A DAY AT MACABEE KNIVES
If you look at the links on the right side of my site, you'll see one for Macabee Knives, which is the name Adlai Stein has given his forge. Adlai made a knife for me, which I like a lot, he's only about 4 hours away, and I've been wanting to learn hammer forging for a while now. So, I went down to Galloway, Ohio and spent a day learning from Adlai how to forge a knife. Until now, I've been doing nothing but stock removal, which, I've found, is easier on the body, but dirtier and smellier.
Adlai is a great teacher. He started me out with a bar of 3/4" 5160 and taught me how to draw it out as part of a comprehensive block of instruction, instead of making it easy by giving me a piece of metal which was already flat.
Here is the bar in his forge:
Next are a couple pictures of Adlai, showing me how this whole hammering thing works:
I have got to make myself a propane forge. It's efficient and clean, and low-maintenance. And it gives off a lot more heat than my charcoal forge at home.
Here I am, giving it a try.
Let me tell something to all of you who have never held a hammer and beaten metal. It is frickin' hard. It was a hot day, and after about 100 hits with Adlai's 3 lb hammer, the skin on my palm was pruned with sweat, making it soft. Blisters followed in no time. I take pekiti-tirsia, and have calluses all over my hand. I still got four blisters that day, including a new one under one of my larger calluses.
So, figuring I'd try and save the skin on my palm, I switched to the 5lb hammer I brought with me. After all, I do exercise regularly, and 5 lbs isn't that heavy, is it?
[Waits for the laughter from the experienced smiths to die down...]
Anyway, yeah, it saved my hand for a while, but it burned out my arm and shoulder in about 5 heats. Oh, well. Sometimes you never know until you learn the hard way.
Finally done hammering and on to the belt grinder. This was somewhat familiar territory for me, as I do stock removal. However, I do a lot of hand filing and never used a belt sander before. Adlai taught me how to do a flat grind, and pointed out that it works, even on a recurve knife like I was working on.
And here is the finished product, along with (not-so-tired) teacher on the left and (exhausted) student on the right.
Thanks again, Adlai.
If you look at the links on the right side of my site, you'll see one for Macabee Knives, which is the name Adlai Stein has given his forge. Adlai made a knife for me, which I like a lot, he's only about 4 hours away, and I've been wanting to learn hammer forging for a while now. So, I went down to Galloway, Ohio and spent a day learning from Adlai how to forge a knife. Until now, I've been doing nothing but stock removal, which, I've found, is easier on the body, but dirtier and smellier.
Adlai is a great teacher. He started me out with a bar of 3/4" 5160 and taught me how to draw it out as part of a comprehensive block of instruction, instead of making it easy by giving me a piece of metal which was already flat.
Here is the bar in his forge:
Next are a couple pictures of Adlai, showing me how this whole hammering thing works:
I have got to make myself a propane forge. It's efficient and clean, and low-maintenance. And it gives off a lot more heat than my charcoal forge at home.
Here I am, giving it a try.
Let me tell something to all of you who have never held a hammer and beaten metal. It is frickin' hard. It was a hot day, and after about 100 hits with Adlai's 3 lb hammer, the skin on my palm was pruned with sweat, making it soft. Blisters followed in no time. I take pekiti-tirsia, and have calluses all over my hand. I still got four blisters that day, including a new one under one of my larger calluses.
So, figuring I'd try and save the skin on my palm, I switched to the 5lb hammer I brought with me. After all, I do exercise regularly, and 5 lbs isn't that heavy, is it?
[Waits for the laughter from the experienced smiths to die down...]
Anyway, yeah, it saved my hand for a while, but it burned out my arm and shoulder in about 5 heats. Oh, well. Sometimes you never know until you learn the hard way.
Finally done hammering and on to the belt grinder. This was somewhat familiar territory for me, as I do stock removal. However, I do a lot of hand filing and never used a belt sander before. Adlai taught me how to do a flat grind, and pointed out that it works, even on a recurve knife like I was working on.
And here is the finished product, along with (not-so-tired) teacher on the left and (exhausted) student on the right.
Thanks again, Adlai.
posted by Panday at 1:37 PM
7 Comments:
Good job, Steve. Was wondering when you'd get back on the horse. And...5#...Yeah, you go, Girl.
On an unrelated subject: I thought my shop was random. But there I saw a lawn mower, toilet plunger, vacuum cleaner and a bowling ball - and that wasn't even looking hard.
Dan
Well done! Looks fascinating and a lot of hard work! I really like the finished product.
Panday, and I thought the pic in the top right hand corner was you in a suit of armour...LOL
Wow, that looks like hard work. Just out of curiosity, are you friends with the guy at elm tree forge? It looks like he does the same kind of stuff you do.
...well not exactly a suit of armour (ahem)
Panday,
Check your pm at the Pitbull forum.
Doug
I think the propane idea is a good one. Some nights I still wake up coughing out the black lung you gave me that day in front of your garage.
Heaviest hammer I use on any regular basis is 4 pounds. I've got a six, but only for special needs.
For anything other than flattening/drawing out heavy stock, leveling out a piece, etc., mostly use 2 & 3 pound hammers.
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