El Padron

[Sylvrfalcn]

Read somewhere that that's the Mexican nickname for the roadrunner bird. We've got one that hangs around the shop, more like haunts around the shop, now you see him, now you don't, big old adult male with beautiful plumage. Odd thing about this one is he dearly loves the ring of the hammer. Friend of mine was once working on some various parts for a suit of armor, banging and clanging away, when out of the corner of his eye he saw El Padron standing in the shop door watching him. When he told me about that, I sort of took it with a grain of salt, until yesterday. I was forging a blade out of a scrap piece of a big old file, thick, so I was swinging a heavy hammer and making the anvil ring like a bell. After a bit, I got that tingly sensation that someone was watching me. There in the big roll up doorway stood El Padron, head cocked and giving me a look as if to say "why did you stop?".
I really like that big goofy bird, not much to look at when he's got his head down running, but when he's standing tall in full "display" with his tail feathers and comb feathers stiffly raised, he's majestic in his own way, and he has an intelligent look to his eyes that's downright spooky.

Oh yeah, what about the blade I was forging? Well, all the discussion about kardas a while back inspired me to forge a "heavy duty, rustic karda" for a rough and tumble utility knife. Blade is 3 3/4" long, with a spine that starts out just a skosh under 1/4" ( 7/32") thick at the hilt, with a distal taper all the way to the point. Handle is Honduran rosewood, and kind of stubby, but works fine for me. Sharp son of a bug, used it today to round off the corners of some 2x12" planks I was building bench tops out of for six benches to go around a fire ring, and promptly reinforced my recently acquired pirate name "Thumbcutter Goodbeard". After all the whittling I did, it would still cleanly shave hair off my arm, a few licks on my strop and the hairs were jumping to get out of it's way.

Sarge

 

[munk]

I've always liked seeing Roadrunners in the desert. They are real characters. Makes you feel good to be alive.




munk

 

[Green Ice]

Roadrunners are cool although I like Wile E. Coyote myself. Kaboom!

Ice

 

[Kevin the grey]

It must be hot work banging on an anvil in the dessert ? Thats one thing I have as yet to aquire . A blade that will both sharpen easily and hold the edge . If it is just for cleaning game its one thing . If I,m rounding corners on a 2 x 6 ? Thats another question entirely .

 

[ferguson]

Nice distal taper Sarge. Looks like a good cutter.:thumbup:

Steve

 

[Fiddleback]

What amazes me is that you make pieces like that with a coleman burner and an old rusted file. Wow!

Andy

PS. I'm from the southeast and have no experience with roadrunners. I'll have to look them up. A

 

[Sylvrfalcn]

Geococcyx californianus

Because of its lightening quickness, the Roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes. Using its wings like a matador's cape, it snaps up a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracks it like a whip and repeatedly slams its head against the ground till dead.

Good birds to have around, I'd get very upset if one of the kids threw a rock, etc., at the one that hangs around the shop. In two years of tromping around, turning over rocks, clearing brushpiles, and stuff, I've never seen a rattler or a copperhead on my friend's property. El Padron squares 'em away.:thumbup:

Sarge

 

[Kevin the grey]

Doesn,t El Padron mean THE BOSS ? Tough lookink bird ! Kinda camauflaged except for that little slash on its head . Betcha its the last thing a rattler sees ! !

 

[Yvsa]

I'm a *Huge* fan of Sarge's work!:thumbup:

Great looking blade as always Sarge. You're getting better at forging it appears.:thumbup:

I'm waiting on the day that Sarge gets ahold of a thick and long piece of good spring steel and makes a Humongous Bowie or Rifleman's knife!!!!:thumbup:

 

[Sylvrfalcn]

I'm waiting on the day that Sarge gets ahold of a thick and long piece of good spring steel and makes a Humongous Bowie or Rifleman's knife!!!!:thumbup:

Yvsa, at an antique show here locally I found the "holy grail" for my knifemaking hobby. It was an early style bowie, authenticated as being used in one of the battles for Texas' independence. The 9" blade appeared to have been forged from a big old file, the tang ran all the way through the simple wooden handle and was bent over an iron washer at the pommel. The steel crossguard had a very slight "S" shape to it, and wasn't real large, but was big enough. For someone who's come to love the Lone Star state, having the opportunity to handle that knife was something truly special, and as I examined it I burned every detail into my mind for the day I make my own.

Sarge

 

[donutsrule]

The roadrunners that hang around my back yard (I've had them come in the yard more than once) can make a sound like running a small stick down a picket fence.
Maybe he thought all your tapping was someone calling to him?

Very cool birds.

 

[Yvsa]

Yvsa, at an antique show here locally I found the "holy grail" for my knifemaking hobby.
It was an early style bowie, authenticated as being used in one of the battles for Texas' independence.
The 9" blade appeared to have been forged from a big old file, the tang ran all the way through the simple wooden handle and was bent over an iron washer at the pommel.

Sarge

Sarge I'll be waiting with severe anxiety to see this one.:thumbup:
Please don't keep us waiting too long.

If you'll drop me an email with your address I'll send you a piece of wood suitable for just such a knife if there's still a piece large enough, if there's not any of the wood I'm thinking of suitable I have some other that's nearly as good, just not quite as old that I know is large enough!!!!:thumbup:
Thinking about some well weathered and long seasoned Bois D'Arc fence post about 90 years old and if not that then a chunk of Bois D'Arc that's not weathered about 70 years old.
I still have a bit left and can't think of a more worthy knife for it too go on.