Custom Leather Knife Sheath

Hidden knife that attaches to your belt

Sweet little knife sheath that we hooked up for a biker brethren of ours . Its a hidden quick release sheath to wear on a 1.5" heavy dutly leather work belt and will fit perfect right above the back pocket for that hidden surprise when ya need it. Always stoked to hook friends up with cool random projects.

Creating Patterns In A Blade, An Intro Into Damascus Steel and It's History

Manuel Quiroga making a special pattern in folded Damascus steel

Seeing is believing. Case in point, have a look at the knife detail below. The folds and patterns in the steel are created from a well thought out and engineered process to create a hardened metal that is known as Damascus Steel. The process originates from Middle Eastern swordmaking and the steel itself is known as wootz, emanating from India around 300 BC.

The distinctive patterns are a result of the forge welding and layering of the steel as it is continually compressed pushing out impurities. Damascus Steel was once considered a lost art in swordmaking but has been rekindled as of late and potentially very close to its original origins. Check out a few great links below to help with a plethora more info on all things metalurgy in knife making. The second link plumbs the depths to fully understand the science behind the metal for those of you enjoy drilling down into the periodic table.

How to create patterns in blade steel

In depth discussion on Damascus Steel and why impurities enhanced the steel

Amazing pattern created within the folding and forge welding of the steel through a specific build process

And The Winner Of The Custom Knife Is...

J.B. Beverley is poised to release Stripped To The Root with a custom knife give away

Folks, it's been a long time in the making and definitely well worth the wait. J.B. Beverley's brand new collection of songs that were recorded over the period of a couple of years, is now ready to be unleashed. The album will be available world wide through our vast distribution network on November 12th hitting six continents.

Yes, it was said that in quite a few media outlets the album was going to be released on September 24th, but we opted to push it back one month. J.B. wanted to make a few extra edits and add a secret bonus track to fully complete the collection of songs that make up "Stripped To The Root." Once you hear this menagerie of songs, you will start to understand why just a bit more time was needed to corral all the pieces together.

Huge thanks to Kitty Barks for knocking out the new cover art illustration over a weekend. It is some fantastic line work in the graphite she put on archival paper. After we got that scanned in and ready to roll, I cranked out all the lettering and got the album layed out in photoshop and added some washed out color and more line work.

With the added time frame, we could also up the ante on an awesome giveaway prize, that is truly fitting to the album. I proposed the idea to JB about making some custom railroad spike knives for the time that he spent hopping trains. Needless to say, the thumbs up was given. Now it was my task to do what I had had never done before. Building a forge from scratch took some research and a month of chasing down Craigslist leads to find an old anvil within our budget. Finding the right tools for blacksmithing set us down a new road of wrenching out ideas and now we can fully appreciate the many thousands of years that iron ore and heat have been shaping the world we live in.

Putting all the elements together is one thing, but making it work and being able to get tooled steel up to a melting temperature was a great lesson in patience. Breaking new ground with a DIY budget and letting our ideas blaze our trail is the kind of fun we enjoy. There will be quite a bit more video posted on the process of these knives coming together, but for now check out the screen shots.

November 12th will be a great day as the album will be shipping out for all pre-orders and hitting digital media outlets. We will also be giving away the custom knife in a drawing on that day and here is how it works. For anyone that purchases the brand new album from J.B. Beverley - Stripped To The Root, your name and order number will then be placed into a jar for the chance to win the custom knife. The only way to win the knife is to pre-purchase the cd from Rusty Knuckles Music. Sorry, we know that early versions of this album were to come out on another label, but that does not qualify, as we had nothing to do with the previous project.

Order your copy of Stripped To The Root on cd

Album packaging for J.B. Beverley's - Stripped To The Root

Album packaging for J.B. Beverley's - Stripped To The Root

Full album art for the poster that will be part of the pre-sale

Check out some of the process photos of the railroad spike knives coming together:

Custom railroad spike knife and sheath for a giveaway with purchase of "Stripped To The Root"

Checking the temperature of the forge, yep we are there

Railroad spikes lined up and ready for the oven

Luckily we had some some prison colony labor for the forge with the Aussie Posse

A hot forge required some cold refreshing beer

Sean thoroughly enjoyed being in harms way

Pounding out the hot steel into custom knives

Pulling a railroad spike out of the forge, created from cinder blocks bought from Lowes with scrap steel

Knives are cooled off and ready for first round of shaping

Putting together custom leather sheath for the knife giveaway

Several of the knives are prepped and ready to roll, just need final sharpening

J.B. Beverley Is Poised To Release New Album, With Awesome Custom Knife Giveaway

J.B. Beverley is poised to release Stripped To The Root with a custom knife give away

Folks, it's been a long time in the making and definitely well worth the wait. J.B. Beverley's brand new collection of songs that were recorded over the period of a couple of years, is now ready to be unleashed. The album will be available world wide through our vast distribution network on November 12th hitting six continents.

Yes, it was said that in quite a few media outlets the album was going to be released on September 24th, but we opted to push it back one month. J.B. wanted to make a few extra edits and add a secret bonus track to fully complete the collection of songs that make up "Stripped To The Root." Once you hear this menagerie of songs, you will start to understand why just a bit more time was needed to corral all the pieces together.

Huge thanks to Kitty Barks for knocking out the new cover art illustration over a weekend. It is some fantastic line work in the graphite she put on archival paper. After we got that scanned in and ready to roll, I cranked out all the lettering and got the album layed out in photoshop and added some washed out color and more line work.

With the added time frame, we could also up the ante on an awesome giveaway prize, that is truly fitting to the album. I proposed the idea to JB about making some custom railroad spike knives for the time that he spent hopping trains. Needless to say, the thumbs up was given. Now it was my task to do what I had had never done before. Building a forge from scratch took some research and a month of chasing down Craigslist leads to find an old anvil within our budget. Finding the right tools for blacksmithing set us down a new road of wrenching out ideas and now we can fully appreciate the many thousands of years that iron ore and heat have been shaping the world we live in.

Putting all the elements together is one thing, but making it work and being able to get tooled steel up to a melting temperature was a great lesson in patience. Breaking new ground with a DIY budget and letting our ideas blaze our trail is the kind of fun we enjoy. There will be quite a bit more video posted on the process of these knives coming together, but for now check out the screen shots.

November 12th will be a great day as the album will be shipping out for all pre-orders and hitting digital media outlets. We will also be giving away the custom knife in a drawing on that day and here is how it works. For anyone that purchases the brand new album from J.B. Beverley - Stripped To The Root, your name and order number will then be placed into a jar for the chance to win the custom knife. The only way to win the knife is to pre-purchase the cd from Rusty Knuckles Music. Sorry, we know that early versions of this album were to come out on another label, but that does not qualify, as we had nothing to do with the previous project.

Pre-order  your copy of Stripped To The Root on cd, shipping November 12th

Album packaging for J.B. Beverley's - Stripped To The Root

Album packaging for J.B. Beverley's - Stripped To The Root

Full album art for the poster that will be part of the pre-sale

Check out some of the process photos of the railroad spike knives coming together:

Custom railroad spike knife and sheath for a giveaway with purchase of "Stripped To The Root"

Checking the temperature of the forge, yep we are there

Railroad spikes lined up and ready for the oven

Luckily we had some some prison colony labor for the forge with the Aussie Posse

A hot forge required some cold refreshing beer

Sean thoroughly enjoyed being in harms way

Pounding out the hot steel into custom knives

Pulling a railroad spike out of the forge, created from cinder blocks bought from Lowes with scrap steel

Knives are cooled off and ready for first round of shaping

Putting together custom leather sheath for the knife giveaway

Several of the knives are prepped and ready to roll, just need final sharpening

Turning A Ball Bearing Into A Custom Knife

Doing anything that involves craftsmanship takes time. Since the internet has taken over our lives we can pour for hours over other folks projects and work to best understand the work they are creating. After a few searches around youtube I found this inspiring video about knife making from a dude over in Europe. I was sold as soon as I read the title of the video: A Knife From An Old Bearing. 

Keep up with Trollsky Custom Knives on facebook

Old ball bearing taking shape as a finished knife

Leather handle is of great quality

Trollsky Custom Knives workshop

Trollsky quenching the knife after coming out of the oven

Secrets Of The Viking Sword, From NOVA

The science of metalurgy, fascinates us to no end. We have no plans on dropping anchor into the world of black smithing, but seeing shows such as Secrets Of The Viking Sword, give amazing insight into where we are today in high tech alloys and raw metal materials.

Watching Richard Furrer of Door County Forgeworks craft an ancient style of blade from raw materials is truly good television. One aspect that we continue to be boggled upon though is how they knew what materials to use and where to mine for them. It is easy to think that we are much wiser in our modern age, but to see a sword such as the +ULFBERH+T come to life, it can be safely assumed that our ancestors were equally adept in many ways.

"The Vikings were among the fiercest warriors of all time. Yet only a select few carried the ultimate weapon of their era: the feared Ulfberht sword. Fashioned using a process that would remain unknown to the Vikings' rivals for centuries, the Ulfberht was a revolutionary high-tech tool as well as a work of art. Considered one of the greatest swords ever made, it remains a fearsome weapon more than a millennium after it last saw battle. But how did Viking sword makers design and build the Ulfberht, and what was its role in history? Now, NOVA uses cutting edge science and old-fashioned detective work to reconstruct the Ulfberht and finally unravel the "Secrets of the Viking Sword."

Link to original post on Nova

Find out more about Door County Forgeworks

Illustration of the +ULFBERH+T sword

Richard Furrer working on the inlay of the +ULFBERH+T sword

Richard Furrer drawing out the sword

The original +ULFBERH+T sword in detail

Mike Snody And His Amazing Cutlery

Finding a guy such as Mike Snody on youtube, is akin to finding your new favorite reality show that you didn't know you were looking for. As soon as we found his channel, we ended up watching for the next three hours and damn if this dude isn't a craftsman. What we find the most compelling about his work is how detailed and well he explains knife making, while also creating blades that are of uncompromising quality. If you have any interest in custom knives, enjoy. A Mike Snody Boss knife will be out on our hip before too long.

Watch Snody Knives Reality TV on youtube

Snody Knives - Boss Series

Snody Knives - Crisis Card

Snody Knives - Boss series with paracord handles

Snody Knives - Snake Charmer custom knife

Snody Knives - Acid etched folding knife

The Birth Of A Custom Tool. Axe Making With John Neeman

Creating something by hand is a building block experience. It could be a mundane chore or a complex operation. Instilling craftsmanship and hard work into any project should always be the goal. Seeing crappy work, such as what he had done recently to a new door being put on baffles me. The slackers even left the stickers on the door and drilled out holes in the wrong area and left them to be seen. Quality is something we strive for and get damn stoked when we see other folks who exemplify this notion. 

John Neeman is a craftsman who makes tools by hand. His methodology is a mix of modern day technology, with old world ideas. To see a person in their element and going through the motions of creating from scratch is a peek back in time. With the amount of throw away consumer goods that pervade store shelves, knowing quality items are out there ignites our fire for new ideas.

Check out the original short film on Vimeo



The Birth Of A Tool. Part I. Axe Making (by John Neeman) from John Neeman Tools on Vimeo.

"This is a short documentary movie that shows the whole process of how the John Neeman tools are being hand crafted.

"It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God." Mahathma Ghandi"

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neemantools.com 
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flickr.com/photos/neemantools/

Contact us: neemantools@gmail.com

Railroad Spike, Custom Knives

Over the last few years I have really been interested in learning more on the science and craftsmanship behind forged steel and blacksmithing. Our logo of the wrench knife was created by a local blacksmith as a gift and that set the ball in motion to learn more about this ancient craft. One area that I have been particularly paying attention to is custom swords and knives as the amount of craftsmanship to create such a type of blade can be done in many stages, such as with a Japanese sword or a bit quicker of a process with railroad spike knives.

Below is a cool video on how one guy is creating knives in a back yard forge and getting quite the results. If you want to know more about the science of metalurgy and sword making, check out a post we did a while back.

Link to article on sword making from an earlier post:

Custom knife made from railroad spike with leather sheath

Railroad spike knife with twisted handles

Railroad spike knife custom made

Railroad spike knife forged with black oxide and wood handle