Blacksmithing Projects Journal

[56vette461]

I love the use of exotic woods in your projects. You have a great talent to bring out the beauty of the grain in the finished pieces.

I also sent a PM regarding some of your iron work. Thanks

 

[Radio Ron w4ron]

I really like your knives.
But what I really like is the green and gray barn wood you use as
a prop for the photos. I'd love to have some just like it.

.

 

[DoghouseForge]

Thanks guys,

56vette I got your message and I will write a response for you tomorrow at some point. Its simple but will require some heat...

Ron, That barn wood is worth more than my knife handle scale stash....Its not going anywhere.. lol...

 

[Radio Ron w4ron]

That's what I figured...

 

[DoghouseForge]

So, The Doghouse has gone and entered a contest... The Garden and Gun "best made in the south awards"... we decided to submit the Cut-Away Chef being as its the most original and Signature piece we build. To win something like that would be incredible...but I'm not jaded to the fact that there are other amazing builders in our category.



Some other cool stuff that's been underway has be a Give Away Contest on Instagram...If any of you folks have and Instagram follow along @doghouseforge

We had 85 entries and reading peoples excited comments kept me entertained for a couple weeks to say the least. The prize was a signature Ambrosia/Walnut/padauk serving board and matching Cheese Cleaver. These will soon be sold as sets in the doghouseforge.com store so it was a fun way to introduce it to the almost 1000 followers currently subscribing to the instagram feed.

Here's some shots I took this week for the listing photos...













www.doghouseforge.com has now been updated to include a newsletter. Aggie has been working his fingers off trying to navigate the endless web design tutorials and get these gems up and running. So if your interested in getting an email newsletter with updates on newly released "ready to ship" items, new blog entries, and promotional stuff that's happening at the Doghouse jump over to the page and sign up. While your there check out the other entries and let us know what you think. The most recent might include a embarrassing memory from my childhood.

http://www.doghouseforge.com/blog/2...e-caspi-a-solution-to-drips-and-growing-pains




Blade building process current specs


There are several members that have contacted me about a current process update...Meaning forging though heat treatment and final finishing. This means SCIENCE CONTENT!!!!! sweet!

So if you need allot of detail I will link the corresponding pages and post numbers throughout this entry to fill you in but for this update I'm just going to list the specs.


Current technical directory and info:

Stock selection - Farrier Rasp - Heller Brand - W-2 steel is a water quenched steel.

Forging - slow heat up to 1700 -1900 deg... forge evenly alternating sides and direction...

for a detailed forging post use this link - post #263 http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200204&page=14

Normalizing/Stress relief #1 - Heat to 1450deg (non magnetic) and hold for 15 min. Block the forge ports off with insulated blanket to maintain slow controlled decline of temp. The normal timeline for this is 3-4 hours before its cool enough to touch (even then its sometimes still hot)

After forging the rasp into workable flattened billets I perform this step, before cutting the profiles. This relaxes the steel molecules after the forging assault and softens it to make cutting the profile easier.

Profile and Stamp and flatten -

Draw shape and cut blank into the design profile. Clean up edges and do final shape work on the grinder, slowly bring temp up to 1200deg (indirect heat) and stamp with makers mark. Fine tune flatness at this point.

Normalization #2 - repeat previous normalization

Grind - take it to 90% finished edge and blade thickness. Alternate sides, control over grinds and uneven thickness issues as best as possible.

Drill Pin Set holes and epoxy bridges - do not forget to do this before you harden! or you will ruin several bits tying to get it done afterwards. Choose pin set location and drill extra holes for your glue bridges at various sections along the tang.

Pre-heat - Indirect heat. use of baffles is recommended when using the forge to preform hardening process. Kiln or oven simply need to control the rate of heat build. As an example a 1/8" piece of steel needs no less than 12 minutes to heat from room temp up to hardening temp. DO NOT RUSH THIS STEP!!!!

Normalization #3 - repeat previous normalization

Pre heat #2 - repeat previous pre heat instructions

Harden - After completing second preheat to 1450deg (non magnetic or critical temp) remove knife from the heat source. Be careful to keep it vertical as a horizontal removal will most likely allow the blade to bend under the heat and forces of gravity. Cool immediately in quenching medium... I have had success with both differential quenching techniques and full submersion techniques. Differential has a great risk for warping, but regardless pre-heating the water to just below boiling in either technique drastically cuts down the warp issue. (so will keeping your grind thickness even and performing the normalization as previously mentioned)

Tempering #1 - do not try to adjust or straighten any warp or issues you find with the blade after the hardening.... run a tempering cycle first. 480deg for 1.5 hours with natural in oven cool down is my personal system. After a round of tempering you can clamp the blades to a flat plate if needed before the second round of tempering. This will remove most any minor warp related issues.

Tempering #2 - repeat 480 deg for 1.5 hours with natural in oven cool down.

Finish grind - complete remaining 10% grind work . Try not to use less than 220 grit from this point as it greatly reduces the scratches. Most buffers and rouge systems can remove scratches up to 320 grit... Put an edge on it, and check for evenness but don't worry about the final edge at this point because its gonna get taped up in the handling steps anyway.

Handling - several post of techniques and material usage can be found throughout the thread.
one reference is here post #149 - http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200204&page=8

Finish grind edge and buff - final cutting edge applied and buffed to desired polish level. After this step try to avoid handling the blade and clean with alcohol if needed to remove oils. Once you have put the knife into service and started the patinas development this becomes a non issue.



That's the process at this point... over 20 hours is spent in heat treat stages!!! so don't be in a rush!

Here's the link to decoding steel and the post with the heat /color reference charts. The Rockwell tempering chart is in this post as well. I have added and changed the process since this post but the parameters are still applicable.

post - #147
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200204&page=8


Don't be shy looking back through the thread. Lots of little tips and mistake posting have been scattered throughout the pages...

As I've always said, if you build one post it on here and lets see it..if your embarrassed don't be, just look back at my first builds...


So have a great week everyone and please come over to check out doghouseforge.com for the blog and newsletter...stuffs about to really get going over there and I wouldn't want any of you all to miss it.



JP

 

[drivesitfar]

i rarely reside on this side of GJ because i tend to want everything i see.

while i'm reading through and enjoying all the pictures and methods to make all these awesome things i have a question.

i have a client that has an awesome piece of steel that is 3 x 4 foot and 4 inches thick. it doesn't have a flaw that i can see on the entire face. it has a custom made stand for it so it sits flat about 3 feet off the ground. I want to buy it from him and take it to my shop, but i have a couple questions.

first of all how do i move it off my trailer since he is able to load it on with his forklift? i'm guessing it weighs close to a ton, but maybe you guys that move Acorn tables and such might know better. how can i move it 30 feet off my trailer without damaging it?

next question other than beating things flat as a pancake with one of my maybe 100 or 200 hammers what is the highest and best use for a nice piece of steel like this?

pictures are not the best, but maybe you get the idea. any help is always appreciated. sorry if i'm cluttering up your thread with this and if i should post somewhere else or start a thread please let me know and i will delete this.

thanks

 

[DoghouseForge]

i rarely reside on this side of GJ because i tend to want everything i see.

while i'm reading through and enjoying all the pictures and methods to make all these awesome things i have a question.

i have a client that has an awesome piece of steel that is 3 x 4 foot and 4 inches thick. it doesn't have a flaw that i can see on the entire face. it has a custom made stand for it so it sits flat about 3 feet off the ground. I want to buy it from him and take it to my shop, but i have a couple questions.

first of all how do i move it off my trailer since he is able to load it on with his forklift? i'm guessing it weighs close to a ton, but maybe you guys that move Acorn tables and such might know better. how can i move it 30 feet off my trailer without damaging it?

next question other than beating things flat as a pancake with one of my maybe 100 or 200 hammers what is the highest and best use for a nice piece of steel like this?

pictures are not the best, but maybe you get the idea. any help is always appreciated. sorry if i'm cluttering up your thread with this and if i should post somewhere else or start a thread please let me know and i will delete this.

thanks

I would rent a bobcat for the day and a flatbed trailer from Uhaul if you don't have one. Use those thick webbed vehicle recovery straps as a sling and pick it up with the bucket. When you get to your place lift and unload. If its going into somewhere the bobcat cant fit then rent a pallet jack from the same place you got the bobcat...


Questions are always welcome and I hope this helps but you might want to ask this in its own thread. Lots of the fab guys will have far greater experience than my own.

Thanks

JP

Also, as for use...usually those thick tables are for laying out stuff and having a completely flat surface. Forging on it wouldn't be recommended as its probably not hardened steel.

 

[drivesitfar]

thanks Doghouse.

i took your advice and did start a thread asking for advice so if you or any other the other members have any to share please do on that thread. here is the link so you don't have to search.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=257319

i'm asking about what the highest and best use of a 4 inch piece of steel that is 3 x 4 foot and on a stand. also how to move it off my trailer about 30 feet into my 25 x 25 foot shop.



thanks guys and keep up the great work.

 

[DoghouseForge]

As many of you all know I moved recently...which means my wife is in overdrive with the new house "needs" as for furniture and decor.

There is a catalog that arrived in the mail the other week/month.. "Arhaus"....

Remove from mail and throw away immediately!!!!!


Its a very nice furniture store and catalog... that I will not deny, but my wife has very expensive taste and when very expensive merchandise meets very expensive taste you get very depressing bank statements.

She found this (reproduction) "old" cast iron base console table. No real definition as to what it once was, but it had a very real $2600 price tag... "this is so cool, I know its allot but we wont ever need another one" ... NO!

So the pouting commenced... and I cannot stand when she is unhappy...for several reasons...so I needed to find an affordable solution.

Last week I was driving to the shop for a little relaxing and knife forging... I happened to pass one of these old Sewing machine bases out in front of a junk store... I had seen someone make end tables from a matching pair before but it gave me an idea for a cool TV console table solution... So the hunt for a second cast iron sewing machine base was on...Luckily, at least here in the south, this didn't take much hunting... The first base I traded the shop owner for. He needed some vintage patio furniture welded and I have a small welder in my horseshoeing rig so I backed into the loading area and did a few minutes work in trade for the $50 price tag he had on the base. Even got him to throw in an old 10lb hammer.

The second one required that i go to the "vintage warehouse".... this place freaks me out!!!!!!!!!! its so scary inside...10000 sq feet of BAD fake attempts at replicating the cool trends in up-cycled materials and just all around poor taste. However, I found another sewing machine base. It was hidden under a "barn wood" top that i actually removed in the store and left laying against the counter... The owners we excited to put it to use somewhere else in the space...

The goal here was not to get ******* in this project and to complete the fab work in one afternoon... I set a budget of $250 and so far I had spent nothing on the first and $50 on the second base...

Here's a photo of the two bases




Next i needed to go to Lakeland Mill-Work and Hardwood Supply and find the wood selection for the build. Initially, walnut was on my mind but the awesome shop owner looked at the pics of my new houses built-ins and trim and suggested mahogany. I never even look at the mahogany..."Not exciting enough"...

Live and learn....

Remember...my goal was to have this built in the remaining 3 hours of the work day...which meant solid slabs..no glue ups... Mr. Jon, liked the idea and suggested i go with a 2" thick board for the top and a 1" thick board for the shelf. Then he said, "its been a long time since I put it there, but you might find a very special piece of wood at the bottom of the mahogany pile...It's just under 2" thick and should be wide enough for your needs..."

30 minutes of moving every board off the rack, re stacking every board, and one pass through the shops drum sander later....

Whoo-Ahh!!!!



Back at the shop I set up the bases and decided to keep the more decrotive "Singer" base in tact. A little PB blaster even got the wheel and foot pedal working again... Sorry "No name base"...I only want part of you...



Next was to remove the Outside leg from the second base and get it positioned across from the main unit. easy enough...


The shelf created a slight issue because I didn't want to distract from the look by adding bulky brackets and I personally don't have the ability to weld cast Iron so fabing some brackets out of aluminum flat bar and using the drill to carefully knock 1/4" holes in the frame work was the best I came up with. To make something substantial for the shelf to sit on i broke a couple 90 deg bends in some 1/8" aluminum flat bar and made the bolt past through more of an oval shape to allow for adjustment in height if needed. These got attached to the plates that were installed previously, and the shelf overhang is enough that unless you are down looking through the piece the brackets are hidden and the shelf appears to just "be" in place.

Some trim work on the brackets and some black paint really helped blend them into the structure. I used the flap disc to blend them into the same contours before painting them.






So BAMM! table built and it was only 545pm! score!

Surprised the wife and showed up at home with it...

"I wanna see it finished" ... will we ever win?


The wood was $160 for both large boards and included the planning and sanding work. If you buy the lumber from them they do the mill-work at no charge which is worth its weight in gold...

The mahogany was 7.99BF for future reference.

Used Polycrylic so it would be washable and slightly more durable to my 2 year old's crayon attacks.




Sunday afternoon it was in place! and she decided she liked it...

The TV hanger was pretty easy to install but I had to run the wires through the wall and add a "hidden" sleeve for the power cord in order to keep it nice and tidy because the table has an open back. This took longer than building the dang table but was definitely worth it.

In place and awaiting "styling"



I'm pretty busy the rest of this week so I took some after pics tonight in hopes of getting the post up after the kids had gone to sleep... my wife was not pleased...

"its not done yet...I'm still switching things out and deciding if I like them on the table"

So please everyone! when you see my wife around town this week please don't judge her for the unfinished style work...

Oh! and dont judge me for the stupid 25ft of internet cable that i forgot to unplug and move to somewhere else... like the trash...since nothing even has plugs for cables anymore and everything, including the TV's internet connection is wireless. (small rant, sorry)













I forgot to mention that i used the pressure washer to clean off the dirt and then clear Shellac from the spray can to seal it all back up... It had some awesome finish details that the pictures don't pic up.



love these little wheels

 

[DoghouseForge]

oh...and Friday I went back to the shop to do the knife forging I was supposed to do Thursday...

New hammer is in the mix...that's a 4lb and 2lb rounding hammer to give you some reference of its heft...





11" chef... will be the biggest custom built Chef knife so far... and it goes to the Chef de Cuisine of "Farmhouse Evanston"








Have a great week... Its raining every day here and the farms are flooded...make farrier work hard... Even the barn animals realize the danger in the flooded fields and have adapted the buddy system...

Not everyone was as pleased with their buddy paring as others though...

 

[metal1313]

my future wife wants a table with singer bases, or old cast curved machinery legs bad, i was also gonna use walnut. seeing yours now makes me want to look around and find a beautiful slab of mahogany.

my plan was a glue up of two wide outer planks of walnut a 3" plank of figured lighter wood, prob maple, 6" plank of walnut then 3" maple and wide walnut. then a 1/2"x2 strip of blood wood or something similar inlaid into either end.

 

[56vette461]

i rarely reside on this side of GJ because i tend to want everything i see.

while i'm reading through and enjoying all the pictures and methods to make all these awesome things i have a question.

i have a client that has an awesome piece of steel that is 3 x 4 foot and 4 inches thick. it doesn't have a flaw that i can see on the entire face. it has a custom made stand for it so it sits flat about 3 feet off the ground. I want to buy it from him and take it to my shop, but i have a couple questions.


sorry if i'm cluttering up your thread with this and if i should post somewhere else or start a thread please let me know and i will delete this.

thanks

Dang, I go off for a little RnR and I miss an opportunity. First, you must not listen to Doghouse!!!

He is leading you astray. He was ok up to the point where you load it on the uhaul trailer, but after that he should have said to drive to the California border, any entry you desire, There you will meet the phantom stranger in the truck with the loader and transfer the worthless metal chunk and its table to said truck and the masked driver. Then you can return home free of that cumbersome metal scrap.

I can already tell that this plan ain't flying, so with that you get the GJ "You ****" award for the week.

Great find, I can think of only about a million uses Good Luck

 

[DoghouseForge]

my future wife wants a table with singer bases, or old cast curved machinery legs bad, i was also gonna use walnut. seeing yours now makes me want to look around and find a beautiful slab of mahogany.

my plan was a glue up of two wide outer planks of walnut a 3" plank of figured lighter wood, prob maple, 6" plank of walnut then 3" maple and wide walnut. then a 1/2"x2 strip of blood wood or something similar inlaid into either end.

That sounds like a beautiful layout...

My mind went down that road as well, but in order to get the length needed for the strips I would have had to buy full length boards of the other wood because i don't have anything long enough in the stack. A 72" long bloodwood board in its smallest dimension is usually 4/4 and 6" wide. That is $14/BF or $42 for the 72" x 6" X 1" board... and walnut is $9 BF so it blew my budget...

If you do it definitively post some pics!

JP

 

[DoghouseForge]

Finally came full circle with my Heat treat oven build.

"Toms73Novass" saved my but several times during this project and I owe him a huge thank you!

Here's the link to his Original oven build and the more recent forced air propane forge build he completed.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=237184





Here's some wrap up pics of the build:

I believe this is where we left off.


Got the 16 gauge kanthanal wire coiled and cut to length. The tension holds it in fairly well but little pieces can be used to push little tabs into the fire brick to hold any loose sections. Its run in a simple circuit with a dead post interrupt in the center. This breaks the coil into two sections so if it ever breaks I only have half to repair...




Used KO-Wool blanket to line the seems in the bricks and to fill any gaps in the brickwork... It started out like this but by the end there was a solid layer draped along each side... to hold it there until i slid the cover back over i just sprayed it with 3M glue. The top right pic in the first photo shows the outer shell with the full sheet.



the control box was a breeze to wire thanks to the diagram photos Tom sent.

heat sinks and relays


control box sits on the tab created by cutting the slot for it to slide into and got zip tied to it. The cover lays in the top seem of the control box to make a nice easy install and fit. A simple on/off switch was added into the power line for the controller. Later, a timer will be added into this line as well; allowing me to run cycles with automatic shut off.



The "scary stuff" ... that is until you realize its just a series of loops...


The only changes to Toms wiring were to add two additional Grounding points away from the power cord and into the unit itself. One from the controller and one from the thermocouple. This was to prevent something one of Aggie's electrical engineers called an Imaginary Interface Ground spike... hard to understand but easy to add a couple wires... so I chose the later.



all back together and ready to flip the switch...



The Controller is a bit of a P.I.A. but with a few preset notes from Tom we had it running... auto tune proved more useful than I thought as it set allot of the equation ratios for me. Just took a couple hours to run the full process.



Ran a few test heats with different metal thicknesses to relate my color chart to the thermocouple read out and its close but seems to be off 100 deg or so once it clears 1000+ deg. Not the end of the world but definitely something to work on. The highest I was able to get it after 2 hours of undisturbed (shut up Aggie) building was 1300+/- degrees.


loaded and ready to run the first true normalization cycle of the ovens career!


The little Racks were built by non other than the "AGGIE" himself during our visit this week... my daughter cried when he left... asked for him after her nap, and has been refusing to color unless "Aggie Guy" will color too...







I took these about 45min into the normalization cycle... the blades were at a nice dull red when I opened it, but everything cooled very quickly once the door was opened.




This was after i had the door open a bit from shooting pics, but the camera caught some crazy! heat exchange happening. such a cool pic. Look close at the handle sections and the orange rings




Over all this feels GREAT! feels good to complete this and it feels good to have done somehting i have never done before. Wiring/electricity scares the out of me! So while possibly a stupid fear, moving through it was a big success.

If you missed the first stages of the build -

The complete fabrication post is located here: post # 304

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200204&page=16


If you haven't been over to doghouseforge.com and signed up on the mailing list for our newsletter don't be shy. Lots going on in the near future and you wont wanna miss it.

This link should take you straight to it... bottom of the page -

http://www.doghouseforge.com/about/


Thanks for keeping up and try to stay cool...

JP

Over 100 every day last week...only one that had the right idea was little Luke

 

[toms73novass]

Looks awesome! This winter I plan on starting on the knife endeavor myself and then its payback time with questions

 

[MP&C]

Nice job on the oven!

 

[DoghouseForge]

Been busy around the Doghouse this past month.

Lots of changes! I've officially reworked the farrier business to allow a 50/50 split between the horseshoeing and the blacksmith shop. So that's right, I'm committed now just like my good friend Brad says, "Building an Empire".

Some highlights from this month include a 10" Cut-Away Chef and a set of knives built with Beyond Wood products hybrid scale materials.

The 10" Cut-away was handled in what has become the clear winner for most popular handle design style bloodwood, brass, and spalted maple. This particular maple sample happened to be a double threat and once sanded and polished the curly grains were exposed as well.









This set of knives is for a special Artist of The Month give away that I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in. Tom, of Beyond Wood Products is an incredible guy and has really helped ramp up the exposure of DogHouse Forge cutlery. This set is made up of a 8" Cut-Away Chef and 6" Chef utility. Both handled with one of Toms signature hybrid scale sets. This material is a breeze to work with and the particular handle design is Boxelder Burl with Emerald Isles acrylic blend.

here is a link to Toms sight for all you fellow knife makers, and turners.
http://beyondwoodproducts.com/








Check out Toms facebook page for a chance to enter and win these knives. He will be posting the rules in the next few days so give him a like and stay tuned.

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondWoodProducts


Another huge milestone was achieved here at the DogHouse. Aggie and Myself have been working very hard to bring several guest artist into the spot light at www.doghouseforge.com

Our first Guest Artist is an incredible Culinary Woodworking Company by the name of Leuty Wood

Check out the blog at http://www.doghouseforge.com/blog/ for the complete story but here's a sneak peak at the collection he has presented.








In other news I have entered a Knife makers "Build off" should prove epic with the other builder I'm up against... More details to come but i will say, Its going to be a Mega Cleaver.


Thanks to this awesome GJ community for sticking with me over this past year and a half...Kind of crazy that not to long ago I was forging a knife or two at horse shows and know its a weekly fixture at the Doghouse. So much of that is directly related to this site. The tips, advice, and encouragement to continue have made this little hobby into a large part of my life. So many of the IG followers have come here to read and begin their journeys only to reply back that they had no idea the GJ and its wealth of knowledge on every possible topic even existed.

This community isn't just dudes posting about their garage projects its changing people lives! We should all be proud to be apart of something as epic and large scale as that.

have a great week and I will be posting build pics of the Build off cleaver soon!

JP


If you haven't signed up for our news letter there is a sign up box on the bottom of the main doghouseforge.com page. Its a great way to get the info and weekly reports on the doghouse forge and all its associates.

 

[DoghouseForge]

BAMMMMM!!!!

This is a loud post!

Why?

Because Doghouse Forge just landed a 50+ Lb Air Driven, Flatland Forge Power hammer.

Took today and made the journey to gather it up. Had to get a bit creative with moving it since I didn't have anyone to stabilize it in the air, but it all worked out.

Here she is!

Kinda epic out here in the middle of no where... Just me, cows, some horses, and this baby tucked away in the corner of a barn. Its my mentors from his "I'm gonna make Damascus" phase... he's had lots of phases... remember the band saw from a year or so ago.





Unloading was fun. HA!




In the shop ready to get a tune up... Mentors coming Wednesday to help me get everything adjusted correctly and to work through the operation with me.


Its a 50Lb+ Air Hammer built by Jim Poor of Flatland Forge about 10 years ago. The dye is a 5" divided half round and flat hammer. Should be perfect for drawing out the rasp, and my elbow might actually come back to life.




Pedal driven and variable speed. I'm not sure what the maximum stroke rate is but I will find out Wednesday.






Shops coming together... now to get the coke fire finished





Finished a pretty nice slicer for a client this week with a little twist on the spalted tamarind and brass combo. She added Tigre Caspi to the ****, and I think this really came out nicely.






This week "The Lakelander" magazine shot a feature in the shop. Very cool to be spotlighted. The article will release in the November/December issue and since they wanted to see specific phases for the photos I got to build a couple knives out of the normal custom order schedule.

One was a take on the legendary "Flying V'' guitar by Gibson. As a kids I cant remember any other guitar I wanted more than a "Flying V". So this chef will have a very unique and definite inspiration. The plan is to use a colored burl for the body section and then use rosewood with maple inlay to run the main body of the handle. I still need to play with the proportions but I'm hopeful. Even have a cool idea for the knobs and tuners.



We are also working on the development of the outdoor line of knives. Since it was a very functional and sturdy knife, we brought back the original D.H.F. design for the "Camp Knife". The sheaths will be custom made for each knife and incorporate a local artisan "Boondock Studios". There's still some design work and preparation to be done but so far we are pleased with the results.

The theme is "Simple and Functional"...a knife and sheath that you wont feel bad because you threw it in your backpack, shoved it between the seat cushion of the truck, or in the tossed in the storage cubby on your boat.

More to come with this soon as we get the next knife in the outdoor line under way... "The skinner"



If any of you folk reading this are hunters and have a skinning knife you absolutely cant live without post a pic here or message me with it. I can shoot a duck from a canoe in a choppy lake with the best of them but bigger game and field dressing is definitely not my forte.



I got really lucky at Woodcraft recently. When I walked in they had a shipping crate full of "scraps"...silly woodcraft, to a knife maker anything over 1/2" thick and 5" long is a handle! So i basically cleaned out the spalted tamarind pieces and took about 20 minutes to cut them into scales. This whole lots cost about 5 bucks!



There is currently a build off between myself and another Knife maker. we have been sponsored by Beyond Wood Products and the knives will be auctioned November 1st with the proceeds going to The Wounded Warriors Charity. I'm very honored and pumped to be involved, but it is a contest after all...so... I forged out a 1.5lb Mega Cleaver. Its everything great and true in the world of forged blades... More to come on this in the coming weeks.

Yes... if you caught it in the upper shot.. thats an "integral"..




If you want more up to date info on the build off you can check out "Beyond Wood Products" Facebook page to stay current...

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondWoodProducts

We also finished a cheese cleaver collaboration with Ryan Leuty of "Leuty Wood" for the guest artist program at doghouseforge.com... He built a mind bending cheese board after what was around 10 or 12 rounds of glue ups and I made a Cheese Cleaver from the cut away sections of the board. Truly a one of a kind serving set.


Well, that's about what i got for this week. Should be able to get some action shots of the power hammer later in the week so look for that soon.

Also if you haven't done so jump over to www.doghousefore.com and sign up for our weekly news letter. The form box is at the bottom of the main page.

Have a great week everyone and all you hunters don't hold back on the skinning knife recommendations!

Thanks

JP

 

[aggierailroad]

No, this is an integral:

I really like the Gibson tribute.

 

[Guster]

Good job on that cleaver and super jelly of that power hammer. Never seen a pneumatic unit. Such a nice compact footprint. You got a big enough compressor for it?

 

[DoghouseForge]

Good job on that cleaver and super jelly of that power hammer. Never seen a pneumatic unit. Such a nice compact footprint. You got a big enough compressor for it?

Thanks Gutser!

The draw on the compressor isn't that great for each stroke. You would have issue when running long forging cycles. For example, if you were running out a long scroll or something. Since I'm using it mostly for rasp the length of working heat is so short with the thinner metal that i wont out run the compressor. Its 60gal 7.5 HP and 13.5 CFM at 90PSI so its a strong unit. It also has plenty of recovery time in between heats. A 90 gallon would be better but for now I'm sitting pretty.

JP

 

[DoghouseForge]

Don't forget the Beyond Wood Products and DogHouse Forge "September Artist of the month Give Away Contest" is in full swing. It wraps up at midnight September 30th so If you want a chance to win this set of forged kitchen knives use the link to jump over to B.W.P.'s Facebook page and enter. Its free, not complicated, and believe me a contest like this will not be happening again soon.

Value at over $700

8" Cut-Away Chef
Forged W-2 Farriers Rasp
Flat Ground in western style between 19-20 deg
Full tang
B.W.P Premium Hybrids - box elder burl and Emerald Isles acrylic blend
Brass Pin Set

6" Chefs Utility
Forged W-2 Farriers Rasp
Flat Ground in western style at 18 deg
Full tang
B.W.P Premium Hybrids - box elder burl and Emerald Isles acrylic blend
Brass Pin Set

(finger oil smudge on big knife is gone...just me not paying attention when I was shooting the pics)


Here is the the link to the Contest and Ill post some pictures of the prize below.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=359650064211649&substory_index=0&id=184906728352651

I would hate for this opportunity to be missed by the guys that have been the most supportive of The DogHouse's journey so get to it!

Thanks

JP


Also, power hammer is working great and I will get some detailed pics soon

 

[Grizzly0215]

Read this thing from front to back and picked up some very valuable info. This is where it has lead me. Sorry to blow up the feed.

 

[DoghouseForge]

Read this thing from front to back and picked up some very valuable info. This is where it has lead me. Sorry to blow up the feed.

Amazing work buddy.

That file work on the handle is beautiful and your multi media scale work is top notch.

I will say that i watched Grizzly run the entire build through his instagram feed. He cracked a few attempts in the hardening phase but didn't give up. Most guys would have said screw it but he just kept making another run at it. So thats not just a pretty knife it s fully heat treated functional blade.

Congratulations

 

[DoghouseForge]

Well, Its been a while since I have had enough time to sit down and update the Blacksmithing projects thread.

Been more than a little busy trying to grow the Doghouse and get the website in full product mode. That stuff is really a lot of work!

It seems Photobucket has changed some things since I have been away. Once I get that sorted out we can get caught up.

We've got the DogHouse's first Damascus project to look into. I managed to get some good step by step photos for this one so should be a good post. There's the new outdoorsman's line up including a 12 inch fillet and skinning knife build, and more finished knives to look at than I can recall.

The Doghouse is currently featured in "The lakelander" magazine which has been a really amazing process to work through. Writers, photographers, publishers, etc... lots of people in control of "Your story" and no real control is a scary thing, but this worked out very nicely.

Starting in January Im going to be opening up the shop for a series of classes. Each class will be open to 5 participants and run for 4 weeks with weekly meetings from 6-830pm on Thursdays. Each month will be a new project with the first being forged roses. If any of you GJ guys and gals are local to the central Florida area keep your eye on the coming post to get the details.

ok, post coming soon!

I guess a little teaser is in order.

The Doghouse 5 layer rasp and file Damascus cleaver, Polished hamon, and Beyond wood Products Acrylic with copper and aluminum inlay.

 

[DoghouseForge]

The Update of Mass proportions

Okay, as promised here is the Doghouse's attempt at catching up for the last month and a half. So much to show you guys...where to begin?

To say there's been a lot going on would be a gross understatement. That's the problem with committing yourself to getting a business from the "ideas in your head and ata'boy" stage to the "Holy ****, this is a lot more work than I imagined", and the "I'm to far now! and I don't Fail! " stages.

The building of the web site has been insanely labor intensive. I realize now why they cost so much. If I didn't have Aggie running defensive end it be a lot further behind.

Locally, The Doghouse was featured in "The Lakelander" magazine. Its a very nice publication and we were excited to get a chance for the more than 17,000 distributed copies to find their way into a potentially new audiences hands. Then out of the blue they called, "Mr. Porter we would like to let you know that you've been chosen to be on the cover for the November/December issue"... holy ****, how did the Doghouse beat out Christmas?

Here is the link to the online version of the article. Unfortunately, only a couple of the great images are available in the online format but after the run is over I will get the others and post them for you guys to see.

https://thelakelander.com/forging-history/



Some of the professional shots in the publication are absolutely awesome. We are so lucky to have been able to have these guys shoot in the shop.





The power hammer is making life much easier. It still takes a while to get a blank forged, even with the 50lb stroke, but not having to do the heavy lifting has allowed me the ability to forge for hours without stopping.



This is a solid 6 hour session of forging, profiling, marking, and straightening. This would have been three separate sessions if I was swinging the hammer. Even though I forge every day I can't go more than a couple hours on this high carbon stuff with under my own power.



another solid day in the fire...




The heat treatment oven has been a true blessing. Not having to carry the load home and use the oven to temper the hardened blades has been the most convenient aspect. That, and being able to run the normalization cycles without the constant need to keep an eye on the forge. I honestly still do most of the pre-hardening re-heat in the forge with my baffle system. Its just faster and the oven running for long enough to reach hardening temp isn't very efficient.



I guess the last general update would be on my main man Luke. he's really impressed me. Sophie, my former Aussie, was an epic dog. So the general level of expectation with Luke as the "New Guy" was fairly low. However, I think that I discounted the value of Sophie getting to go to work everyday as a reason she was so good and sensible. In the last six months Luke has grown up substantially. Hes just over a year old and I am blown away by his progress. The general commands are there and that great, but I'm referring more to the adaptability and control he exhibits in all manor of situations. The routine is his friend. He has settled in far more quickly than I expected. I guess I could have gotten lucky twice, or there really is something to the fact that in the last six months hes seen more than a lifetimes worth of experiences compared to other, less active dogs.

Here's a fun little before and after from last week. Bottom pic is 6 months old and top is 1 year old. My little "Miniature Golden Retriever" has not only grown up a bit but there's a lot more wisdom in that face!




So yeah, That's the update on life in the doghouse for all of you guys that have been with me since I forged the first knife and made the first pringle of a cutting board. For the rest of you who are thinking, "okay, great to know, but where's the how to stuff?" Rest easy, I'm going to put up a coupe now.

 

[DoghouseForge]

First time for everything.

Who want to hand forge a Damascus Mega Cleaver? Perhaps a better question is who doesn't?

So one of my fellow farriers informed me that some of the finishing rasp were made of a different steel than the standard hoof rasp. This gave me the idea to layer 5 sections together and forge weld them into a single billet. Hoping, that the differences in the steel would be enough to show through once finished.

I apologize for the "screen shots" ... Somehow I deleted the first steps from my pictures and had to grab some likenesses from a video I shot. There only a few and them i have regular photos.

To start I cut and layered 5 sections of steel with each layer getting a flux filler.
Rasp,File,Rasp File Rasp was the line up...




Then you spot weld the edges of the sections together to keep everything in place as you work the forge weld together.





Super heat your forge and start laying the hammer to the steel. Work the seems together first, and then work the middle together. All in all I think this billet took a little over an hour to form using a 10 pound hammer. ( i didnt get the power hammer until a couple weeks later)





After you get your billet formed forge your cleaver out. I needed to weld on a new handle because the original stem just couldn't take the beating of the forge welding and was weakened to badly. ( look back in the thread to see more details on the forging process as it was looked at in detail in the earlier cleaver build)




Do your grind and hold it in the air for victory



Then harden... I choose to deferentially harden this one because I wanted to try and polish out the "Hamon" or line that shows the different densities of the steel in the blade.



After its hardened you want to remove the scale and re grind up to 400 grit or so.

Then comes the fun part. To etch the blade you can use a proper etching solution lie ferric chloride or the generic solution they sell at radio shack, but another less caustic way is to use boiling vinegar.

I got out the coleman camp stove and boiled me a nice big pot f etching stew.





After 20 minutes pull it out and rinse i with cold water, then put it back in for another 20 min. Repeat the rinse and what you will have is something like this.


The darker section at the bottom is the section that was hardened and it is attacked more aggressively by the vinegar than the softer material above.

From here its all done by hand. You work from 220 up to 2000 grit or higher in some cases. Lightly hand sanding until you bring out the desired polish without stripping the steel to deeply and in turn removing the etch.

Here you can see the polished blade at 2000 grit. Notice the Hamon line and the layers of the rasp peeking through as well. This side was not ground as heavily as the other side, which was a user mistake. Had I ground evenly and not been so concerned with the excessive forging marks both sides would have been as decorative with the random pattern,



flip side



Here it is all most completely polished.




from here you want to cover the blade and finish the handling stages. I went with a pretty complex double, mitered inlay with copper and aluminum spacers. The body of the scales is "Galaxy" acrylic from Beyond Wood Products.



<a href="http://s1357.photobucket.com/user/Florida83FSJChero/media/November%202014%20update/NCM_4394_zps9df342b5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q757/Florida83FSJChero/November%202014%20update/NCM_4394_zps9df342b5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo NCM_4394_zps9df342b5.jpg"/></a>

 

[DoghouseForge]

and through the magic of the "internets" we jump a head a couple days to the shaped and sanded result...



Inlay was done with three parts. The aluminum liners, the copper flat bar, and the dark grey epoxy. I used the dark grey instead of the normal clear to give the separation and accentuate the inlay a midst the galaxy's deep colors and patterns.



After one coat of sealer. For this i used wipe on poly. The final application total was 5 coats of satin and 3 coats of gloss.




here it is all polished up and ready for action







The layering was much more visible after the polishing was finished



To add some character to the spine I left the rasp teeth un ground to give the look of a feather.






and there you have it... only about 30 hours in this one.


Give it a shot! its a lot of fun,

JP

 

[classicJackets]

wow. Haven't gotten the chance to look through most of the rest of your builds, but this last page alone is amazing. Beautiful work and I can't wait to read the rest.

 

[DoghouseForge]

Okay, to end we have a little gallery of finished knives.

Don't miss the previous postings from today! The Damascus Cleaver build and general update are posted above.

If you want to see more finished knives take a look at

www.doghouseforge.com

Join the newsletter and take a look in the gallery, blog, and store to see all the new additions and arrivals.

The new "Hawk Bill" ... boning and peeling knife



Wenge and Brass with 90% forged blade.





The Outdoorsman's fillet special with custom sheath and our 100yr old barn wood handle.



razor sharp! 12 inch blade... affectionately called " The Swordfish Slayer"



We partnered with a local leather maker and the sheaths have been incredible.






Re- Purposed the original design from the DogHouse and improved the grind to create the "Camp Knife" ...












Finally got around to developing and building the Doghouse's take on the Skinning Knife. Again with custom sheath and Snakewood scales.









Here's a sampling of "Cut-Away" Chefs . These have by far been the most poplar and most frequently ordered knife.

11" Chef with Bacote and Yellow Heartwood with 1/4" aluminum pin sets and mitered detail work.





8" Chef with spalted big leaf maple burl






Remake of a classic 9" Chef with Paduak, Copper inlay, and Redwood Burl.




Okay, That about does it. Please think small business this holiday season. We have three guest artist in the shop with everything from hand carved wooden utensils to hand turned shaving brushes and beautiful handmade pens. This weekend the leather work gets even more in depth with the release of wallets and custom dog collars.

Have a great week everyone!

JP

 

[DoghouseForge]

wow. Haven't gotten the chance to look through most of the rest of your builds, but this last page alone is amazing. Beautiful work and I can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks man!

take a look at the post below your comment. Lots of blade ****, Lol.

JP

 

[DoghouseForge]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone



JP

 

[drivesitfar]

Doghouse: i have to say you make some great items. do you make most of your knives out of old files and which ones are best or better? I have a couple guys i kinda know that make some of their knives out of RR spikes when they don't want to buy the Damascus or other steel at their favorite spots. in case you ever want to trade some of your awesome knives or items for a box of files or RR stakes please PM me with some options.

ALL: Surface plate update that i mentioned a few months ago. i put quite a bit of thought in it and decided to buy the lifts i need to move it around my little shop instead of just paying somebody to help me pick it up and unload it. i bought a pallet jack and this Pallet jack fork lift to do so since my client that owned the 1300-1500 pound surface plate with it's stand owned a fork lift. he took my 2 x 6's riser to lift the plate off the stand while i put a couple 2 x 6's under it. then he grabbed the surface plate and set it on my pallet that i screwed 9 more 2 x 6's on so it sat 4.5 inches above the pallet.

it loaded nicely (just barely) onto my little 4 x 8 trailer and i was able to use my new (used) pallet jack fork lift to take it off the trailer and into my shop. i have some work to spiff up the stand before putting the plate back on it and some cleaning and spiffing to do to the plate that seems to be in perfect shape. all in all heavy things can be moved with the right tools and the right methods and i have a few more details on a thread i started in the general tool section if you would like to see or give me a few suggestions on how to best use it now that i own it.

thanks for the good comments so far about my surface plate and looking forward to seeing more awesome projects on this thread from you very talented GJ members.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268418&highlight=surface+plate

 

[Guster]

Happened on a TV show called "Forged in Fire" last night. Should have clued on when the contestant said he was a farrier as he seemed very familiar for some reason. He made it through the first round and sent the last two contestants home to forge a battle axe in their home workshop.

Sure enough recognised the Doghouse forge horse-shoe sign in the shop. Great effort JP! Awesome seeing the power hammer go. Would have been great to see some cigar puffing anvil surfing tho!

 

[nine4gmc]

Sew the episode, never struck me that it was a GJer on there. Wish I would have known then or it would replay! Congrats on the show JP!

 

[drivesitfar]

Doghouse: anything new to post pictures of? or are you on tour now that you've been on TV? care to post pictures of your set up (forge, anvil, grinders and vises, etc...)?

thanks

 

[Guster]

Last GJ activity was back in July and looks to be about the same for his blog.

 

[ilovevocs]

Life happens. Hope his lack of posting is a result of success and not hardship.

 

[nine4gmc]

Life happens. Hope his lack of posting is a result of success and not hardship.

Ditto that

 

[Guster]

Life happens. Hope his lack of posting is a result of success and not hardship.

For sure!