Blades the 6000 Year Old Way

 When my good friend Jon Compton and I spoke recently he asked me what my daughter wanted for her first birthday. "Something Dangerous" was my response! I was fairly surprised to find that the US postal service had delivered a wicked looking hand forged weapon to my door last week! Using only re-purposed  metal and techniques pioneered in the Neolithic Era, Jon has made some pretty cool stuff!

Above are some of Jon's other creations and below is some thing special... The story of Danger

 JC:Forging may be a 6000 year old technology, but I am really hooked.  I got one side looking good with an arrow type shape, but the other side didn't come together as well.  The metal started life as a leaf spring for a Toyota pickup truck.  I cut a strip about 3/4" wide and 1/4" thick off the spring, heated it up and started hammering on it. 

  My forge is a couple firebricks and a propane burner.  I attached a couple pictures of the knife in progress.  When it was the shape I wanted, I took it to the belt grinder to clean up the blade - at this point If I bend the blade, it would stay bent, way too soft.  

 Once it is looking good, I heat it to red hot and dunk it in vegetable oil. Now it is so hard that its brittle.  If I drop it, it will break.  Into the oven at 400 for 2 hours and it comes out nice and springy.  Hard enough to hold a good edge, soft enough not to break.  

 Then work the handles, put a little epoxy down and peen the pins and its done.  Last step is to hand sand the handle and sharpen.  Also on that knife, the bevel of the blade is shiny but the flat spine is a little rougher.  I gave the spine a coarse sand for texture then etched it to give that dull gery-ish tint. I would like to ultimately be able to contract/sell some projects to continue financing my tools and materials, so to get that ball rolling...

 I'll build the first request I get for a bottle of Four Roses single barrel and a hand drawn sketch of what they want.  

 

the blades are all about the soul, the character comes from hands bringing them to form.  I try to name each piece I make, to that end - yours is called Danger.

He told me he wanted some cool photo to show off how cool it was.. like a crime scene or something!

I said: With blood and chalk outlines and stuff?

Perfectly weighted and balanced, holds a mean edge, and as unique as each recipient if you are interested in one of Jon's Custom Blades shoot me an email!

THANK YOU JON!