Hand Finishing.

I made a Japanese sen about a year ago. The sen is basically a drawknife for metal thats used to create a flat surface. After trying to use it a few times with minimal results, I put it on a shelf and didnt think much about it for a while. Recently, I did a little research on the sen and decided to give it another try.

This time I was determined to learn the ways of this tool. After some practice I started to get the hang of it and man do they work! It only takes a few strokes to start shaving metal. I was amazed at how surfaces I thought were flat were really quite uneven. The sen is scraped across the surface and takes away all the high spots giving you a much flatter surface than you can get from filing alone. This is a big deal when you are trying put flat handle scales on your knife!

This is just another example of an old world tool that is still finding use with a select few smiths out there. If you are making knives by hand, it is something you should consider.

Larry Sharp

Two new larger knives.

Back with more! Here are two larger knives both made from leaf spring.

The recurve knife has a 7" blade with another one of my cotton cord over camo handles. This time in a tiger stripe pattern.

The Persian style knife has a 6.5" blade with a series of turks knotts for the handle. This was incredibly time consuming and took almost as long to do it as it did to make the knife!

I have another knife a little smaller than these about half finished so I need to find some motivation to make some sheaths!

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome.

Larry Sharp

New coil spring knife.

This is the latest knife Ive made from my supply of coil spring. The blade is 3.5" long and is 7" overall.
The handle is army digital camo with a cotton cord wrap on top.
I still have not decided what type of sheath to make for it, but Im leaning towards a neck sheath.
Comments and questions are always welcome.
Larry Sharp

Latest Knife

I have been practicing with some coil spring steel and this is the first result. The blade is 4 inches with a blued finish. The handle is wrapped with hemp and covered with dyed cotton cord. The same was done to the sheath to tie it together.

The steel is left very hard to help with edge retention. I find this works well for small knives that do not experience alot of shock.

Send me an email if you are interested in owning this knife or one like it.

Larry Sharp

New link.

Be sure to check my links section. I have added a link to my Photobucket site so you can see some cool pictures of me and my work.
Larry

Knifemaking essentials part 2.

Here in my second post about the tools needed for bladesmithing I will talk about the forge.

The forge I will be describing is a Japanese style side blast forge. For the shell of this forge Im using a small steel drum cut in half length wise. I cut a notch in one side for the air supply, ( no soft rock jokes here ), and notches on each end so long blades can pass through.

The shape of the forge will be made from fire brick and adobe. To make the adobe simply mix equal parts earthen clay and sand, throw a few handfulls of wood ash and add water, dont make it too wet though or it will not hold its shape while forming. I used adobe to form the first layer and fire pot( the place where the air comes in ) and built it up with fire brick with more adobe for motar and to cover the air pipe. The pictures that follow will show the steps I took to get to the finished product.

A few important tips are, use 2 inch steel pipe for your air inlet and angle it slightly downward. Make your fire pot about 5 inches wide by 8 inches long and about 2 inches below the bottom of the pipe, I used a fire brick as a form. Let everything dry for a couple days before building your first fire.

A charcoal forge needs less air than most people think. I use an electric blower from an old wood stove and choke it down to maybe 10 % normal output. These forges use a good amount of charcoal as well so turn off your blast while your work is not in the fire.

This is a very simple forge to build and has been used to make knives and swords for ceturies, it should serve anyone who builds it well. In my next post Ill talk about the anvil as well as hammaers and tongs. Thanks for reading. If anyone needs help or advice with any of this feel free to send me an email.

Larry Sharp

Knifemaking essentials part 1

I have decided to write a series of posts explaining some of the main essentials to the craft of bladesmithing. For the first of these posts I will talk about a quality feul source. Charcoal. Now we are not talking about charcoal briquettes from your bar-b-que, we mean natural lump charcoal which you can make yourself.

Charcoal is a good bladesmithing feul for a few reasons. First is that it is a clean, hot burning feul that does not impart impurities into the steel you are working with. Another reason to choose charcoal is for its ease of use and availability. Not to be overlooked is also how easy it is to build a charcoal burning forge.

You can buy lump charcoal from some grocery stores and restraunt supply houses and it works very well. I make all my own charcoal from scrap lumber that I get from construction sites. There is usually a house going up near most of us with a pile of junk lumber laying out front. Just ask before you take it.

Charcaol is easy to make. All you need is a large steel drum with a lid you can throw over it and the scap wood youve collected. Cut up the lumber with a saw to about 12 to 18 inch pieces. Then I will split those pieces with a machette into roughly 2x2 inch strips. See the picture for a look at the wood prior to burning. Start a fire in your drum and start adding the wood. When your drum is full, let the wood burn for a while till all the wood is black in color. Throw on the lid and let it burn with the lid on for a few hours. For me it usually takes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. After it has burned long enough, I will tip the drum over and spray the charred wood with a hose to stop it from burning. Shovel out the new charcoal into a wheel barrow and spray it down some more. I have a drying rack I made from some metal screen and 2x4's that I shovel it onto. This also helps romve alot of the dust as well. After about a day in the sun it is dry and ready to use as forge feul. I store it in a plastic garbage can until I need it, just make sure it is completly dry before you take off the drying rack.

Check out the pictures of the wood before and after to see what it looks like. My next post will describe the forge used to burn your charcoal.

Some of my past works.

Here are a few pictures of some knives I have made in the past. I will post more as I make them as well as progress shots explianing how I make them and the philosophy used in their design. Feel free to comment on anything you see here and of course if you would like one of these for yourself.

Welcome to my blog.

My name is Larry Sharp and I am slowly learning the art of bladesmithing. If you search the web you will find more and more intrest in handcrafted knives and cutting tools. My goal in the craft is to minimize the use of power tools and focus on doing as much as I can by hand. All of the knives you see here are and will continue to be hand forged and finished with very little "machine work" involved.
I will steadily be adding more and more content so be sure to check back to see whats new.