Air rifle

While my puuko was curing, I got busy on the stock of my air rifle. I am yet to find the type of wood it is, I thought it was poplar wood. As you can see after some working the wood seems to have a pink hue to the grain and not a green-yellow of poplar. I will keep you posted.

Puuko 2 progress

Wet Sanded my blade to 1200, and put the guard on the tang. I then got everything together and set it with epoxy. While that was drying I got busy on another project i started 4 weeks ago; My Air rifle!

My apologies for the last picture being so fuzzy.

No excuses

http://media-cache-ec4.pinimg.com/550x/75/3b/86/753b860ed44dcb0f80243400b006b722.jpg

Buffing wheels made from old shirts.

Visit to Prinsloo

Yesterday I went to visit a knife maker that I met at DEKS; Mr P Prinsloo. I'm very sorry for not taking my camera, I wasn't sure If he would be comfortable with me taking photos of his set up. That aside, he showed me his workshop and wow what a neat space you would think it's a German watchmakers shop. He was so welcoming, even gave some handle materials. We had a long chat about my stuff and what he does and he let in on some trade secrets. He said ,paraphrase ," you're doing very well for one starting out, and taking on stuff like this(holding my Puuko). It's encouraging". Towards the end of my visit we went into his home and chatted further about my jewellery and knife making future and he gave some of his blade magazines! The two bland pieces of handle material from the left, a piece of bamboo flooring and on the right a piece of African rosewood and in the top corner some rams horn from Bethlehem in South Africa. I left that visit very excitted and Mr Prinsloo said I was always welcome to come by and visit to ask questions.

Me spark testing

Just out of of curiosity I wanted to do some spark testing of some scrap steel I had in my work shop. It felt like discovering hidden treasure, I found some decent pieces for what I would be making.Here below are some pictures of what I used as a guide.

http://maritimesecurity.asia/free-2/maritime-security-asia/how-to-identify-metals-in-engine-room-observation-and-spark-test/

http://www.tpub.com/steelworker1/5.htm

Spark test

(A) Wrought iron
(B) Mild steel
(C) Steel with 0.5 to 0.85% carbon
(D) High-carbon tool steel
(E) High-speed steel
(F) Manganese steel
(G) Mushet steel
(H) Special magnet steel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_testing

Second Puuko time!

I've just finished Forging and profiling the blade of my next puuko, After going through the process with my first puuko and learning some painful lessons. I would like to make another one, I'm getting more practice with the forging and the heat treatment and the tempering with a torch

Fixed blade hidden tang Anatomy

http://lansky.com/index.php/blog/billy/

Finished puuko

Here are a few pictures of my finished puuko
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Stress Fracture

I found a stress fracture on my blade, just after I had finished the blade and handle getting them ready to epoxy together. I decided to complete the knife as a trail run. I was highly disappointed but I learned that if the blade is unevenly heated if heat treating with a torch, stress fractures will occur.
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Japanese Blade smith

What it is meant to look like

This is what the air rifle is supposed to look like, all the exposed metal parts were heavily pitted and rusted. According to all the gun specialists, one is never to use abrasives to restore a gun. Unfortunately I did but it's looking okay,  and I used good old vinegar to dissolve all the rust off all the screws and pins. I did not want to soak the barrel and spring chamber in vinegar for fear of the insides becoming sticky.

Altogether

Once altogether with the tang through the butt cap, I peen the end of the tang over with a ball peen hammer

Bolster, handle and butt plate

                                       I'm burnt the tang into the  rosewood handle

I fitted a medium carbon steel bolster plate, by cutting out a rectangular hole the size of the broadest part of the tang

Puuko

 Blade of my puuko Is profiled and flat ground, this last picture is a picture of my touch mark. I hot stamped an L and an M onto my blade

B9 air rifle

A friend of mine gave me an old B9 air rifle he found in the shed at his place. I'm going to restore it and get it shooting. Ill post a picture of the rusty pile later
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My New Blade

Today I bought myself a No.8 opinel folding knife. I'm trading in my "tsotsi" knife for a classy french workman knife.
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KMTS

Yes! I received my order from KNife making tools south africa-KMTS. I was pleasantly taken by their excellent service, it took all of a week to reach me. Geared to start on my next project

Pipe

I finally finished this pipe, I have learned valuable lessons about pipe making. This was a very enjoyable venture, if I ever get any orders for more or another I will have to make adjustment to my tools. A wood lathe would cut shaping time in half, but Hand shaping is also satisfying. I will take A better picture tomorrow. It's looking good though, isn't it?

Puuko Time

I am ready to start on my puuko, in this picture I have my piece of Oak for my handle. The Oak is from Hilton, From the big storm of December 2012 that felled many tree around PMB. The steel I will be using is a VW golf 3 tire rod. I assumed that because it is a car part the steel would be high tensile and able to hold an edge because car parts have to with stand high amounts of tension. I'm very excited
for the forging.

Ring pistol

 Look at this Cool ring pistol, looks like an antique
http://www.oobject.com/12-concealed-guns/ring-pistol/6383/ 

My next project

This is the next project I posted about in an earlier post. I would like to forge a Puuko, which could also be used as a whittling knife. A puuko is a working knife. the blade is disproportional to the handle to give stability when working. The knife should remain razor sharp, a blunt whittling knife can be dangerous. Blunt on wood is still sharp on flesh.

It's coming along

 Its almost finished, the bowl and shank are roughly shaped. I still need to make the stem from this piece of Rhodesian teak. I am yet to come up with a solution for the tenon, I was thinking of carving it out of the same piece of teak. The problem I am needing to solve is the one of how to carve the tenon perfectly cylindrical without a wood lathe. I will be keeping you posted.