kbaknife

How 'bout this?

The "finish" on what? The blade or the handle? The handle material is stabilized and brought up to 1500 git hand-sand and then buffed with a clean wheel - no compound. Leaves a really nice soft finish. The blade was etched in Ferric Chloride to reveal differential/selective hardening. Here's a link to a much better Thumbnail Image: Individually Handcrafted Knives for the Outdoor Enthusiast

Right here is about the most bizarre handle material I've ever worked with. It just wasn't like other highly figured material. Throughout the shaping process, the piece litterally changed constantly! How it ended up looking, is not how it started out looking! It was a lot of fun. I bought this and another piece like it from Peter Martin, and knife making friend of mine, and I'm glad I did. The take-down fittings are hot blued, which I did to accentuate the black spalted markings in the Maple. I selectively hardened the 5160 blade that I forged down from 1 inch stock and gave a REALLY deep etch. I made a knife similar to this one last year that I called my "Companion" and this is a slight variation on that theme.

And that's the problem! They don't know when they run out, either, and don't re-order.

Gotcha. I'll admit, it wasn't the best scenario, so I just had to do what worked without going through that roof.

Considering what Silica is, you can pulverize clear glass and use it for a flux. That way you don't need to be concerned about dirt and impurities. Don't add metal filings??!! That would just burn up, oxidize, and add to the problem you're trying to avoid - scale!

I'm in east Central Illinois. That horizontal line has NEVER been a problem. I almost always heat up the hood prior to lighting the coal. It's no longer an issue since I switched to propane about 2 years ago!! Look at the photos on this link and then tell me it won't draw! Individually Handcrafted Knives for the Outdoor Enthusiast

Hope it doesn't go PLOP!

Here's what happens when I lite my fire. Wide open fire pot, couple of wads a newspaper, lite the paper, dump coal on top, hit the blower switch! The progression of these photos is what happens in about a 1 minute time slot: Let that blower BLOW!! Get that coal HOT! She'll burn. Then you'll have:

The horse was SHOD for the trip.....

Modern hatchet, pipe 'hawk makers, etc. STILL! do use that method! Unfortunately for many of the 'smiths in the "good old days", they had a LOT of failures! A lot of good stuff was made, but there were MANY failures. Something that didn't get understood until the modern age of photomicrographs, and spectrometers and the like, is that tempering "COLORS" are only indicators of temp change, and NOT distinctly accurate for specific temperatures! Simply the quality, temp, moisture content, oxygen levels, contaminents, etc. in the ambient air can give you an entirely different color for a given temperature! Oh, well. Now we have digitally controlled ovens and high temp salt pots, etc. I still often do, however, use simple edge quenches and drawing tempering techniques for spine softening, etc. Depends on the knife's end purpose, and I sure am glad we can now have spec data sheets for each mill run of steel so we know alloy content %, etc. Sounds too scientific, doesn't it??

I wipe off with Acetone. Take into the house and wash with dish soap and hot water to remove any petroleum distillates from the acetone, and then just prior to etching, wipe off with denatured alcohol.

Scroll down to the "Ferric Chloride - Tech Grade" Acids & Mordants

Sort a few things out here: Hardening is hardening. You are taking up a piece of hardenable steel to its Austenite condition, which is the condition where all of the carbides go into "solution" and become atomically liquid = not part of the Iron/carbon matrix. This condition is also the point a little above that temp. where the steel becomes non-magnetic known as "critical" temp. For most simple steels, this temp. can be anywhere from 1413 - 1525 degrees, providing the steel is non-stainless. By quenching in a medium to reduce this temp and condition to below 1000 in 1-4 seconds, depending on the steel type/amount of carbon/amount to alloys, you change the steels condition to Martensite, which is a hard piece of steel. The quench medium must remove the temp at a particular speed and rate to match the steels alloy content. Different steels with different alloys and amounts, require different "speeds" of oil/medium to reduce the austenitic temp to below 1000 or so in the specified amount of time. Along with this hardness, come brittleness and "retained austenite" - austentite that did not "make" the transition to martensite. A "soak" at a much lower temp of 350 - 400 degrees, completes the "retained austenite" transformation to martensite, and relaxes the brittleness. This lower temp/soak time is kown as "TEMPERING"!!! Now, with the new martensite being formed from the "retained austenite", the steel needs to be tempered AGAIN to relieve hardening stresses of the new martensite. Thus, the term you may have heard of double or even triple tempering. Know your steel, know what industry standards are for THAT steel, what quench medium to use, what tempering temps. to use for what hardness is desired, etc. This entire process is called "HEAT TREATING", which includes the entire processes of forging, normalizing, annealing, hardening and tempering. Each of which are distinct and seperate steps of a long and drawn out process with specific times and temperatures for each step. Individually Handcrafted Knives for the Outdoor Enthusiast