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I Forge Iron

Jeddly

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Posts posted by Jeddly

  1. Thats a cool looking knife for sure. I like the handle. Might I suggest buffing the metal parts pre-assembly? Reason I mention is that i tried buffing some walnut/maple with the green compound, and it got imbedded into the grain of the wood. Tinted the handle green. Maybe I did it wrong, but I would try buffing a piece of scrap wood first.

  2. Pound for pound, the variable speed is the winner I think. What kind of tooling do you have Mr. Anderson? I built my own grinder by just looking at the KMG pictures. There are versions out there that require minimal tooling ( think wood and screws), but I think you would want something a little more substantial. How are you with electricity? Do you have the capability of opening up a breaker panel, and adding a circuit? I've heard the VFD's that Mr. Coe sells are pretty much top notch. You'll definitely want an enclosed drive, metal dust kills the cheaper ones if you're not careful. Or you can make your own enclosure as you see fit.

    I scrounged most of the parts for mine over the course of 1.5 years, and it took a weekend to build it. Call me frugal. haha. Beaumont sells small parts such as wheels and platens, and the quality is pretty high. I like them a lot. 

    In town suppliers would be: 

    Motor  --- Craigslist, Hayden Electric, or online

    Steel  --- Alaska Steel, Greer Tank

    Pulleys  --- US Bearings 

    Hardware  --- Home Depot/Lowes, Fire and Fastener

    I think minimum tooling necessary would be a drill press, 4.5" angle grinder, and a welder. Maybe even a framing square so as to keep things in plane. 

     

  3.  When I build mine, I'll be modeling it after the X1. I like the simplicity of the leaf springs on the ram. I also plan on remote mounting the tire to the back of the machine for longevity purposes. I just haven't decided on a brake setup yet. I kinda like the idea of a band style brake on the cookie up front as opposed to rubbing on the tire.

  4. I would suggest grabbing a pop and a lunch, then searching the forums. Seriously. Not only can you gain valuable blacksmithing knowledge, but by actually reading responses, you can gain an understanding on how to approach said curmudgeons.

     

     

    Oh, and don't forget to add your location as well.

  5. I recently bought my crafty daughter some stuff called Instamorph. It comes in pellet form, and is re-useable. You put the pellets in hot water, and it liquifies into a moldable substance. After molding to shape, you dunk it in cold water, and it hardens. Kinda like quenching steel I guess. Its pretty neat stuff. I think I'm going to steal some from her and make a couple file handles out of it.

  6. If you want to some testing of your heat treat skills on a certain kind of metal, I would make a few KSO's (knife shaped objects), and do the destructive testing. I know it goes without saying, but I'll do it anyways. Don't forget to wear your PPE. Bending and breaking knives is somewhat dangerous work. Keep a log of your findings, and once you get to where you like the treatment, just repeat that procedure and don't deviate.

  7. Good lookin blades there. Got a question though, would you mind expounding on how you chamfer your tubing? I've tried using a countersink bit, and small strips of sandpaper to smooth out the rough edges, but getting a polish has escaped me.

    Overall, they look really user friendly. I'm sure the LEO's are gonna love them. I know I do.

  8.  

    ​You mean like this?  I've made a few 'whackers' with these bearings and cord, but they never really sell in my circle of pals. I did make a small cutter for doing leather work for a friend. Pardon the crappy handle though. I probably didn't brush the scale off as much as I should have. I'll heat one up again and try to forge it cleaner and see if the pimples come back.

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  9. The cross section is roughly 1 1/16".  I've got a 3 gallon bucket full of this size, and about a half gallon of the ones that are suitable slingshot ammo. About 3/8". The application is for downhole mud motors, and I suspect it may be carbide nodules. I googled photos of the nodules, and they look similar. 

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  10. We have an excess of ball bearings at work, and I pulled one out of the trash to beat up on my anvil. I saw a cool video of a fella making a knife from one, so I thought what the hay. Anyways, I flattened it out, and went to sand the scale off, and noticed some weird pimple things all over it where the sander didn't reach.

    Anyone know what it is?

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  11. Don't feel bad about the Chevelle, odblacksmith. I lost one too. Well, lost, as in I sold it after I was involved in a wreck. Looking back, I know I should have kept it, and repaired it. At 14 years old, I was just getting into the whole car scene. I loved the 60's cars a lot. As most boys did back then, they started working odd jobs to save for a car. I was no different. I mowed lawns all summer, and still had not seen the 'perfect' ride. That was until I went 12 blocks away looking for more customers. BOOM! There she sat! A 1967 Chevelle Malibu on jack stands in some guys garage! Unmistakeable taillights. I quickly worked up the courage to go knock on the door. The old fella answered to door to a starry eyed boy yammering on about a Chevelle. I asked if it was for sale, and he just shrugged, and said 'sure kid, if you can get it running, I'll let it go for 1200 bucks.

    Now, 1200 bucks is a whole lot of money to a 14 year old kid, and despair soon set in. When desperation comes, sometimes good things happen. I doubled down on my lawn mowing, and managed to get hired washing dishes at a greasy spoon. It didn't take long to earn the money, but I still had the other prerequisite to deal with. Get the car running Jed! So, I took some earnings, and went to a book store and bought almost every book I could find on the internal combustion engine. Two months and a lot of reading later, I walked back to the guys house, and was ready. I knocked, he answered, I handed him 1200 cash, and asked if I could give it a go. With him behind the wheel cranking the engine over, something just didn't seem right. Not to be diswayed, I took a real close look, and noticed that the distributor was moving when he was cranking it over. The hold down bolt was not tight, and the dern thing was out of time. So, I stopped the fella, and asked for a wrench. I remember the snide look he gave me when I asked, and then the shocked look when I got behind the wheel, and brought that 6 cylinder to life. One wrench, one bolt, and he was stumped. Showed up by a 15 year old no less. (looking back, he might have loosened the bolt just to be frisky, who knows)

    I drove that car the 12 blocks home to some miffed parents. Somehow I forgot to tell them I was going to buy a car. haha Three years later we moved to Alaska, and I had managed to keep my grubby paws on that car the whole way. Not long after that, cruising through the parking lot at school, I was T-boned by a redhead girl. My baby was wrecked in an instant. Drivers quarter, door, and fender were hashed. I'll never forget that feeling in my stomach right before we collided. She was found at fault, and her insurance offered only 800 bucks to repair the car. A month later, I sold the car for 1200 bucks, and have regretted the decision ever since. 

     

  12. Grinded out this little blade the other day. It was cut from 1/8" x 1.5" 1095 that I bought from Jantz a while back. The grinding went pretty good, I think I am getting the hang of it. I left the temper color on it because I thought it looked kinda cool. The handle is some homemade micarta that a friend gave me. He calls it Zombiecarta, and it is made with camp burlap and green construction paper. I kinda like it. I installed a hidden pin made out of 3/8" stainless tube so as to not wreck the handle at the mid point of the knife. There is also a thumb groove on both sides of the handle.

     

    Hope you like it. 

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  13. Welcome! I'm pretty new to this game too. You'll find fellas suggesting to pack a lunch, and devote some time to reading the forums. There's a ton of info here, as well as really knowledgeable folks that share. I'll keep my eyes peeled for an anvil.

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