Anvil_Fire777

That thing looks dangerous. Reminds me of crocodile dundee's bowie. (Australian classic)

Hi, Who here forges their damascus billets under air hammar? I see some posts of you blokes saying "just made these up on the week end" or something like that and there is like 2 or 3 really nice looking, 600'ish layer damascus knifves fully done. I (as usuall) look at them in awe and try to imagine how much work has been put in. A freind of mine makes damascus by hand and it takes him a week or so to do a 2000 layer knife or 2 by hand on the anvil. Ive made a 10 layer (so far) billet and it has probaly taken me 5 houres so far, let alone trying to pattern it. I still enjoy it but i would like to know wether what i see on this forum is done under air hammer or not. Just to get a better picture. Thanks

Thanks everyone. i ended up heating about 1 1/4" of the tip to orange heat and quench in room temp used motor oil. this hardended it a good so i wiped the exess oil off and tempered it back by holding it above the fire until the oil was burnt off and i could just see hints of bronze showing then i quenced in same oil. The edge from what i know is perfect. its reasonably easily sharpened and holds its edge against Australian Hardwoods, let alone soft woods like pine that it is intended for. i got the axe to shaving sharp and cut through a 5 1/2" gum tree limb and it was not, from what i could tell, any blunter. Still shaved arm hairs. That Gum is Seriously hard. I will post pics of the axe soon, when i have time. Once again, thanks, this was certainly a learning experience for me.

Yes, At the moment the steel is WAY to soft. I went to cut up an old floor board and ended up with a large nick in the blade from a 1mm nail. if the axe had a little hardness, there would be no nick in the blade. I gave a friend of mine a phone call last night and asked him about hardening this thing. Hes a professional blacksmith. He gave me 2 ways of doing it but ile run them past you guys. The first was to simpily heat about 1cm deep on the edge to an orange heat and quench whole thing in oil or water. He said that if it is too brittle, then put back in forge and get to orange heat again and quench quickly up until the black line then put in vice and rasp it until you get a bronze colour then quench in water. Which should i try?

Hello, First off, Hope everyone here had a wonderful christmas, i know i certainly did! Anyway, i made an axe head out off a peice of old leaf spring (5160 as far as i know) and i want to know how to harden and temper it safley. The only oil i have is used motor oil whic from past experiences, works qiuet well with knives. This axe head is a different story all together. it will mostly be a small carving/light chopping axe. Can someone please give a detailed explanation of how i should do this? I understand the consepts of heat treating and have put some of them into practice (not axe heads though) so iam not a complete noob at it Some help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks :)

They are amazing for your first 2 knives! What steel they made from? I like the one with the red wooden handle best but they are both great peices of work, well done friend :)

Hello again, I have been to many bladesmithing sites and (mainly this one) and looked in awe at the neat bevels people put on their knives. From personal experiance, making a knife is rather boring because of bevels. Everything els is fun and I WANT to make more knives but i just don't have the time nor energy to sit there for 6 houres draw filing nice neat bevels. I have done it before and it is SO tedious. Usually when I then sand the knife with sand paper, I end up with round bevels. How do all you pro knifemakers do it? HOW do you get the angle so precise?, HOW do you make neat, even bevels with sharp sholders in such a short time? Sorry if i seem a little desperate, its probaly because i am. The urge to make more knives is so strong but the thought of spending houres in the heat, draw filing a thick knife puts me off completly because I know there is an easier way. Somehow. Just can't think of it. Any help on this one would be greatly appretiated.

This is a terrific idea! But why temper for so long? 1 hour limit so u have to do it in 1 hour. I can temper in 30 seconds. Do it the old way. Hold spine against a hot peice of metal and watch the colors change blue spine, dark straw blade and then quench. Take the risk, shorten the normalization period. Just let it air cool if u must. I will try and do the whole thing in 1 hour. sounds like fun.

@ TomasPowers, What do you mean by "dont thin it" do you mean not to take any more material of the surface? The only work i have donr on this anvil so far is sand with 120grit the numbers to reveal them. i also gave the face a quick run over as it has alot og dirt and grot on it. do you think i should clean this anvil right up? Also, where i live it is very wet (tropics). things tent to rust easily. what can i do to keep the rust of when iam not using it? any ideas anyone?. I think i might start an "Anvil ID" thread for this one. thanks for all your help everyone who posted, very much appreciated

Interesting.... well, here are some pics to help out Iam also not sure if this anvil is wrought iron with steel face. Is there any tests i can do without lifting the darn thing? it has a ring but it is pretty dull and the ring is short. porbaly because the base i have it on is not solid. It has good rebound. I can drop a 2lb hammar from about 6 inches and the head will bounce around like a peice of rubber on the anvil face.

Thanks for all the suggestion. I was pushed for time and did not get to reading them. I ended up laying 6 bessa bricks down and putting 2 wide peices of wood on top, creating a large surface area. then 3 more bricks and 1 big plank. its pretty sturdy but wobbles a little when i do some bending of heavy material on the horn. BTW, I dont think the anvil is 250 pounds. on the side is printed in spaced out numbers: 2 0 2L. Not sure what this means. i also found a very small H stamped into the front end of the feet. the 202L is fairly small as well. I suspect the 202 is its weight in pounds. maybe they forgot to add the B onto LB to indicate pounds because its no there. just L. it has a decent ring to it and has a minor dip on the face where it has been worn down. I am over to moon about it though. this unlock me to even more things I can make!!!! If someone can ID this anvil, that would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks

Hello. My first anvil is coming tommoro and i still havn't found a suitable stand. My father's friend donated this anvil to me. All I know thus far is that it weighs 250 pound and has its weight stamped on the side in big letters. Not sure who made it yet. (will post pics when it arrives tommoro). Anyway, back on track, i need to find or manufacture a stand ASAP. Where would I find a suitable tree stump? there are no logging places near us. The best place i can think of is the vegitaion section of the local scrapyard. Is there a quick stand I can make/find that will hold this beast of an anvil for the time being until I weld up a propper one, or find a good hardwood tree stump? thanks for any suggestions.

@ Tompdw, I hardened it using old engine oil and temperd it over a camp gas cooker. I had the spine running blue and the cutting edge a straw color. Thanks everyone for the comments :)

Hi, I dont have alot of tools or or materials to make knives so i decided to make a "Scrap" knife. The blade is an old file I found at the scrap yard, the handle scales are a peice of old floor board split in 2, coated in bees wax, the pins are 2 bits of an old tent peg. It is full tang and shaving sharp and holds an edge great. Here is a pic, tell me what you think.

Hi, I need a little help tempering my knife made from a 1095 file. I've seen unfinished knives with nice blue temper colour along the spine, heading down towards the edge is a purple leading into a brown to grey and full hardness on the cutting edge. I think that this temper method will work for knife but i have no idea how to use do it? Please, how do you temper a knife?

Today i welded the billet XD. It was ten billion times easier than i thought. The only 2 problems that occured was that the handle i used to hold the stack broke off during the drawing process because it was bent around to much. I got a thicker more sturdy one welded back on. The second problem is that there are 2 small cracks on the edge of the billet. the protrude about half a millimetre into the billet so i dont think it should be a problem. Tommoro i will attempt my first fold and decide whether i want to twist the billet to make a twist pattern. i figured i will just do 1 fold which will give me 24 layers. Good enough for my first bit of damascus i think.

Thanks TomasPowers, i got a friend to tack weld the stack together instead of just wiring them. By the way, the 1095 is 2 times the thickness of the mild so it would most likely be 60% 1095 and 40% Mild, and yes, i am using it for knife making. My set up is a typical coal forge. Here are some pics - My air sorce is a vacuume cleaner, not ideal but still air. I can roughly controle the air flow but not fully. Usually when i weld, i just give it air for about 10 seconds at a time with a 50 second gap inbetween each blow. this is slow but it gives it time to soak and not oxidize to much. Will this work with damascus? i cant see why not. Also, since it is now tack welded, where abouts on the billet do i set the first weld? of do i just weld the whole thing at once?. thanks for the help so far.

Hi, Well i've finaly gaind the confidence to try and forge a peice of damascus. My combination is (starting from the top) Mild, 1095, Mild, 1095, Mild. The very middle peice of Mild is long and will be used to hold instead of tongs. The peices of 1095 are old files. i have uneald and ground the teeth of them with an angle grinder and i also cleaned up the Mild with it as well. My first question is: Do i have to sand the peices right down to get a good weld? The angle grinder left some scratches to the steel I'am hoping that these scratches won't matter. Iam going to use plain Borax, not the anhydros or what ever it is called. I'am using a coal forge with a railroad track anvil. I have had some experiance at forge welding but not heaps. Also, if all goes well, how many folds should i do for my first peice? When and IF I get to the end of my folding and are ready to flatten out for final time, wouldn't I need to flatten it out by hammaring the sides of the billet? Other wise, if I flatten it out by hitting the top and bottom peice, when I come to etch it, I would see no pattern. It would only be visible on the bevels because it would cut through the layers. It is hard to explain but I hope you understand. Another thing, is it good to give the fire as little air as possible to avoid huge oxidisation? And iam tying my stack together with steel wire. Is it ok if I accidently weld the wire to the billet? This could happen. Also, in what way should i hammar the billet as to push out all the flux? I will post pics of the progress but would really like some replys for this one as it is important to me, thanks guys :)

Thanks guys, Here is a few pics of the forge and the coke. I mix 2 two sizes together. I also use a vacuume cleaner that has a blower function. this is no ideal obviously but i wil try and get a new air sorce soon.

Hi, I really want to get into making damascus steel. I decided this a while ago and welded bits of steel by folding them over and welding back on themselves. I could do this but it wasnt consistant. about a 50% chance the weld would take and the other 50% it would just fall apart. After about 40 mins of having the fire going, it is usless for welding. i get thumnail size bits of scale forming on the steel and clinkers mixed throughout the fire. Also, the bottom of my fire is not glowing, its black. To top it all of i get bits of ash blowing up onto my steel and sticking to the melted borax. It is a nightmare. Iam using extremely high grade coke, no coal (i dont beleive the fule is the problem because a friend of mine used to make damascus with it with no problems) and i DO flux my material before reaching welding heat and welding. Iam not hitting to hard either, nice and lightly (not to lightly) It just seems pointless trying to make damascus if i cant even get consistant welds and cant controle my fire correctly. Can anyone provide any help? It will be greatly appreciated, thanks :)

*sigh* I don't understand alot of these options at all. The links that were posted are great thanks but $640? Still to expensive (thats more than my forge, coke for 1 year and my stock for 1 year). How do you rig up a car ventilation blower to a forge? Car vent motors are a mess when u get them (no cage to direct air). Can you please post pics? Also, how would you hook up a bathroom extractor fan to a forge? And hand crank blowers are realy rare and generaly only pick up, no postage. I can't find a old cloths dryer sitting around. I've been to all the local dumps and scrapyards and no luck, they don't usually get throwen out so I cant get one of their motors. I also througherly searched EBAY with no luck. Closest thing is inline blowers which are no good. Iam mounting to a square mounting plate, keep that in mind. Currently i am hooked up to an old vacuume cleaner with a blower function. It's incredibly noisy unpleasnt. i am sick of it. Is there anymore help you guys can give me?, thanks BTW, I am from the Atherton Tablelands, North Queensland.

Thanks everyone, ile go try some of these options. Its really appreciated :)

Hello again. I have spent houres on the internet looking for an electric centrifugal blower for sale in Australia. I have only come across 1 and it was $1000. iam not willing to pay that much. It will be powering a coal forge and needs to push roughly 250-300cmf I can only buy online, no pickups and will only buy from overseas in an "extreme" situation. If you are australian and have a centrifugal electric blower than WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU GET IT? These things are harder to find than anvils! Thanks so much for any help you can provide me with.

Hi, Iam building a new forge and want to know where to put the air shut off plate? It is a coal/charcoal forge and will be powerd by a centrifugal blower. Should the plate go above the "T" peice or on the pipe the connects to the blower? If you need an image of what i mean then just say so. Iam worried that if i put it above the "T" peice, it will ruin the "vortex" effect that the air has as it travels up the pipe into the firepot. Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks