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I Forge Iron

Gene Martin

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    10
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  • Website URL
    http://www.customknife.com

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  • Location
    Southern Oregon
  • Biography
    Retired Calif Game Warden, full time knifemaker
  • Occupation
    knifemaker
  1. The cross bar on the spear is to keep the hog from riding up the spear. Wild boar have tremendous vitality and are well known for getting really angry when they figure out the source of their pain. Gene
  2. K&G Supply carries it. Try Knife Making Supplies. Great folks to work with. Gene
  3. If you make a stainless piece of channel 1" on each side, and a smaller, 1/4" x 1" channel to fit on top, you can encapsulate your billet. Stack it in the deep channel, place the narrower channel on top, compress it with clamps so it's tight, then slot the ends of the small channel and fold them down. Next weld the channel all around to encapsulate the billet. Weld a handle on it. Take it to about 1675 and soak for at least 20 minutes. It won't hurt it to soak longer, but don't be impatient with it. Pull it out, take it to a power hammer or press, and complete the fusion process with pressure. The stainless will peel off when it cools. Just grind the corners away. Make sure your billet is clean and dry. Stagger the layers however you want, just keep them clean. Coat the bottom of the channel, and the bottom of the top channel, with white out before laying it all up. The stainless won't fuse to your billet. I've probably explained this poorly. Send me a PM for more detailed instructions. I've been doing some art classes at the local CC so I can make higher end knives and learn some new stuff. The teacher found out I make mokume sometimes and expressed an interest, or real longing to make some. so we had a mokume party here yesterday. We did 6 billets that started at about 3/4"h x4" long, 1" wide. Out of 6 billets to start, we had 6 good billets. It was fun. Since there were a couple of kinds of brass involved, we kept the temp at 1675 to avoid melting. That was in a Paragon furnace. My 25 ton press did the rest. Two billets showed some signs of just reaching melting point, with small brass droplets on the side. The others showed no melting. Melting it is a bad thing. When completed we had drawn them out maybe 1/2" but they were 1 1/4" wide and 1/2" or less high. Annealing is simple. Heat to a black heat and quench in water. It will work fast and easily that way. When it starts to stiffen, anneal again. If you overstress your joints will shear. I hope that helps. This, BTW, is my first post. Gene
  4. USMC 67-70, radio tech. 28th Marines, 7th Comm Bn, and Third FSR. Gene
  5. Jim, Yeah, Bob could get involved in things. I miss him too. Sorry to hear about Stevie, she's a sweet lady. As soon as I get the dvd back rom my friend I'll burn you a copy. And one for aprenticeman, too. The water was cool to start with, much warmer by the third blade when it cracked. When I watched Bob doing this at his shop he had a garden hose running in the quench tank to keep things cool. Maybe the last 3 wouldn't have cracked if I'd let the water keep warming up rather than adding some cold to it. Jim Ferguson told ne that he always heated his water to 180 for his 1095/nickel damascus. I use oil for 1095. Sorry you got skunked with Marty. He usually has something good squirrelled away. I've only been able to get 1050 in round stock locally, and that's ordered in from Portland. Good steel is getting harder to get. BTW, my brother works for a very large fence company. They were told to expect a 20% increase in price the first of the year. I love it. Anyhow, I need to get to work, too. When I get my dvd from Winkley i'll burn you a copy and get it off to you. During the filming they had to shut it off twice because sirens passing by cut Bob off. Living in a large metro area is so much fun. That's why I like the sticks. If we hear sirens, it's probably real serious. L8R Gene
  6. Hi jim, Yeah, Mike told me about this forum. He didn't tell me I had to wear a tie to get in. If Marty didn't have any 1050 left, I checked and I have one piece. It's 3/16 x 1.5 by 4 1/2. I can send it to you oif you can't find any other. I'm glad to see you doing what you are. Bob had quite an effect on both of us. He did a video, unedited, of clay tempering. I don't know whether you ever saw it. I had a copy that got stolen when I got burg'd in 2004, but a friend had made a copy. He's burning me a copy so now I'll have one again. If you don't have one, I'll burn you a copy. I wish i had it a week ago. I've a custoner that I do tanto blades for. He's been wanting me to clay temper. I did one blade and it actually came out okay. I used 1060. So I did 6 more out of 1065. Every single one cracked. I did it to the best of my recollection as how Bob did it. Obviously I missed something. I think what I missed is that do stock remove these, I need to normalize and anneal before heat treat. Just too many stresses trying to get out when it hits the water. I had to do 6 more for the guy, so I clay coated them and quenched in oil. The hamons actually came out pretty good, and better yet, no cracks. So obviously I need to do things a bit different. While 1065 isn't that expensive, I hate throwing away a couple of days labor. It goes back to life being a learning experience. So, I'm coming to similarly dislike some of this Janese stuff. But if were easy, everybody would be doing it I guess. Let me know about the 1050. I still have your address, as far as I know, so I can mail you some. Do you want a copy of that video? Heck, you might have several, but I have to ask. Passionately Purple Cactus Flower....right. But creative. I like that. Gene
  7. Jim, Marty Brant in Eugene, OR had some 1050, IIRC. His email address is oubob747@aol.com. I bought a bit of 1050 from him last April at the show in Eugene. Give him a try. Flower, Genteel Manhood?...You haven't turned hippy on me have you? Gene
  8. You have some imagination. Go to a spring shop or a real steel supplier and buy some good steel. Then put that imagination to work. You can buy O-1 on ebay fairly cheaply. Read up on heat treating. You can do that, too. Never apologize for the tools you have, just do the best you can with them. Gene
  9. My 5 month old granddaughter, Katriel Lyn Martin, died in her sleep during the night. She had a number of birth defects and had already spent much of her short life in a hospital/NICU. Pleasre pray for my daughter Abigail and her husband Steve as they work through this hard time. Thanks, Gene
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