The earliest adhesives appear to be plant resins (also known as “tree sap”), crushed and allowed to cure as the moisture evaporates out. Such glues are surprisingly good, since they’re basically doing what they evolved to do: congeal and hold things together. According to the internets there are glues dating back to 70,000BCE, which consist of powdered stone (ochre) mixed with resin.
I got a request for a “ghetto shiv” and, naturally, it had to happen.
Hot folding damascus is one of the quintessential parts of the process, and it’s always a bit fraught.
This was an experiment welding test, that I got a bit carried away with.
Supposedly, “osoraku” is an old Japanese word for “perhaps.”
Michael Bell, the master smith at Dragonfly Forge has a sort of traditional-looking Roman workbench that he uses for blade shaping.
Monday, I set myself on fire. It wasn’t too bad, but it was definitely not any kind of good. My face felt sunburned for a couple days, and my mustache was all crispy. My eyebrows are still OK, along with my eyeballs, but my bangs are gone. I got my arm up and covered my face (put it out) pretty fast.
Once the forge body is all assembled, the next problem is to see if it can get hot enough to weld in. The whole exercise is completely pointless if you can’t use the thing for its intended purpose.
I’ve had my blade-making operation shut down for the last 2 years, because my old forge began developing awkward melted holes in the shell, which allowed long burning jets of propane to go shooting out all over the place.
Sheath-making is a fascinating sub-genre of leatherwork. If you have leather carving skills, btw, the recent interest in knives has made teaming up with a knife-maker a very attractive opportunity.