Ed Caffrey

I'll be leaving later today, on a trip to Seattle, WA, where I'll be teaching a bladesmithing class for the next week, and then demonstrating at the Northwest Hammer In on Oct 11-12. (Which means I won't be here for the Friday nigh knife chat this week or next.) I posted the information for the hammer in over on my forum at the Knife Network. (The Knife Network Forums : Knife Discussions - Ed Caffrey's Workshop) If your interested, it should be a great time. See everyone on chat in a couple of weeks!

Just finished posting the rest of the knives for the show to my web site...you can see the rest of them at Bladewest05

Thanks for the kinds words folks! Mike: Heres the address for the show: Monarch Hotel & Conference Center 12566 SE 93rd Ave (I-205 @ Sunnyside Rd/Sunnybrook Blvd.) Portland, OR 97015-9760

Yes, I make all my own Damascus. I'm pretty fanatical about sole authorship, and if I don't do everything, then I would feel guilty about putting my name on it. Thats the neat thing about Mosaic Damascus...its nearly impossible to achieve the exact same pattern in any two billets, even it your trying to do it. Most folks who make it can get it close enough that you can identify it as basically the same pattern, but the subtle differences is what makes each piece unique. Besides, where else can a guy play in fire all day long, and not get in trouble for it! :)

I'll be heading for Oregon on Thursday morning for Blade Show West, taking place the 26th-28th. Here's a couple I finished up yesterday for the show. -The Bowie is 10" blade of Mosaic Damascus, with blued mild steel guard, textured mild steel spacer, and carved/textured Desert Ironwood handle. -The Folders is based on my latest design called the "Sonue". Mosaic Damascus blade and dovetailed bolsters, fossil walrus ivory scales, textured/anodized titanium liners, and textered/18k gold plated back spacer and screws, finished off with dual anodized titanium thumb studs.

Jut not enough carbon there to create a usable blade. With a RR spike I suspect your closer to .030% carbon than .040%. To give an example, .040 is about the amount of carbon contained in a common wood screw, which can be easily twisted off/broken. Even with "Super Quench" you'll likely not get much more than an Rc hardness of 50, which will not hold an edge. RR spikes are neat little things to practice on, and make interesting decorative things, but they do not make decent knife blades. The basic steps to achieve a completed knife would be: 1. Hot Forge 2 Normalize/Thermal cycle 3. Anneal 4. Rough Grind 5. Harden 6. Temper 7. Finish/assemble For anything below .050% carbon, I would recommend to only do a "stress relieving" heat/temper at 350F, anything higher than that and you will be softening the blade.

I read those books too! Working on "Sea of Swords" right now. Vascowear will give you all the challenge you could ever want...its just a bear to work with. Super difficult to forge, and in its hardened state, you will eat up A LOT of belts grinding on it. Be ready....it is VERY pricey! Concerning the Titanium, its a very poor choice for a blade. The max hardness you can achieve out of 6AL4V titanium (60% Aluminum/40% vanadium) is around Rc 48...meaning its too soft to hold and edge (most forged blades are in the 57-59 Rc hardness range) (you listed an Aluminum alloy. 60% plus 40% equals 100% where is the Titanium? can you please explain) Tungsten is an element that is added to steel to impart the quality of the steel holding its shape a very high temps...items such as metal saw blades, drill bits, and other types of tools that often encounter high heat and pressure applications usually contain Tungsten. The problems with tungsten in steels that are forged is that it creates a condition known as "red hard", meaning that when the steel is heated to forging temps, it resists moving under the hammer. The more tungsten, the worse the condition exists. The forging temp ranges tend to get very narrow as more tungsten is added too. I would highly encourage you to work with simple carbon steels such as 1050 through 1080 until you master them. Trying to jump straight into the richer alloy steels will frustrate you, and will cost you a bunch of money. It will help you understand the elements that steel can contain, and the characteristics that each will impart. Learning about steel is a big step in forging blades. Don't let yourself get caught up in all the hogwash that you hear about steel....things like "Tungsten/Vanadium Steel", "High Carbon Surgical Stainless" "Spirit Steel" and such are just terms that some have applied to make you go "OOOHHH.. AHHHH!" They are hoping to make you think they have some kind of super duper steel that is just the cat's meow.....but its only a ploy to try to get you to purchase their product. Learn your steel(s), and you'll be light years ahead those who think they have to rely on name games to sell their product.

Before becoming a sword maker, I would highly recommended that you first become a "knifemaker". I've made a number of swords, and can tell from experience that as a blade gets longer, it becomes exponentially more difficult in just about every aspect. The time and effort spent learning and applying the basics of smaller blade design and construction will help prepare you for the "bigger" stuff.

Hi Folks! I'll be out of town for the next couple of days, which means I won't be here for Friday night knife chat this week. Have a great time, and I'll be back with you next week.

Most of use use Ferric chloride, but we mix it 1 part ferric to 3 parts distilled water. Basically the reverse of what you mentioned. As a general rule with damascus, the slower the etchant, the better the etched blade will come out. If the etch is too aggressive, you will often get what we call a "muddy" pattern, where things look smeared together instead of a crisp definition between the materials. I'm not familiar with the steel types you listed (European?) Another hint for etching is CLEAN. The blade must be 100% clean before etching. I use latex gloves, clean the blade with acetone, followed by window cleaner. I use TSP (trisodium phosphate) after the etch to neutralize, and scrub the blade with #0000 steel wool and soapy water.

The reason you were told to treat chisels as you described is because their use involves impact, and by lengthening out the transition zone, the shock of impact is better disbursed, and the tool less likely to break. Knives are a different animal, intended for a different purpose. Although a knife blade is expected to endure some impact, its not nearly to the degree a chisel would encounter. Usually the transition zone on a knife blade is very narrow. The soft material which remains in the upper 2/3-1/2 of the blade acts somewhat like a shock absorber, helping to make the edge somewhat more durable at the same hardness, versus an fully hardened blade. I use what I call a "limiter plate" in my quench tank. My tank is 36" long X 5" wide X 6" deep. The limiter plate is a 3/8" thick piece of plate aluminum, chocked full of 3/8" hole, with a 1/4-20 threaded hole at each corner. Each of these holes has a 5" carriage bolt thread through, with the heads facing the bottom of the tank. All I have to do to adjust the depth of the quench (how much of the edge gets hardened) is to turn the bolts....raising or lower the limiter plate level in the quench tank. When quenching, I tend to leave blades overly thick (the edge is approx the thickness of a nickel) to help retain the quenching heat. I also use an oxy/act torch with a #3 tip and a "soft" flame. I try only to heat that area of the blade that I want to quench/harden. Once the proper heat is achieved, the tip goes in first, for a slow count to 7. Then I rock the blade back so that the rest of the edge/bottom of the ricasso goes in, and again, a slow count to 7. Keep doing this until all the fumes stop coming off the oil, then drag the blade off the limiter plate, and allow it to cool down IN THE OIL, until you can handle it bare handed (usually about 5-10 mins). DO NOT TRY TO SPEED UP THE COOLING BY DUNKING THE BLADE IN WATER. Once the blade is cool enough to handle, get it into a pre-heated tempering oven for a minimum of 2 hours. Everything I do get triple tempered, meaning 3, two hour cycles, allowing the blade to cool to room temp between tempering cycles. Spectrographs of test materials have shown that at least two tempering cycles are required to get rid of most of the retained austinite...the third is just for insurance. Thanks for posting that link to the JS article! I'm glade to see it's getting some use!

Weak side/Strong side.... Generally, a right handed person will have the most difficulty grinding when they are holding the tang of the blade in their left hand, just the opposite for those who are left handed. Being right handed, I tend to always start grinding on the "weak" side, and that way, since I am better and more controlled with the "strong" side, I can more easily match the grinds. More often than not, folks who are new to knifemaing and grinding have the tendency to always start on their strong side...most do fairly well until the have to change hands and grind on their weak side. When I teach people to grind, I insist that they start on their weak side, and if they can master that, the strong side is generally easy for them.

OK.... Edge up, weak side is ground first, then the strong side, in an attempt to match the grinds. No visual references, other than watching the blade's edge (or what will be the edge). For me its more "feel" and "sound". As far as matching grind lines, the only ones I have to be concerned with are the plunge cuts, all of my grinds are rolled out the spine, usually during hand finishing. I try to match the angle of the plunge cuts to the angle of the guard. For me, each blade is different, and doing it freehand allows me to adjust to each blade being ground.......can't do that with a jig or fixture.

As far as contact wheels go, I only use them to rough profile blades. 95% of my grinding is done on a flat platen. That being said, if your hollow grinding, most say that an 8" is the minimum for general purposes. Many makers I know use 10"-12", and I know a couple who are all the way up to a 14" wheel. The platen that I use has a 3" contact wheel on the bottom, and a 1 1/2" on the top. I do not hollow grind, so the contact wheels on the platen take care of all of the small contour work I need.

My opinion is that freehand grinding is one of the things that makes a true custom knife. If your using jigs, clamps or other fixtures to make each blade come out identical, its more like a production knife. The subtle differences achieved when blades are ground freehand is what makes each one unique, and there for a true collectible "one of a kind". I can understand Bob's desire to make things in that manner, and that's OK if that's what an individual wishes to do....its just not something that I would want. The argument could be made that if he is using CNC machined blades, or other parts, then is it really a "hand made" knife? Not taking anything away from Bob, he's a legend in the knife world, but the question that remains is where is the line drawn between "Custom", "Hand Made", "Bench Made", or "Mid-tech"? That's something that has always been a kind of "hot potato" issue, and I'm sure it always will be.