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| Railroad spike art has been a
staple of working blacksmiths for as long as there have been railroads.
Making an artifact that still shows the basic shape of the spike says this
was forged to shape. I use only legally collected "HC" railroad spikes. I
use Super Quench in heat treating these spike knives to get the best
possible performance out of this medium carbon steel. Each knife is
hand forged and is slightly different. Write for a photo of knives currently
on hand. These are available with either a drop point hunter profile or as a
curved or straight skinner profile. Three available at $65 each |
This is a Rail Road Spike Tomahawk. A
high polished Rail Road Spike head on a hickory handle finished with Danish Oil. Designed
for throwing, the handle is angled back slightly from the axe edge. Allowing the heel or
toe of the axe to stick solid, without the handle hitting the target face. This is one of
two styles or Rail Road Spike axes I make. One available for $85 |
These Blacksmith knives will continue to be a stock item for me. These are made from bits of pattern weld material left over from other jobs. Because they are forged to shape, the pattern will be somewhat random, no matter what I started with. Each knife starts as a piece of pattern weld, about .25"x.5"x3" and yields a finished knife about 5.5" to 6" long. Two available for $95 each
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| 15th Century Ballock Dirk. This is
our second take on a ballock knife. Using research from the Mary Rose,
images from auction houses (examples shown on this card), the Wallace
Collection, Peterson's Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World and
our own ideas, my wife Sandra and I have created our version of a 15th
Century Ballock Dirk. This type of knife is the direct ancestor of the later
17th Century Scottish Highland Dirk. The blade is a 40 layer ladder pattern of 1095 and pure nickel foil.The phalliform ballock handle was carved by my wife from 1/4 sawn lace wood. Brass fittings and red spacers finish out the piece. One Available for $325 |
Pattern Welded Tomahawk. A welded
"bow tie" construction tomahawk head, done in pattern welded steel. The
pattern weld is 40 layers of 1095 and nickel foil. So, it's about 80 layers
where it is bent back on itself and welded to form the axe blade. The
pattern weld is random pattern except at the edge of the blade. There, I
added sort of a tooth or ladder style pattern while spreading the blade area
out. The handle is hickory that's been finished with Danish oil. Two available at $185 each |
This is a reproduction of a Viking
Age folding knife found in Canterbury England. The original blade is listed
as iron. We chose to use a 30 layer star-twist pattern weld in ours. The
bone slabs are carved to reproduce all the details (even the mistakes) in
the original archeological drawings. This reproduction is scaled to the
actual size of the original. One Available for $375 |
