Don Nguyen

A 2x48 burrking is being sold in my town for $500 (Tucson, AZ). Looks to be in really good condition too. These run for ~$2000 new. And I don't even have $200 on me. I dislike being a college student >:[ Sorry if this is the wrong section. I wasn't sure where grinder stuff belongs to.

I got some stuff done over the past few days. After I got the finish on the blade, it was time for handles! Here is the knife with one scale wood glue'd to one side and drilled. The second scale is glued on there now too, ready to be drilled. Using some of the glue already on there and some pins, I cleaned up the front of the handle area. Some more. Now for the epoxy and clamps. I didn't really take any other photos after this. Just waited till they were cured and then shaped them out on the belt sander. It was kind of an experimental stage, seeing what handle shapes do what and stuff. I ended up with something that I half-like It's already been used during Thanksgiving. Patina has been established. The end product I'm not fully proud of. I made a little thumb grove on the left side of the handle, and ended up thinking it was dumb. I messed up the finish while sharpening, so I did some fixing with sandpaper. It kind of made the knife much, much more sloppy than I wanted it to be. Overall though, it was a very good learning experience. Next time, I won't limit myself to a Thanksgiving time-limit, and work at my own pace to finish it up. Cuts very well, and is fairly stick-less when it comes to food. Can chop potatoes without much sticking at all. Cuts tomatoes and pops hairs. UPDATE: I just used it for real real this time, preparing some pico de gallo. Doesn't really cut that well. Even though I got it to where I thought it was fairly sharp, it had trouble chopping tomatoes and maneuvering through onions. Can't push cut a tomato at all (not that I was aiming for a true push cut, just wanted to break the skin easily, which it doesn't), even though it pops hairs. Looks like my idea of fairly sharp isn't as sharp as I want it to be Time to practice sharpening again. Also, the spine isn't rounded at all, so it was pretty dang uncomfortable.

Thanks for the response wannaforge. I think the most important thing about these threads is understanding what went wrong in the processes :)

I decided to work with my least favorite one first. The one that chipped and seemed least functional to me. Too skinny, narrow, weird profile, etc. Too too thin too. Also the fact that it chipped I chose to do a single bevel grind on it. I ground the tip to profile soon later, but I actually think I like the chisel like tip I have here. Oh well. The circles marked are high spots. The tool room! Here I am at work, grinding it down flatter. I didn't actually mean to give that kind of look, but uh, it just kind of ended up that way. I was just looking at the camera to see if it was still taking pictures For my very first knife, I tried to do a solid flat grind with a nice ridge line. I thought it would be easy, aaand it wasn't. At all. I ended up grinding like 3 inches off the end and turned it into a full convex with the slack belt. So this time I thought I'd try out some angle guides and/or jigs for a flat grind. Nothing worked. So I said, "Forget it! I'll just do it by hand!" I actually enjoyed doing the flat grind all by hand With the jigs, tool rest, guides, whatevers, I got mad when things weren't going well. So I threw all that out the window and just focused on technique. It's not perfect, but certainly better than my first attempt. Would also help if the whole blade was initially one whole flat thing, instead of a thin wobbly kind of warpy thing. Now it's at home, being hand sharpened. I don't have any vises or anything, so I brought some clamps to set up a work area. It works ok. More updates to come soon! EDIT: That backside shown in the homemade sanding set up is a ghetto concave grind. I'm not even sure it worked, but I was just trying it out. I don't have a wheel big enough to do a proper full hollow. If anything, it just made hand sanding more difficult :P

Thank you for the feedback. I thought it was a great idea to do multiple knives at once when I started this project, but it's taught me that it's only a great idea if I know what I'm doing For future projects I'm going to scrap martempers, brine, and unknown materials. I'll stick with 1094 and canola oil. I will also start a test log as you suggested Rich. I may not be able to come up there any time soon, but perhaps during my Christmas break?

I really appreciate all the help and feedback Rich. A little update on what I've been up to lately. Mostly it's been re-doing the heat treats. I normalized each of them, straightened, and normalized a few more times. I made sure not to get them overheated, using a magnet as reference point. I didn't get a chance to get any canola oil or anything (and at this point, I certainly can't buy anything too costly), so for these few blades at the moment I'm still trying out the interrupted brine quench. I stopped using the big pipe. It wasn't allowing me to control the heat; worked for the smaller blades, not the biggun. I set the forge on low, and then stuck the blade in and out, holding them with tongs. Made sure the heat went evenly, which it did. Same process overall. After normalization, bring it up to non-magnetic (I earlier was aiming for a little above non-magnetic, but with my shoddy skills/experience and lack of precise temperature measurement, I played it safe and went for just non-magnetic), and then do a very quick (one second) quench in brine. At this point it's well below 900 degrees F, around 450 F (I had a tempilstik at hand, which was handy). Now it's just starting to transform to martensite, and I have a very small window to try to correct any major warpages. Do whatever I can at this moment before it gets too hot, and then try to fix them later in the tempering. Right when it slowly cools to a slight warm in the hand, I grind off the scale and then do a makeshift temper. I wasn't anywhere near home where I have the baking oven, and at the school workshop we don't have any ovens. So, I used a forge. Low heat, stuck it far away. I check the temper colors on the blade very regularly and make adjustments now and then until it just starts to go a light straw color. That's when I take the blade and lightly tap it with a hammer to correct warps (riiiisky game, and it'll show in the pictures). I make sure to tap the blade when it's around 400 degrees, or else I risk even more of doing something horrible (my train of thought was, "if I'm going to tap with a hammer, hotter is better"). I don't get the blade any hotter than this; I leave that for the home oven, which they're in right now. The smallest 3 blades were straight forward without any hickups. Larger blades had trouble controlling heat and warps. Not to mention I messed up the temper 3 million times and started over. At the very least I decarburized them like crazy and all sorts of no-no's. Notice something different? It started out as a small crack about 1/3 way up the edge. Probably happened when I was trying the straighten it. I plucked off the tip to inspect. Dianosis? Anything horrible about it, besides the chunk missing? I can't really tell, but it doesn't look too coarse... I have also been working on a pizza pan. Really ghetto ugly thing, but at least I can now bake some bigger pizzas EDIT: I do realize that many and probably all of my approach isn't that effective. I was kind of in a trial and error mode, just to see what happens when I do this or that. UPDATE: Sticky situation! After I tempered them at 400 F in the kitchen oven last night (which might actually be high 400's, maybe even 480; the tempering colors are a bold mustard yellow). the biggo slicer started to bend back a little bit to its original warp. I can't clamp it to anything, because I don't have any clamps on me at home, and the clamps from school smell BAD when in the oven (nono from Mom). Maybe just ultra lightly bend it by hand when it's at temper heat? I just did that a liiiitle bit, which worked some, but it's still there. Of all the blades I'm working on, the biggo slicer is the one I want to succeed the most :(

Thanks Rich; feedback like that is exactly what I need. I did realize that I was jumping the gun on practically everything I was doing. I'll be using 1084 in the future, and no messing around with brine martempers (I got too excited after I was reading this a while back: http://www.navaching.com/forge/heattreat.html). No power hammer for me either, and I'll probably stick to one small blade at a time. With only a forge or torch, how would you recommend getting the most even heating? So, hips in line with anvil, choke up on tongs, keep elbows in-line with body. I'm a bit confused when you say, "your hammer hand is reaching for the work." Is this what I should be avoiding or aiming for?

Yeah, I'm going to have to make a bunch of modifications to it. I'll probably cut it shorter, because it's about twice as long as the whole heat area. I'll make some little jigs to hold the blade vertical and horizontal too (horizontal because sometimes when I hold the really long blade vertical or at an angle the curve along the spine changes, which I don't want). Still have to figure out how I'm going to get the really big slicer heated evenly for the quench...

I wasn't really thinking very smart when I was working on these. I didn't want to grind them any more, so I can heat treat them with some meat, but I didn't think about rough sanding just for the scale. At the same time, I was almost contemplating a kurouchi finish, which is probably why I left it on there. This is one of the other major flaws with my process; I don't know where I'm going. Major lessons to learn: -Don't rush. Stay calm. If I only have 30-60 minutes of work time left in the day, stop and continue when I come back. -Stay organized and outline where I'm going with the process. What kind of knife do I want to end up with? That's what I need to have established.

The long slicer curved along the spine a bit too much after I normalized it, but back in the forge it goes. The big pipe in there is for critical temp later on. It's kind of like an oven inside an oven. More even heating, less muck on the steel. Adjusting the curve... I think that's good. Then for normalization again. I am judging by eye. Really though, I'm guessing. It's bright out, and I'm inexperienced. My thought process was, "Get it as close as I can to what I think critical temp is. It's probably a dull red in this lighting." My heat treating set-up. Brine to the left of the forge, and the extra anvil to the left of that is for warp adjustments before Ms. I later moved the brine set-up to a dim area so I can see the colors better. Couldn't see anything here. Getting to critical (or what I think is critical). Clamping down in a warm area (after quench) for Ms --> Mf. A little doohickey I devised so I don't have to fumble around with the tongs. Works especially well if I need to adjust where the blade has to go (the heat area is a bit small). I modified it right after so I can use it at long distances. So the heat treating didn't go that well to be honest. I was playing a guessing game, trying to do a martempering process that I didn't quite understand. For the big slicer, I couldn't get the full blade heated in the oven-inside-the-oven, so I resorted to the torch, which made me impatient and sloppier. I learned a lot in the process, however. I get a much harder blade if I leave it in the quench for half a second longer than what I was doing. Most of all, I do a much better job when I'm not rushing to get things completed. I should leave heat treating for when I'm in a level-headed mood. I ended up with areas of the edge not quite hardened, and most of the blade warping (thinking I could straighten later during the temper). So I come home with shoddy hardened blades, with clamps and a straight piece of metal (relatively straight). Put it in the oven, and 30 minutes later the whole house stinks; it was probably the paint on the clamps. So I have to use the grill now, which has no temperature gauge. I followed advice from Rich Hale to use the tempering colors as a guide (used a separate piece of metal, since the blades had all the scale on them). First temper didn't straighten out the blades, so I stuck them in there again with the flame slightly hotter; just a notch. Weather around the area got colder, so the grill isn't as hot. I turn it up juuuust another notch. Check back and the temper color is now a dull purple. Overheated. Not even straight either. Looks like I have to go back and treat them again, this time doing it properly. Kind of glad that I messed up the temper, or else the heat treat would have been very, very, mediocre. Just bad. Also irritated that I didn't get any real progress done today, but on the same thought train, I did learn a heckofalot. I just have to learn my lesson not to rush things; I never seem to learn it. Here they are, taken out of the grill, still clamped. You can slightly see the hint of purple where I file-checked earlier. The scrap piece of metal I was using to gauge temperature was full purple. Thanks for looking.

Got some good progress today. Cleaned the tangs a bit, drilled them, and heat treated the blades. Or tried to heat treat them. We will see how they turned out, but I learned a loooot in the progress. Pictures will be up soon.

Thanks for the feedback Rich! I am a little confused by spreading the material from the end of the dies. Do I bring the material from the side of the hammer, or hammer on the edges? The thought hadn't occurred to me to use a kiss block, but it's itching at my brain now. In future projects I'm going to give it a go. I'm also debating whether I should grind the bevels first before heat treating...

Later that day, November 8, 2011! I went for a lunch break, and jazz band rehearsal. Now back to forging and stuff Here they are, after forging them further and then cutting+grinding them to rough shape. Some of them are still very thick, even though I thought I got the thicknesses good... =/ Either I will have to grind them down to desired thickness, or I'll have to forge them down. Probably forge. I like forging more than grinding. Notice how the smallest knife is probably the thickest. Uh. It should really be the thinnest, to be honest. Tangs shaped out! They aren't too bad, I think. Maybe a bit skinny though... I kind of misjudged how much (or little) they would grow with the hammering. That's it for now. More to come tomorrow when I get back to the shop. Please excuse the badly designed and badly executed profiles; all criticism is yearned for. Thanks for looking -Don Nguyen

Yesterday, November 8, 2011! Did some more work on the blades, but mostly got the tangs to length. Knife numero 1. Worst one out of the bunch; will probably be made into a small thingamajig. I didn't really have an idea for I wanted it to be, and this is what happens with an unorganized mind. I wanted to make this one a vegetable knife, but the width is looking a bit inadequate. Probably will be made into a smaller sized gyuto/chef's. THIS one I was going to make into a vegetable knife, but then I messed up on my big gyuto/chef's knife later seen. So this will be a medium sized gyuto/chef's. Ok. I really wanted to make a good sized gyuto. So I made it long. Drew out the length, thought I had enough material to get substantial width. It came out a bit too... narrow. So it's going to be a small slicer. As a slicer, it isn't too horrible. Not the gyuto I was envisioning, but... It seems like this one is the only one that came out the way I wanted. A really big xxxx sujihiki/slicer. I can't complain about it, really. Maybe you can, but I can't. At least not yet. Should I rename it to a kitchen sword, and not a kitchen knife?

November 5, 2011. Forged out some of the basic lengths/thicknesses and did some hammering on the tangs too (mainly just to hold them better with tongs). Here is the culprit >:[

I had some time in between what I was working on at the moment. Still November 4, 2011. This is the raw material I will be using for handles (for quite a while). It's called Indian Mountain Laurel; not sure about any other details. Cutting it up, Seems like good wood to work with, but, uh, what do I know... Each board makes 12 handles, and I've got 10 boards in total. Maybe I'll use some for saya's or something?

Here are my second knives. Each one is half a Nicholson file, which I think is either 1095 or W1. They were cut and ground down some time in October, when I started my first knife. Unfortunately, I didn't know any better, so I annealed them before grinding the file teeth off. Hopefully it doesn't do anything drastically crazy. November 4, 2011. Here it is in the forge, ready for me to establish where the tangs will be. After a while, here they all are

Hello all. I started knifemaking about 2 months ago. Here are some of the things I am working on. This is my first knife, finished November 4, 2011. Forged from Nicholson file, deferentially heated and martempered using brine. Maple burl handle. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and took no pictures of the WIP of this one. You wouldn't want to see the mess anyways Thanks for looking -Don Nguyen

I have been studying how to make a knife for about one year, and I've finally had the opportunity to do so. This knife initially was not supposed to be finished; it was made as a feeler, to see how the process goes. I decided to finish it. Forged from a file. Deferentially heated martempered with brine; also deferentially tempered. Satin finish at 600 grit, maple burl handle, sharpened by hand on waterstones. I thought about taking pictures to show the best of it and hide the worst But I chose to show the knife in full colors, good and bad. Thanks for looking!

Thanks everyone! This was my first project overall; I haven't made anything before these. I was given a bunch of, I think it was half in round bar, but those I used for mainly practice. Most of the possible tong pieces I scrapped because they didn't come out right, or I had redesigned them. It was a lot of trial and error for me, so whatever I learned on the way I made revisions in the designs. These I made out of this giant screw thing I got at a used tool store. It was probably 5/16. Right now they can hold many different sizes and shapes, from square to round, flat, etc. I have trouble pulling flat things from the forge, so I might make some modifications for that. Also a bit on the heavy side too :)

Hello IFI! I've started blacksmithing about two months ago, and the first thing I wanted to make were a pair of universal tongs. A lot harder than expected for me. Since it was a project for school, I had to include some things like twists, welds, tapers, flattens, textures. Which is why they look a liiiittle flamboyant. I had trouble forging the whole thing out of one whole piece, so it was done in sections and welded together. Hopefully they last..... Thanks for looking! -Don Nguyen

Helli IFI For now, I am keen on getting a Metallurgy or Metallurgical Engineering (is there a difference?) degree. I'm also considering Materials Science and Engineering, but I'm mainly just focused on metal. However, I am unsure of where to start. I'm looking at the University of Utah, Colorado School of Mines, and possibly University of Texas. There will be more, but so far, those are what I've looked at. What other schools should I look at? Also, any other things I should consider? Thanks, -Don Nguyen

Thanks again for the input everyone. I think I made my opening a little confusing though. I already have an idea of what I want to do, so I'm not asking "if I should do -this- or whatnot". I just wanted to hear your stories and experiences :)

Thanks everyone! I added a new question, because I thought it would also be very insightful to know -What hardships did you have to endure when you chose it? What easyships (?) were you blessed with?

Hi IFI, I am researching and studying career stuff right now (for personal, and for presentation in class). I would like to ask: -How did you find your interest in metalworks (or your calling, if other)? -Did you hesitate to follow through with it, and if yes, what were the reasons? -What hardships did you have to endure when you chose it? What easyships (?) were you blessed with? -Have there been any things you have regretted, such as other paths you were considering, or due to any shortcomings of this path you chose? Thank you in advance - I really appreciate your time and thoughts! -Don Nguyen