Leaf Spring Knives

   Finally, after two weeks I am finally catching up on some blogging that I meant to do after spring break. (unfortunately I'm not catching up on the lost sleep. >.< 1.5 hours last night...it has been a long day...)
Today's post involves some sharp looking pieces of work that I did for commission work. For one I am going to be paid in American Dollars, the other one will be paid in artwork. (specifically a superbly well drawn picture of a tawny kitten ready to pounce on a couple of flutterbys. [okay, I squealed when I saw it...])

Both knives are forged out of 5160 steel in the form of golf-cart leaf springs. They were specially ordered to be rather thick and bulky, so the spines of the knives are approximately 1/4" thick. They are both double normalized (the survival knife was first annealed) and they withstood my extensive field tests. [note: field test is chucking them against a tree repeatedly to see if they break.]


First up is the survival knife that I forged for my friend Ryan. Overall length measures at about 10 inches. The blade is about 5 inches long and the distance from edge to spine is approximately 1.45 inches at the furthest. Here it is after rough forging it!

The second knife I forged was for my friend Natalie. She wanted a stabby knife for protection, and so I forged it for utmost kick-butt-itude. It had some letters stamped into it from the leaf spring, and I left them there for character. The knife came out looking like a roman gladiator's sword!

 Close up of the knife in the fire:

Ryan's knife is on the right, Natalie's is on the left.

Ryan's knife, leather wrapped and shined up with some forge marks left on:

 Natalie's knife, rough forged and sanded post-grind.

 

I still have some sharpening to do on them before they are ready, and hopefully I'll find some time in the next week for it. These were a blast to forge and taught me some good things about working with spring steel and thin stock. I know I would make many changes, and I am truly not a bladesmith. These were favors for friends, and they were fun. I have some other pictures of recent projects to show you, but that must wait for another time, dearest reader!

 

Thank you for reading!