shocker

Thank you Nicolas, thats great to hear! I can go ahead with my knife as I had originally planned to now!

Forgot to say...sad day, just had to have the last of my gun dogs put down. I had three yellow Labs that I trained from puppies to work rough shooting with me. Harry, his sister Sybil and poor Hero who just went, were my constant companions until my accident. Harry and Syb were not the best lookers as far as breed standards go but were naturals, coming from working stock. Hero was show standard, from a Crufts winners line, a great looker but dumb as a bag of rocks. His retrieve lasted about 10ft at which point he had to come back to be reminded what it was he was supposed to be doing, then he

Thanks for the welcome guys ! Im enjoying working my way through the backpages and hitting that search function hard. Theres loads of talented people here and so much good info that it will keep me busy (and stop me actually doing anything else!) for a while. I have made a few posts already and Im sure, if I can behave myself, will be making many more. Im home!

Re- Solder- in a conversation on another forum I mentioned either silver soldering or brazing a bolster onto a blade. One of the others (who is a blade-smith) said that taking the blade, or even a part of it, to the necessary temperature would spoil the temper of the blade. Now you obviously know what you are on about SP, what do you think ?

May I recommend old files as a source of good barstock for knife making? Myself and others have been doing this for quite a while - going round second hand shops and stalls at shows, picking up old files for as little as 10p each (usually 50p-ish). The files can then be annealed to soften the HSS (or similar!) for working, a propane torch will usually be enough. Just make sure it cools slowly, one friend pushes the metal into a pile of sand, another shoves the hot bar into the earth. Then its cardboard template, grinder and so on, Harden the blade by heating and quenching, then hilt and

I have the same (or very similar) blank, bought at the CLA Game fair some years ago. I have, however, made knives myself in the past. I no longer have the space to have a forge at home as I live in a disabled adapted flat - the neighbours and authorities have a disappointing lack of tolerance of the flames and hammering. And swearing. Oh, so much swearing. Now I am limited to just dressing knives, as the OP has done, but this is nothing to scoffed at. Theres still a lot of ways to go wrong! My build is on hold just now, until I pick up some M6 brass bolts, or cut the thread on some qu

Hello all, just joined this fine site. I am a disabled, mainly wheelchair bound, recently put-out-to-grass farmer, ex- river/gamekeeper, stockman, hedgelayer, engineer...well. all sorts, you get the picture. I am currently in S.E Cornwall and still have strong family connections with livestock farming. I have recently joined a local Rifle and Pistol Shooting Club as this gives me access to the shooting that my mobility problems have kept me from. I currently own air rifles, all .22 calibre - Webley Vulcan, AGS PRC-1, Cometa 300 and an old BSA Cadet that the Mrs shoots. We both shoot liv