My Truck Concept

This is what I want my truck to look like.

I already have designs for the bumpers, I can make the parts at work and fab them myself.

Blazing

Stainless Steel Flux core MIG Welding at work.

New Stuff to Share

My new truck!

1985 F250 6.9L Diesel

And another photochop of a 2013 2500HD

Original Photo
http://cdnedge.vinsolutions.com/dealerimages/Dealer%204124%20Images/2013%20Chevrolet%20Silverado%202500%20HD.jpg

Ford Ranger Concept.

Everything was done in Photoshop except the bumper, I made it with Blender.

Ford F-350 Concept.

Made with photoshop using the original photo (link below) and other images for new bumper, grill, tool box and tires.

Basically my dream truck.

Original photo.

http://image.8-lug.com/f/37951544/1207-8l-04%20garage-editorial-changes-to-8-lug%20ford-f350-powerstroke.gif

New Knife In The Works

Just Got the blade finished. The handle is next

Finished Knife!

Everything is done except a makers mark. Which I haven't figured out how im going to do it.

When you forging a blade it can be stamped but on stock removal thats difficult so it needs to be etched on by an electric etcher. 

Since I dont have an electro etcher ill have to figure something else out for now. I have an idea that im going to try soon.

Anyway, here is the finished blade.

Specs


Steel is Aldo's 1084
From the New jersey steel baron

Length is 11-1/4 

Width is 1-1/2 

Thickens is 3/16

Makers Mark Idea

My full initials in the Anglo Saxon language.

Handle on #1 in Progress

The wood is glued on and drying, will be shaped next.

Heat treating the #1 Camp Knife

Progress on Camp Knife #1

Been Working on #1 (for lack of a better name)

Filing in some grooves for better grip.

I believe this is called "jimping"

The new Grinding jig worked out very well.

Im at a bit of a stand still right now because I chucked my drill bit set out the door.
VERY poor quality, I broke all the smaller ones then the larger ones started snapping even under very light pressure.

It could be my drill press, the chuck has a nasty wobble.

Finished the Sheath

The finished sheath.

Its my first one and I made a lot of mistakes,  the next will be much better.

My friend took it home yesterday ...I miss it already.

Grinding Jig

A jig I made for grinding better bevels

The two bolts on the bottom go through the angle iron and tilt the jig to whatever angle I need to grind a bevel. 

I haven't tried it yet cause I need to increase the table length on my belt sander to 20 inches. I have a 20 x 5 x 3/8 plate I will use. Its on the thick side so its very heavy.

This will allow me to drag the jig along the plate.

 

Here is an example of how it will work

The only downside of my jig is that its so big it forces me to use a big table. But it will be a lot more stable then a smaller one like in this picture  ....I hope

Oh Look! A Finished Knife!

Me and a friend finished this yesterday for him to keep. It still needs sharpened and a sheath.

Metal is 1084

Blade length is 4 1/2

Width is 1 1/2

Thickness is 3/16

Total length is is about 9 inches 

This was stock removed not forged, I like the knife so much though I might try to forge one.

A video of us quenching it 

I have the blade rough ground out! So far I really like it. I don't know to much about balance and all that yet bet it sets in my hand real good.

As you can see the handle is straight out instead of curved downward a little like in the sketch.

This I will do with the forge. I'm not sure if I want to forge the bevels yet, if I do it will increase the width of the blade and that would be nice cause I had to shrink the sketch to fit it on the steel bar. 

I will say, this was way to easy! I knocked it out in around 15 minutes with an angle grinder.

Takes hours to forge a blade from scratch!

I do prefer to forge from scratch though, I feel right about it. Anyone can cut a shape out of a bar of metal  It takes skill, time and determination to forge a blade from scratch.

Not saying I have the skill though, last 3 blades I tried to forge failed pretty bad.

But that's part of the experience! Each one gets a little better and iv'e always learned best the hard way.

Knife Idea

Here is a knife design iv'e been throwing around, Its a little big for the steel I got (48 x 1-1/2 x 3/16 bar) but I may be able to do it. I want to get some other designs going first though.

If I do try this i'm going to grind it out of the bar (stock removal) then forge the bevels and give it a slight curve like in the image. 

Getting some metal

Bought a Bar of 1084 steel from the steel baron to forge some blades!

I've get a few ideas for some small camp knives, I think they will be quite nice. 

I am going to stick to smaller blades for a while, every time I try a larger one it never turns out but i'm getting there.

HDR Photo of my Truck

This is my first decent HDR Photo (High Dynamic Range)

This is the result of three images taken at different exposures with a tripod and blended together in Photoshop.

The 3 stock images look like this

Over exposure

Under Exposed 

Normal Exposure

Put together to make this 

As you can see everything is exposed now so you can see all the detail.

Its a little flat so I found a tutorial to make the more saturated grungy look and I like that a lot better. 

Update on things

Well Iv'e been real busy with Welding school so I haven't had much time for knives but I did try to handle the Bowie knife in the below post.

I changed a few things and it just didn't work out so i'm going to give this one a break and come back to it later. It was mostly for learning and experimenting anyway. 

The next one will be much better and easier I hope.

I'm planning on buying some steel for the Steal Baron in New Jersey, I haven't yet because of the hurricane. It will be cheaper cause I wont have to spend money and time cutting my leaf springs to size. This steel comes in 48 inch bars with your choice of width and thickness or in 6 inch bundles (bundles would be best for Damascus because there cut to size and deburred)

Here is the site if you want to check it out.

http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/

And im back in business with photoshop!

I've got a few Signatures to share.

This one is in a Sig of the week competition but its not doing to good cause there are a few other girly sigs that everyone is voting for *Rolls eyes*

http://signature-lab.deviantart.com/journal/poll/3332527/

I have some other art on my Deviant Art profile if you want to check it out.

http://termstone.deviantart.com/

Knife is Coming Along

Been busy working on this Bowie, finely getting around to posting pictures.

Here it is in the etching stage, The acid revealed a lot of defects and weird coloring problems in the steel.  

A small crack in the tip from drawing it out while forging , This will be ground of.

Preparing the Guard, spacer and Pummel.

A Few sketches I did.  iv'e decided to go with the top one.  Also showing the clip point ground of the knife to get rid of the crack, the pummel has been rough ground to shape as well.

Preparing the handle materials for softening, this will make it much easier to drill the holes for fitting them on the Knife. 

The Forge

 Cooling

I'm leaving the metal in the forge to cool as slow as possible. This will help the metal stay soft.

The Blade still needs etched and polished a few more times.

After I will hopefully get some better pictures showing the texture of the metal.

Thanks for viewing!