Chromium has to be soaked at 1800*F to break it down, and at that temperature, you get a lot of grain growth. S30V makes up for it pretty well at 4% vanadium, but it's a pain in the ass to work with IMO.

Another steel geek!!!

I've been resisting the stainless steels because, for practical hunting/survival use, I don't think they're well suited. You have to baby the edge, and if you do that, it's a major buzzkill. Take a blade of 5160 and you beat piss out of it on a hunting trip, and all you have to when you get back is freshen the edge. Try that on any of the modern stainless steels, and you have some real work in front of you when you return.

I love O1 for many reasons, but you're right - the active hamon on 1095 or 1084 is just gorgeous. And for kitchen knives, any of the 10xx steels North of .75% carbon is incredible.

Guilty as charged! The metallurgy and heat treating (in my opinion) is what makes a good knife.

I haven't done anything in 5160 in quite a while. I think I still have a stack of leaf springs somewhere. I feel a good, hearty camp knife coming on!

I agree with you on the stainless - especially the newer ones. Anything with 14% chromium and 1.2+% carbon is just brittle, useless crap to me. But still some insist because they read it on the internet. You know, like others are reading now.

Come on over to the dark side at the Bladesmith's Forums, we don't do stainless over there. Stainless is for people who don't know any better.

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/

Nice knives, by the way!

Very nice blades you have made there!

Thanks guys.

Alan, you and I have chatted on Don's forum. I haven't been on there in a while, mostly because it is (or was) more of a sword/seax crowd. They are neat and I learned a lot from that bunch (including you), but I'm more of a hunting knife kinda guy. I'll have to pop in there again sometime and see what the others are turning out now-days.

JV

D'oh! I thought you sounded familiar...

There's still a lot of swords and saxes, etc., but there are quite a few hunters as well.

I bought two blades a while back, thinking to try some knife making. Intention of making hunting knifes for me and the old man.
The steel in them is called: Carbon Steel: HRC 59 C-0,81 Mn-0,56 S-0,004 P-0,01 Si 0,35 V-0,161 Cr-0,54
Do you know if they're any good and if there is anything special to think about regarding them?
Just thought I'd pop the question here since you're talking knife steel

Best regards

KurtHuhn wrote:Another steel geek!!!

I've been resisting the stainless steels because, for practical hunting/survival use, I don't think they're well suited. You have to baby the edge, and if you do that, it's a major buzzkill. Take a blade of 5160 and you beat piss out of it on a hunting trip, and all you have to when you get back is freshen the edge. Try that on any of the modern stainless steels, and you have some real work in front of you when you return.

I love O1 for many reasons, but you're right - the active hamon on 1095 or 1084 is just gorgeous. And for kitchen knives, any of the 10xx steels North of .75% carbon is incredible.

I agree for the most part Kurt. Steel makers have basically been trying to make stainless steels that perform as well as thier carbon brothesr for a while now. A coated 5160 or 1095 is hard to beat IMHO. However, I do prefer SS for military/tactical use. The days where you spend your nights around the campfire talking about that days battle while oiling and stroping your blade is over. It is a 24/7 battlefied and knives get very little attention except when used. Throw in things like a maritime enviroment and SS has some perks.

SS definitely has its place in the world, and I agree - combat operations is one of them, especially in maritime environments. However, I wouldn't be the least bit hesitant to take a carbon steel blade into battle on dry land, even something as rust-happy as O1 really only needs minor care to keep it clean and sharp.

That said, I really have nothing against stainless steels. There are some very nice ones out there these days, and whether a given knife is SS or carbon is usually up to fitness for purpose, intended use, and (most importantly) the needs and demands of the customer.

Either way, rock on with the knife making! I'm really glad to see more people getting into that craft.