Brian,

The ABS is dedicated to the purpose of educating and promoting the forged blade, typically of high carbon steel construction. Titanium is not the best construction material for a blade unless you are an underwater E.O.D. tech. Even hardened titanium is pretty soft (around 50 rockwell or less) and thus will not lend itself to a useful knife. If you want to make a knife you are going to need a few things: heat, high carbon steel, hammer, anvil (or something else hard and flat to beat against), and a quenchant (automatic transmission fluid from the motor pool will suffice). Acceptable scrap steels typically come from vehicle spring applications. Most of us are using one of two methods to heat our steel; a. a propane gas forge consisting of black pipe torches and some type of refractory insulated housing. b. a firepot with forced air and some type of carbon based fuel such as coke or charcoal. A piece of railroad makes a crappy anvil but it is what I am using and will work. as for a hammer you need one in the 3-5 lbs range, lighter hammers don't move steel much. With all that said your best bet is to attend an intro to bladesmithing course when you get home or at least one of the hammer-ins. I hope this gets you started.

While I actually DO conduct (ground-based, as I am Army) EOD duties, I accept that working on titanium is far off and low on my priority list. The only things I like about it is the corrosion resistance, weight, and the fact that it is nonferrous (don't need to worry much about sparks or a magnetic signature; nice when around certain explosive ordnance).

This having been said, I will be focusing more on either stock removal or a kit during the deployment. I am certain that an anvil and a furnace will be no-gos (besides, the equipment and facilities for forge work would not exactly be considered very man-portable).

Thank you for your advice.

Hello Brian. First off let me say a big Thank you for your service. I admire your idea for a titanium hauberk. Light weight and tough. I have two of them, one from steel and one from aluminium. Glad that I did not have to make them. As for projects while you are deployed. I think that you will probably have access to steel that will be suitable for a knife, leaf springs, and you mentioned that you have a drill and possibly an acetylene torch, and the other tools. Well there you have projects. You can use the torch to anneal the steel, the drill to makes a series of holes around an outline of the knife you have drawn on the bar. Then you can use a hacksaw to play connect the dots and the grinder to clean it up and grind the blade. The dremel can be used for lots of things especially in the handle department. SO you have the basic tools needed to make a knife. Maybe not forge one, but you can give yourself some experience with the basic procedures, such as grinding, handles, heat treat, etc. Another tool I would take is a drawing pad. Sketch out knife designs till you grow tired and then do it again, get your buddies to look at them and critique them. You will be amazed at what you can learn about design by doing this. Also read every knife book you can get your hands on. I would say start with something small maybe a full tang hunter, design it, draw it out on your steel, cut it out and grind it, heat treat it, and put handle scales on. This will give you experience in a number of areas that every knifemaker uses. Lastly I would say that you already have the three most important tools, dedication, willpower, and motivation. You be careful over there and feel free to e-mail me or call me if you have any questions or just want to talk about knifemaking and bladesmithing.

Best regards

Brion

Hi Brian,

Welcome to the craft of knifemaking!! First; I want to thank you for your service to our country. Please stay safe over there! Second, I want to apologize for the slow response to your question. I should have responded earlier; saying at least that I had seen your post.

You have the most important thing that you will need; determination. Not knowing exactly what tools that you will have at your disposal makes it a bit difficult to suggest a particular project for you. But, as Brion T. mentioned, start with something small and simple. That way you will get familiar with what you can accomplish with the tools that you have on hand. If you start a large project, the difficulty of completing it may discourage you. A smaller project will teach you how to use your tools and will be completed in a timeline that will allow you to quickly find satisfaction in your work.

Do you have adequate supplies of sandpaper, files, adhesive for the handle, etc?

Hi Brian,

First off welcome to the ABS, I hope you will find our members are willing to help in anyway they can to get you started in bladesmithing. It sounds as if you are somewhat limited at this time on equipment, etc. You might consider designing and making tactical folding knives. They don't require all the heavy tooling that forged blades require and what tools you have available to you, you should beable to produce this type of knife. There is a very good book by BOB TERZUOLA entitled THE TACTICAL FOLDING KNIFE with step by step procedure on making this kind of knife.

If this sounds like someting you might be interested in trying and need a copy of the book, let me know. I will see to it you get a copy. I am on a little tight schedule as far as time goes because my wife a I leave for France the 12th of April. So let me know as soon as you can if you want a copy of the book.

Send me your mailing address.

Best of luck in your knife work and looking forward to seeing you at one our ABS events sometime in the future.

Semper Fi,

Joe Keeslar

ABS Master Smith

Welcome to the forum Brian and Joe. I would have spoken up much sooner, but I saw that Brian was and is getting sound advice. I'm watching though. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Fellow smiths,

Thank you very much for the kind words, well wishes, fine advice, and words of encouragement and support. Allow to clarify my previous post and answer questions.

I actually am not presently deployed, but will be in the very near future (I can't discuss troop movement or times, but am able to say that it will be very soon). I currently am intentionally keeping myself very lean on tools and materials until I know what my resources will be in terms of free time, facilities for me to utilize, and how long a stay I will have. I have absolutely no space to pack tools or resources into my bags, but once I know what my address is and what assets I will have access to, I will purchase the needed supplies online and have them shipped to me. Forunately, I am a very resourceful shopper and know where to buy even the heaviest items (excluding anvils) online at good prices and still not have to pay for shipping. Bottom line: While I greatly appreciate the offers of spare materials, I won't be able to even receive them for s few months.

I expect my Dremel (a friend will mail it to me) to serve me well for fine work such as decoration and handle shaping. Actually, for handle/scale material I intend to cut up some old, damaged uniforms, then laminate them in layers with epoxy, essentially creating U.S. 'Army Micarta'. Otherwise they just get shredded anyway. If I can find a non-flammable laminate, I will use my damaged fire resistant uniforms.

I intend to make friendly with the mechanics in the motor pool. That way they may let me use their grinders and torches (and hopefully one of them will teach me how to use the torch). This will alloy me to cut, grind, sharpen (to a certain level), shape, and anneal steel. For steel, I doubt I will have much trouble finding some old vehicle springs or suspensions, or possibly even some discarded vehicle armor (though considering modern composition, that likely would not be suitable for a blade, though it would fit beautifully with a handle of 'Army Micarta').

In terms of books, what would most benefit me is recommendations available in .pdf, e-book format, or compatible with a Nook. I don't mean torrents (I have a serious ethical grievance when it comes to piracy), but rather a good book in a legitimate, legal electronic format. In my line of work hard copy books with photos and diagrams are very easily damaged/destroyed (even when off duty), as well as impractical due to spacial/weight considerations. Now I try to only purchase e-books I can put on my Nook. If it is a crucial volume, I can slice off the spine and run the pages through a scanner, but this absolutely will not happen until after I redeploy (I have way too much on my plate now).

I have packed away a basic drafting kit I assembled in anticipation of designing. Be that as I may, I would love advice on a decent drafting program suitable for these designs (and not in the $300+ range). This would allow me to safely store a large number of designs, as well as easily take elements from numerous projects and incorporate them into a single item (mixing and matching my favorite features). My TBI limits what I can repeatedly draw on paper with precise scale and shape, so manual drafting tends to greatly frustrate me. Another reason I would prefer computer-aided drafting is that I think the best way for me (personally) to be competetive in the custom blade industry is to incorporate my strengths in composing exotic designs that will strongly interest the collector as opposed to user desiring utility. In other words, I routinely design unusual items such as (literally) a flaming sword, spiked knuckle dusters with a spring-loaded retractible blade (automatic trench knife), telescopic automatic spike, collapsible spear, and numerous other designs which require precise mechanical planning and depictions of different alignments of moving parts. Given the likelihood of the forum having numerous members with experience as engineers or in mechanical industries, can anyone recommend a program that would be effective for my needs?

Final questions: Since I may be forced to only use a kit, is there any advice on choosing a kit/ vender of kits? I have found kitsonline, but they all seem to at least one of the following limitations: Too cheap; Lousy blade geometry; Does not indicate whether the shaped blade is already fully heat treated (If it is alterations will be much more difficult; If it isn't I will be forced to go to a lot of trouble doing it myself). Also, does anyone know of venders still in business that sell quality kits for automatics (I have the legal documentation needed for purchasing)? If not, any advise on finding appropriate components ideal for building an automatic? I read solid design information in Benson's Switchblade: Ace of Blades', but it was meant for the collector, not the designer or constructor.

Once more, thank you everyone for your assistance and your well-wishing. I look forward to future correspondance.