metalmangeler

I also think that for a knife that you are selling you should use a steel of known material. For personal use just depends, I would use a steel I thought I could heat treat without much trouble. Find out by heat treating a scrap and then try a destructive test. I use quite a bit of scrap for my forging tools, dies, hammers, tongs. I also use known tool steels for these same tools, it depends on the value of the tool and the time I expect it to last, or I expect it to take to make. You don't want to spend lots of time making something that self destructs in the final stage, or when you first try to use it.

If you want a flat surface you can weld a bar on the end so you can use the rail upside down. then you can have both the flat surface and the rail surface as you desire.

If you want a flat surface you can weld a bar on the end so you can use the rail upside down. then you can have both the flat surface and the rail surface as you desire.

Sometimes unhardened H13 will work harden and the hard cap will work off, even if you keep the top edges well dressed. That said for tools I use an assortment of materials H13, S7, 4140, junk steel (axels, springs, tie rods, what ever) and for some very detailed dies mild steel as to get that detailing into tool steel is too difficult with my lack of tools or skills. Like has been said it is very important to keep your tools softer than your dies. If I plan to harden the tool I start with a known steel. Tools like the round back flatter I would not harden and then I will likely use junk steel, also on a hack, I do differencially harden a lot more tools than I used to just so they will hold up longer, I am not sure that this is an idea that is for good for others, but it is what I do.

I think it is commendable that John is not trying to up sell you. Like has been stated there are times that larger is better. It should be a huge improvement over your hand hammering. The smaller hammer with the right tooling will out work a larger hammer with the lack of tooling that I often see, when I visit shops. especially for small projects like a hobbiest will want to produce. The Clifton Ralph tapes get you to thinking about the kind of tooling you will want. Some things I can do nearly as fast with a hand hammer as a power hammer, but I can not do them for nearly as long, and doing that kind of work makes your body hurt.

Most of the time when I forge cracks in the end of small stock like that I think it is from forging too cold. It could be the other things suggested as well, you will need to watch what you are doing and find out for yourself.

Tristan I am not mad at you, I just do not seem to have time to add additional things to my plate, and I often get crabby with computers. (personal problem of mine.) I think sending the email list made since as I expect people like Rich G. never get to this site, there are others like that who have been involved with us. Maybe I am wrong and they are all reading this. Anyhow I think the noncompuer types are unlikely to be going to facebook. Personally I don't have a problem with input from the peanut gallery, there are some very informed people here, if I have not seen posts by someone before that showed they were normally well informed I think we can ignore that type of input. (At least that is what I often do.) I was unable to get on here last night, not trying to leave you hanging. I have been missing meetings a lot lately, so I may be pretty out of the loop, so you guys might want to tune me out as well. I think that one of our problems with this part of the forum is that we do not post here often enough to make it worth checking. I of course fit this stereo type. Mark

Hi guys, I saw the email about the facebook page, and the one about needing to delete an address for return to all emails. I guess some think we need less input from out side our group, it seems to me that we just need to remember that on the net there are those with lots of experience and those who really know less than nothing. I am not really interested in more places to look for information for our group. I really do not understand facebook and I have sent a lot of aspiring smiths I meet when out doing shows here. (posting here would help that outreach) I really do not plan to learn a new site that I would need to monitor from time to time to keep up with what is going on. I do not know if others feel the way I do, likely if they do they are not going to say so, they will just not be part of the new page or whatever and you will wonder what happened to them. Might be they are interested in blacksmithing not computing. If you want to have my in put you can post here I check from time to time, or you can email me with a list I do not have to learn how to delete off names, or you can call on the phone. Mark

Great news!!!!!!!!! I think 2 anvils would be even better.

Hi Pat I'm thinking for you that might look like a pretty small fire? It just depends on what we need and is optimum for the day.

seems like I end up doing this more than I should, I do have a shop but it is only heated by the forge. every year I think I should do my taxes on the cold days and forge on the nicer days. Then I put off the taxes until the day before they are due...... The main risk is that your frends will learn what a dummy you are.

Flat dies are pretty much the universal tool, you generally use tooling with them for versitilty. For production work specialty dies made for the job can make things go quicker. ( more profit, if you price according to value of product)

Nice job.

I see the gun show is the 24-25. About what you might expect. I have been trying the animal head motif at these shows, it has not been working as well as I thought it would. the last one I was able to sell some hooks with tracks on them. Of course this does not mean much about what will sell at the next show. Thanks for the input Shane, I had not been making any specificly to hang guns. might do that and build a display to show it.

I seem to sell about 1 knife at one of these shows, These are my regular knives, so maybe a less expensive option would work better, I think maybe I would do better with iron cook sets or such. There are nicer knives and much cheaper knives at these shows I seem to be in the middle, with I think pretty good value for the price. Also maybe I would do better with axes as there are not nearly the number of options especially hand made.

Hello Frosty, Seems like I don't get on here much lately. I did see the mention of Gordon, I was a little shocked, but then we all need to be ready as we will all expire. If I don't find out the date, it won't matter much what you guys voted for me to do. I have a couple weekends in Jan. filled up as it is, I will be doing a wholesale show and the gun show in Wasilla. Normally the gun show is a waste of time, I expect I need to adjust my products for that show if I want it to be good for me.

I should fine out the time, and date for the January meeting, I seem to miss more than I make now, and I do have two of my weekends in Jan. scheduled. Hopefully I will be able to attend. Mark

For me of course the electricity is utmost, but I think in the vein of what additional tool, then the power hammer followed closely by a 2nd power hammer, when one goes down it slows production so much I sometimes think that it is not worth working. Getting the hammer back on line is always a priority. This talk of a clean shop I am not sure what that is, I have had people in my shop "help me" by putting tongs back on the rack I assumed they had taken them as I could not find them for a couple weeks. So I do have some organization, just almost no one would know by looking.

They have some in stock at Northern knives in Anc. if they will be harder to get you might want to check that out.

When normalizing just go up to temp. do not hold temp and do not go beyond temp. try the same thing on your quench, try on scrap. Then break and check for grain growth. I would try to work these problems out before you heat treat knives otherwise the knives are not really worth much. experiment on scrap. you need to have a uniform steel supply, most of the time scrap steel come in too small quantities to be really get the best out of it it costs to much in R&D to really be worth while. Now if you are just making a few knives for fun and quallity is not really that important then making then from cast off files should be fine. Still I would want to heat treat some scrap to a level I was happy with before I did a knife that was prone to problems.

Mostly I use my Alaska Forge made boys axe. I agree that YOU should make him an axe, I could help if you want.

To bad you guys let yourself become addicted.

Thought I should note here that our next meeting is Oct. 4 at Jim Hutto's in Anchorage.

Seems like some of these comments are kind of harsh for someone trying to pass on his experince with an anvil, kind of what I thought this section was for, especially for a first time poster. George is kind of right the hole is often used by the unskilled to turn heels, sometimes some people with skill use it to make a quick cold modification to a shoe, and sometimes it gets used to flatten items by hammering over the hole kind of like using a worn anvil. I do not own a NC tool Co. anvil, and do not plan to get one, for normal shoe modifications I think it would work pretty well, and at only 70# would be nice for loading and unloading several times a day, a normal part of a farrier's day.