Had a friend request some basic knives for a Christmas present. She provided me a picture of what she wanted.

Got together with a blacksmith buddy yesterday, and this is what we came up with for her. She was highly pleased at the results of our labor.

Each one began as new 5/8" coil spring. The largest measures just shy of 8 inches in length. The smaller, just over 5" long.

We don't think we did too bad for a couple backwoods hillbillies!!!

Can't wait to get back down to his shop and make some more knives. What a good time, and felt good to get out of the house for a day.

The last picture is what she provided me as an example....How did we do????

Very nice, Key!  I wish I could have been a "tag along" to learn.

PS:  Didn't realize any hillbillies existed West of Arkansas :)

That is some nice work,  how thin did you get the blades?   Spring steel, nice to work with. 

Derek:

I can't even begin to tell ya how much fun we had. I learned quite a bit about knives, tempering, etc. My buddy has a "new" Little Giant power hammer which was a first for me to play around with. We did the knives mostly by hand, though. As for the "hillbilly" thing, I think we both are in the right type of regions to be included on the list!

John:

The blades were forged to about 1/8 before we did the grinding. The spring steel moved well under the hammer blows, as long as we kept it at a nice yellow color. I was really impressed with it, and next trip we are making punches, some chisels, and various other tools I haven't put in my shop yet. Spring steel is pretty versatile, I've come to learn.