This little sucker is my first completely stock removal project. It is a little two-fingered knife made from a piece of plow disk. Obviously I heated it to flatten out the arch, but I'm not counting that as forging! :rolleyes:
I made a pattern on a piece of paper and cut it out, then laid it over the plow disk and traced it with a Sharpie. I used a $7.00 Harbor Freight air cutoff wheel to cut out the profile and then cleaned the curves on my $100 Sears belt grinder, which I also used for the bevel. I heated in my coffee can gas forge, quenched in veggie oil, and drew temper in my kitchen oven.
I was originally going to put slab handles on it, but decided to go for a minimalist approach and just soften the edges with a cord wrap. I mixed up a little epoxy and dabbed it carefully on. The cord acted like a candle wick and sucked it up inside itself. The lanyard works well for stabilizing it in your hand if you twist the slack out of it, and also works well to let the knife dangle while you use two hands to work, then flip the knife back into your grip.
And it is shaving sharp, as the bare patch on my otherwise far-from-bare leg can attest!
Now for a sheath. Nearly have my Kydex setup going...
