Show me your sharps......

I really like that Estwing hatchet that you have. Unless I miss my guess your small folder is a Victorinox Classic or Executive. Your presentation is just fine, I actually was impressed that you got the cat to cooperate. You should upload some pics of your dogs to your public profile, just because I love dogs but dad wont let me get one As far as sharpening your hatchet, Estwings are very forgiving. You would be best to find somebody that knows what they are doing to help you figure out how to sharpen it, I could not describe how to do it well with just words. The Old Hickory knives that that store sells are made by a company by the name of Ontario Knife Works, they are a great company with a lot of history. In addition to making great civilian stuff, they hold a few military contracts right now. I know what you mean about tool boxes, I get the whole 24'x20' detached garage for my workshop while my dad is holed up in his little tool box, but that tool box is his and his only.

 

Oh yeah, dont to feel to bad about hitting the barbed wire, I once hit an electric fence while cutting wood with a hatchet and while trying to pry it out I had a similar reaction to the gentleman in the article you posted in the inferno, in addition to damaging the fence and the hatchet.

 

The cat cooperated because it's too old to bother moving. It was there.... it worked better than trying to prop the knife up on the wall where I kept getting a glare from the angle. The dogs are left overs from animal shelters. Right now might not be a good time for anyone to take on a pet.... there's better things to spend our money on. Who need the financial burden>>>? Heartworm meds alone can bury a person not to mention vets, vaccines, and what they eat. Visit Illinois.... look at our vet bills with your own two eyes.... then go home thankful you don't have any pets. We're on the tail end of animals. We're at a different phase in our life now. The little knife was a Victor something or other. An eastwing ax, eh? Wow you're good. I love that ax and might just buy another one that's the exact same brand. I'd prefer to sharpen it myself it possible. I watched a few YouTubes on it and might try it. Worse case scenario is I've got to send it out to a pro. Are you saying the elcheapo knives I found for grapes and vegetables are decent quality? No kidding. I thought for sure by looking at them in the photos they were made in China. My husband and the kids "decorated" my toolbox. Long story but one day I went to get my hammer and it was gone. I was having a bad hair day and told them nobody was leaving the house until they produced my hammer. I started rooting around in my tool box for my tape measure.... it was gone. My staple gun was in there but my screwdrivers were gone... every last one of them was gone. I very calmly told them to produce everything that used to be in my toolbox or life as they knew it would cease to exist. Within ohhhh... about an hour MY tools started reappearing. Next day the skull and cross bones and lettering appeared on the box.

 

It is definitely best to sharpen your tools yourself. You know what really gets annoying is when your little brothers steal your screwdrivers and use them as tent stakes, and then return them days later covered in rust. I now have a knock before entering policy for the workshop. The best paring knives I have ever found are only like 4$ a piece Kitchen*|*Cutlery*|*Rada: More than just Paring Knives - Lehmans.com. Check out Lehmans.com for getting your stuff from. They may have their drawbacks, but I still want a dog. How many kids do you have?

 

I found a round sharpening stone of some sort at Bass Pro Shops that's supposedly for sharpening axes. I forgot to take a photo of it to post here to ask if it would work. I was going to buy it but figured I'd better hold off.
Sorry about your screwdrivers. Mine were at least returned rust-free.
I need a new tomato knife so D goes on my wish list. Thank you.
Borrow somebody's dog for a month.... that'll probably get dog ownership out of your system after you have to run around cleaning up poops in the yard and shoe-string spit hangers that fly from their mouths when they shake their heads then clean up the floor around their water bowl every time they drink because water pours out of the sides of their mouths. Trying to get mine out of the house when it's snowing or.... raining.... or the skies are dark and it looks like it might do one of those is a joke. I have literally had to pry mine out the door to get them to go pee. God forbid a snowflake or raindrop touch their bodies after they're out there..... they'll knock you over getting back into the house. If you're missile locked on getting a dog.... try an adult lab or a golden from a shelter. You'll get to see the personality you're getting by selecting an adult and those breeds have the same easy going happy-go-lucky disposition mine do but.... they're waterproof and heartworm meds cost half of what they do for jumbo breeds.
We have five boys.... our youngest is in HS and the oldest is in his 30's. I'm here in the house by myself dehydrating... picking through my seed stashes and.... catching up on laundry this weekend. They're winter camping somewhere up in WI. May the force be with them.

 

Four boys in our house, ages 3 through 13, and mom really wants more. Thanks for your help with dogs, (I still want one).

 

Bison Forge> Maybe try what our kids did to me.... get one of your parents on your side then go to a shelter and pick one that the shelter staff tells you won't use your younger brothers or any neighborhood kids as a dietary supplement. They work with the dogs and they'll know which ones are "safer". No puppies.... parents with kids don't have the time or the energy to deal with one of those. You'd want an adult mutt that's "bombproof" that is also "returnable"... just in case you mom digs her heels in and says out with it. Family safe dogs probably won't come in the "breed" you had your heart set on. Now slop some mud on it and add a few burs for effect and flip one of its ears over then slip a rope around its neck and walk it through the door and see what happens while telling your mother you saved it from getting hit by a car. It was over 10 years ago they pulled that one on me (my husband was in on it). I knew they were ALL lying through their teeth when they brought 'Norton' through the door.... I just didn't know where that mutation of a dog came from. I found out last year. Oh the things that come out when they're older and their lips loosen up.
ghrit> That's it!!! That's the round stone thing they showed me.

 

Not that I really have a collection ... but I do have a few here and there. A couple I made, a couple I've bought. A ton of folders.

 

My Sharps

 

Nice little collection you have going there. RR spike knives are one of my favorites. Feel free to share some of your folders.

 

I likey... [nothome]

 

Thanks, that RR spike knife was my third attempt from three spikes I took out of the old retired RR track near my bug out retreat in the mountains ... I took a bunch of iron and some ties from there - it was the motherload. Wish I had gotten more spikes.

My wife works for a large railroad related industry company ... she keeps promising me she is going to bring home a bucket of spikes one of these days and I hope to make a bunch more of those when I do.

Here's the deal about making RR spike knives imho.

If you can get the spikes from a specific region, or section of RR, and then market them as authentic spike knives made from spikes from that section of RR, often times you'll end up having people from all around that area wanting them.

Of the three I made, the other two that were not up to standards imho, still went to a couple of local guys for a saw bill each and I got another $50 for making them each a sheath.

I'm about to order some steel here in the next couple of weeks, once I get my pattern finished, from Admiral Steel ... decided it is time to give that a try. I'm probably biting off more than I can chew.

 

Thats a good idea about selling region specific RR spike knives. Sounds like you got a great price on your knives, the highest offer I have ever had on one of mine was 20$. What setup do you use for forging your knives? I would love it if you would post pics of your setup over at http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/blades/27148-workshop-knifemaking-setup-picture-thread.html . Without endangering op-sec, can you give me an idea of where in Florida you live, I lived in Florida for over ten years, before the Army made us move.

 

That looks like a railroad spike.

 

I live in SC but my BOL was in the mountains on the SC/NC border at the time I did the RR spike knives. I used a close friend's forge to do those three, he's the one who taught me basically - set me on the right path. But I am getting things together for my own forge now. I've already got the tanks and the torch head and the firebricks and another buddy and I welded together a makeshift oven ... I'm working on attaching an induction fan made out of a shop vac, to pipe in O2.

That's one of the Rail Road Spike Knives ... the third one I did. You cannot read it in the picture but I used an arc engraver to engrave each one of them with the name of the rail line it came from and "NCRR Gang" which is the name of the group that bought my knives ... they used to work for the RR up there.

And my wife reminded me last night; I had forgotten that I actually did four of those, sold three and kept that one above. That one has a small flaw in the grind and that is the reason I kept that one and used my fourth spike to make the third knife the other guy. My son had found the fourth spike in one of the cross ties we saved, driven all the way into the wood and it ended up being the best (and last) of the four and I probably did the best job or treating/tempering that steel as well for some reason.

 

Sorry, I forgot that SC is the palmetto state, I always considered FL to be the palmetto state for some reason or another. Be sure to share pics of your forge when you have it built, I am gearing up to build one soon and am looking for inspiration.

 

Okay, here is another one. It is manufactured by Scorpion Knives in Sheffield England. It is being sold for over 300 Dollars in a lot of places right now, and I was very blessed to get it for free in exchange that I review it. You can look for my review in The Complete Survivalist Magazine inthe near future. So without further ado............

The Parry Blade:




Photo credit:
scorpionknives.com

 

@ Airborne Monkey

This is my result when making a railroad spike knife:


Another fun one to do is out of O1 steel rods: