A while back I posted a shot of a new dirk in progress, here it is with my sgian dhu:
The dirk is 13" in the blade, 18" overall length. Blade is 5160 spring steel, curly maple grip, nickle silver fittings. The sgian dhu is 3.75" in the blade, about 8.5" overall; blade began life as a ball bearing, walnut grip and nickle silver fittings.
I mentioned before, for big cutting/chopping blades I like 5160 better than others. For the smaller ones, bearings- generally 52100 steel- is excellent, though heat-treating is a bit odd. I did once make a dirk for a friend out of a 2.5" bearing; forging it out was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done, but oh, how it holds an edge. If I had a power hammer to forge out the big ones, I'd use more of them.
This one began life as an old Nicholson file:
2.75" blade, just shy of 6" OAL, horn scales and brass pins. A good file can make wonderful cutting tools, but you can't use all of them. Some files were made with a relatively high-sulphur steel; it makes it easier to machine, but if you try to forge one, it tends to crumble under the hammer(another effect of the sulphur).
Just a general belt knife:
6" blade, 10.5" OAL, 5160 steel, antler grip & brass fittings.
And last, something that usually draws attention:
Railroad spike, God knows what alloy, with the shank twisted for the grip. These have surprised me; find the right ones and they're a lot better steel than I'd expected. Holds an edge at least as well as most good stainless steels(not as well as 5160 or a tool steel like 01 or 52100) and incredibly tough. If you had enough of it, it'd make a hell of a sword blade.
I've got some other stuff I'll post shots of later, knives and other ironwork. For now, it's late and Blogger is posting pics too slow to mess with.
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