I am finishing up a really cool old Japanese meat cleaver I found a few months back at a yard sale.
It is carbon steel as opposed to the more modern ones which are almost all stainless steel. It was quite neglected and rusty when I paid one dollar for it. I first noticed the wood handle was exotic maple of some sort. Decided it was worth saving. I have completely restored it to shiny, razor sharp perfection.
I have been baking layers of grape seed oil into the wood and on the steel surfaces in the oven for most of the day. Oven at about one hundred eighty five degrees Fahrenheit - low as my oven will go.
About done. Almost time to heat up the oven and put in some cornbread.
My SO makes knives. Right now just the handles but we're hoping to build a forge at some point so he can make the blades as well.
I do not have forge.
I have made a few knives of interesting shapes from known tool steel, like files and large cut-off saw blades. To temper I use a large plumber's torch that I have owned since I was a teen. I have a large head for it and it gets really hot between a couple of bricks. It creates plenty of heat to destroy the magnetic properties of any metal I have tried it on. I am no expert, but I have had some successes.
I am always looking for decent knives which just need to have their handles restored. I always look for handles in every wood pile I see.
Much of the maple, cherry and oak that my buddy down the alley uses in his winter wood-fired whole house heating stove have shown me some great wood with which to work.
Obviously, instead of calling the police on him when he is cutting near dark like fucking morons do to their neighbors (think of that rockhuncher guy bragging about calling the cops on HIS neighbor when the sawing started), I go down and offer a hand chain sawing, splitting and stacking. In return he offers me all the wood I want for my own outdoor fire pit and small woodworking projects. Kind of makes sense to go over and help neighbors instead of starting a fight with one every time they start up a tool that makes noise.
I even took a small four pound sledge I found on the side of the road with a broken handle and replaced it with a nice cherry "short" handle for bench work if I ever need a heavy hand tool. That beautiful cherry handle came right out of my neighbor's burn pile.
I have been looking at the work of a "northern" blacksmith, online. I think he is Swedish, so, you know, Odeon probably knows him and all.
His name is (excuse the use of a plain English keyboard) Torbjorn Ahman. He has a youtube channel and you get to see his massively "primitive" style (I mean the guy uses a hammer to make stuff!) develop into some amazing tools, hardware work, even some beautiful art at times. He has made iris flowers, candle sconces, many of the tools he needs to make the next thing and scary Halloween spiders from his forge and his hammers.
It is mesmerizing!
Check out his website:
http://www.torbjornahman.se/
