Lupus Rex Forge

03/23/2020

Date: 3/23/2020:

To the people who have been kind enough to have liked my page and to anyone who happened to stumble onto it, I feel that ow you guys an explanation for why I do not have anything available for sale yet, and to explain my infrequent posting here.
when I enjoy doing a craft I have always held myself to a standard that really is impossible for me to actualy achieve. when I look at my own work I will not anything good about it, I will only see any flaws in my work, regardless of how small they are, I will see it that work I will feel its bad work. so well this drives me to be a great craftsman, it makes it impossible for me to say I have made a good blade.

I made had made a promise to myself that I would not sell anything I make until I have at least passed the ABS journeymen rank performance test. This way I at least have a piece of paper signed by a master bladesmith that says, that I have passed the performance test as that way I will at least know my flawed work will not break from normal use. I am now working on getting a knife ready for the test, so I will hopefully be taking the performance test within the next few months.
However, I will start posting more of my finished work here.

11/14/2019

My latest blade a bowie with a Japanese rear bevel (I can never remember the proper term for its geometry)

statistics:

blade material: leaf spring so it's likely 5160

handle material: chared curly cherry treated with linseed oil

Pins: 3/16th copper and brass

measurements:

overall length: 13 1/16th inches

blade length: 8 1/16th inches

max-width: 1 9/16 inches

handle: 5 inches

somewhat tapering tang

I still make somewhat skinny handles on larger blades like this so that needs to be corrected. I also need to remember to do any chemical treatments after I sharpen a blade and not before I sharpen it. the chemical treatment i did on this was cold blueing the cutting portion and cold blacking the spine and ricasso.
I am finally satisfied with the sharpness I can get from a blade I made as I can get a reasonably clean shave with it. the reason for a 5-inch handle is my hand always feels cramped on a blade with a 4.5-inch handle.

06/28/2019

have not uploaded something here in a long time so here's a blade that shows my current skill level. the design still needs a bit of tweaking. ill hopefully have some several concept blades posted soon.

01/01/2019

I realize I have not really posted any of my work here in a long time so here are 4 of my Damascus experiments.
going from the bottom to top:

1: canister Damascus using the last of my 1095 powder and 4 Dewalt hacksaw blades cut into 4ths. I used this to replicate the geometry of a katana in small scale so you could call it a Chinese Shinogi tanto. I say Chinese do to the fact that like the Chinese dandao this was designed to be peened.

2: next is the only unquenched blad. It is the prototype of a Celtic style dirk that became more of a seax bowie like blade. I took about 6-8 3/16th mild steel rods and about 3 w1 rods and tacked them together, fluxed at red heat then took it up to welding temperature and proceeded to twist them together for a few heats.

I also regret the fact that I do not have an oxy-acetylene torch so I had to do it old school with a modern twist and use a lot of flux and my forge to wrap the 80CRV2 mono steel edge onto the blade. ill likely do a clay quench on it as it ended up being cutlery thin and in my experience claying a thin blade is the best way to prevent warps.

3. Number 3 is a normal alternating thickness of 15N20/1075/1095 that I folded a couple of times then rounded and drew out. I had large delamination likely from rounding on the edge so it ended up with this odd shape. next time I will clean up the sides before rounding it as that is likely what caused the delaminations to form.

4: this one is the interesting one as its a modified low lair raindrop pattern made from thin bars of Damascus I made over the last few months. after folding a few times I several different sized drilled into the billet then filled it in with some welding wire.

06/16/2018

My literally shiny new EDC. just finished it today

overall: 7 5/16"
blade length: 3 7/16"
handle material:
right side:black walnut
left side:purple heart and super glue to patch cracks.

do to weld flaw this particular blade is not for sale, however i can make a non damascus clone should you like shape of the blade.

06/16/2018

04/30/2018

What I have been up to over the last few months. I finally got the canister damascus technique mostly down.

04/19/2018

Well i should have some New blade examples up soon, first i need to get a handle on em.

01/17/2018

New prototype:

Mark I Deathscythe

Material:
Blade:5160 salvaged leaf spring
Haft: 2-piece fire treated oak
Runic inscription:
Right side: Innocent will protect
Left side: Wicked will reap
Haft length: 3’ 13/16
Blade: 1’ 7” 5/16
Pick: 3” 9/16

Man, I am glad to have this one done I remade the blade 3 times before I got it right.
Well this is the first weapon I was able to Perce a steel drum with via the pick. I did a differential heat treatment on it leaving the unedged portion of the blade soft, well hardening the edged portion of the blade and the pick. However, I did anneal the blade, so I could to drill the holes to rivet it to the haft.
As you can see by the runes I am still not that good with my Dremel tool…well I not that good when I am not using a Diamond tipped head. I also decided that as this is a prototype weapon I decided that like Iron-man’s Mark I armor I would leave it rough. The Mark II will be much more refined. However, I ran out of prototyping salvage steel, so it will have to wait till next month. On the next one I think I’ll make the pick a larger.

11/16/2017

I figure i should start posting more of my works her since i have been not put much here. Eere are some WIP prototypes i have been working on. ill be posting the finished blades here once i get everything done on them. Some of these are just for fun like the work in progress bolt knife. Considering the high chromium content of the material and just how hard it is to move ill be working on it off and on for some time. the top blade one is a old knife that was my first san mai. i decided to retool it along with making a new handle for it. I really like the the blade in the third photo.

11/14/2017

I just realized i have yet to share any of my blades designs that actually incorporate guards into the blade. so here are some shots of prototype blades that i have put guards on. The first one is also my first time making a sanmai lamination blade and i prefer the more ornamented guard over the second and third blade. i have also begun retooling this particular blade. The second blade was the first time I soldered a guard on and i did not affix it right. the third i did the same day as number two. Number three scares me with how sharp i got it...and gave me five stitches in my left middle finger. The dagger I call two face and was made to look as it does.

09/25/2017

Blades available for commission sales. pm me if you have any interest.