Pistol prod on the anvil"

Finally got some cool weather to fire up the forge this morning.  I cut the rough profile of the prod from 3/16" 1075 high carbon steel.  The plan is to forge a gentle taper to the limbs from the center of the prod down to less than 1/8" on the tips.  Hopefully this will give me a 12" prod that will draw between 50 and 70 pounds with a power stroke of around 3 inches or so.

 First baptism in the forge: 
 

On the anvil:
 

Seeing some taper:



Cooling down: 


A look of what the final surface finish will look like on the external spring of this lock back folding knife I made:
 

Pictures are poor, but I'm still learning how to hold a hammer in one hand, hot steel in the other while snapping a picture with my teeth.

The prod will cool down slowly the rest of the day to anneal.  I'll take some measurements along the limbs to see uniformity and then return to the forging process.

'Drif

What sort of camera are you using?  It is often possible to rig them to fire from a button on the floor that you step on.  Add a tripod, and you have a very safe setup.

I love that knife, and am looking forward to more stuff on forged prods.   Lately I keep wanting to find some place where the neighbors won't complain about the hammering noise.

PierreC wrote:What sort of camera are you using?  It is often possible to rig them to fire from a button on the floor that you step on.  Add a tripod, and you have a very safe setup.

I love that knife, and am looking forward to more stuff on forged prods.   Lately I keep wanting to find some place where the neighbors won't complain about the hammering noise.

PierreC I have a Canon A610.  It has a 1/4 x 20 threaded spot for a tripod and I have camera tripods.  I would have to use the timer and by the time I set the timer, run to the forge, get a hold of my project, grab my hammer and get back to the anvil......I wouldn't get there in time for the picture.

Your concern about making noise and the neighbors.  Blacksmithing can make noise for sure.  Normally its the big things and big heavy hammers that make the loudest noise.  Small things like knives and this prod I use smaller hammers and not so hard blows.  I very seldom ever use steel thicker than 1/4 inch.  Also, if you notice in the second and third pictures you can see a big heavy chain that I wrapped around the waist of my anvil.  This absorbs a huge amount of the ringing and noise.  Old timers use to accomplish the same thing by placing a bag of lead shot over the horn.

Thanks for your comment on the knife.  I thought long and hard about posting that picture.  This is a crossbow forum and not a knife forum and I didn't want to have to go sit in the corner wearing the newbie dunce hat so soon.  When forging, a carbon like scale can be hammered off of the project.  Some folks brush this off.  I don't, I like to hammer it back into the work.  If you look real closely on picture 4 you can see on the surface of the prod tiny pits where this scale was hammered back in.  Also just under the prod in the lower right you can see some of this scale.

When ever the project is cleaned up with an iron brush I will draw file the surface smoothing it up.  It would be too time consuming to remove it all.  But leaving some of the forging marks and these tiny pits, really adds a bit of antiquity to my projects.  You can see it on the surface of the external spring I forged for the knife.

Thanks for your comments.

'Drif

After a week of work and 3 attempts I finally got a prod that will work.  The first one which was made from 3/16 turn out to be about a 400 pound draw.  So I made one out of 1/8" stock.  It turned out to be over  a 100 pound pull.  The third one made from 3/32nd 1095 seem like it is going work.

It is 12 inches in length, 5/8s inches in width at the center and tapering to 3/8s inch on the tips.  The brace height is 1 3/4 inches and has pull weight of 55 pounds at 5 inches.



String Length is 10 3/4".
 



And my makers "Mark"


Now I can move on to trigger system.

'Drif

Nice looking work there, Drifter.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the rest of the build.  Did you actually string that 100# prod?  If you want some place to discard your fubar, let me know, I've got a pistol prod in the works that could take it!

kenh wrote:Nice looking work there, Drifter.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the rest of the build.  Did you actually string that 100# prod?  If you want some place to discard your fubar, let me know, I've got a pistol prod in the works that could take it!

Ken I used a short piece of 550 paracord to see what was in the prods.  I then place the center of the prods between a couple piece of pine and snugged up in my vice.  I then put a scale on the paracord and put my back into testing them.  The first one I pegged my scale and barely moved the tips.  The second one I pegged the scale again and moved the tips maybe an inch or so.  This last one the prod stacked at 70 pounds with plenty of limb movement.  I then made a quick string for further testing.  It'll work, but I think I'll try one more time.

The oak stock is salvaged from a pallet.  It is 9/8s thick right now, I think I'll rip it down to about 7/8s for the tiller.

Right now I'm thinking moose antler for the nut and pine tarred hemp for the bridle.

Just learning the ropes right now.  It's great to have a new passion to learn about.

'drif

Desert Drifter wrote:
A look of what the final surface finish will look like on the external spring of this lock back folding knife I made:
 

That's a beautiful folder, Drifter.  I've always liked ring lock knives, from Okapi and the Cold Steel Kudu to the nicer stuff from makers like Mongin.  Could you give more detail about how the back spring is riveted/pinned to the stag?  It appears the main pin going through the spring tabs would run into the forwardmost pin going through the top. 

Thanks for you question Scotty.  Hopefully I might be able to answer it for you.  Here is a picture along the back of the knife showing the spring and lock.  On the back of the blade I filed a square peg.  You can see it through the square hole on the spring just to the right of the finger ring.  There are three hand made nails along the back of the spring into the handle.  A pin runs through the wrap around portion of the spring.




There is one hardened pin through the small square iron bolsters for the blade to pivot on.


The spring is stout but the finger ring allows you to comfortably use a lot more lifting power to close the knife than you would some other folder.  There is not many folding knives out there than lock up as tight and as positive as this one.  The antler handle was not fully split and along with the iron bolsters with the pin makes a very solid knife.

The knife is a handful with the blade being 4 1/4 inches in length and overall being 9 3/4 inches.



Did that answer your question Scotty?

'Drif

Yes, that clears things up.  Many thanks, 'Drif.