Jump to content
I Forge Iron

AZtrapper

Members
  • Posts

    30
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by AZtrapper

  1. As I begin to toy with the art of blacksmithing, I experience the need for more tools. In this case, it is a hammer. I plan on purchasing from the Pieh Tool Co. When I look at their website, I see a great inconsistency in the prices of the hammers.

    http://www.piehtoolco.com/contents/en-us/d838.html

    Peddinghaus being the cheapest.

    This begs the question, why? What makes one hammer more expensive than another? What qualities set a good hammer apart from a bad one? Would I regret being cheap and buying the peddinghaus?

  2. Generally, water gives a hard, fast quench with a greater risk of cracking, while oil gives a slower quench that doesn't produce as much hardness, with brine in-between.


    How does the type or weight of the oil affect the quench? Will lighter oils produce a greater hardness? Does it matter if I quickly submerge the edge all at once, or should I do it slowly? How long should I submerge the steel, until it is cool enough to touch with bare hands?

    Az forgive me for being as blunt as I normally tend to be: You are asking us to type information in a little box that has been done many times in this site and is ready for you to read. I know it is not a fun thing to sit and read all of that data and not get bogged down in it. But then again a readers digest tyype of an answer in here will just be a stop gap fix. Matt qave you great info and that may be all you need to get this one done. By the way I wouild not use heat treat foil, Its real value is to prevent scale from forming while at temp. Your blade has scale already. A simply trick you may try is rather than use sandpaper to clean it for seeing heat colors run is to use a piece of sandstone or old red brick. Shine it up enough that you can see colors when heated. Woody just posted a video on heat treat tha is worth the short time it takes to watch


    I did multiple searches on the site not yielding the answers I was searching for. If you could suggest some keywords that would produce better results, or provide me with a link to another thread, I would be more than happy to search for my answers there. I try to avoid asking questions on a forum that are asked constantly and answered the same. My homework yielded multiple 5160 heat treat charts, tempering methods, and much else. What I could not find, however, was how it all applied to axes. I appreciate the info given thus far and intend to implement it.

    I had not heard of the rockwell hardness scale until I started forging, which was less than a month ago. As a result, I do not have any hands on experience with how hard things are in correlation to the scale. I know that 60rc is very hard and is desired in knives, but I have not actually tried to sharpen a 60rc knife. This is why I question what is the desired or targeted hardness for a blade of axe-type implications. It shouldn't be too hard, but also not too soft. If you supply me with ya'lls preferred hardness, I can use online heat treat tables to try and obtain it.

    Better to pollish up a bit of the blade and put it in a toaster oven at between 425 and 450F. The polished section should be a dark brown. For insurance you can do it three times. That should be a good temper for the ax.


    According to the tables I have looked at thus far, this will likely yield a hardness of 58rc. Does that sound right?
  3. This is actually my first forge project I've ever done. It is a hatchet made from a 5160 Leaf Spring. With my current tools, I couldn't really obtain a very smooth forge finish, so please excuse its roughness. I also understand that because the blade is not directly center with the eye, that there will be balance issues. Since I have such little experience, I did not want to attempt a forge weld. Feel free to critique.

    DSCN2649.jpg
    DSCN2642.jpg
    DSCN2651.jpg

    I am very close to being ready to heat treat it, but I have some questions. First, I'll list my currently available quenchants. I have water, brine solution, dish soap solution, 2-stroke motor oil, and chainsaw bar lubricant.

    My current understanding is to austenitize the steel by heating it to its critical temperature in the forge, which I have read is approximately 800 degrees C. The steel should be the color of unfanned wood coals. I have magnets for checking to make sure. Once having reached critical temp, I am to quench the edge in whatever quenchant I decide to use. This begs the following questions:

    For how long?
    Do I rapidly submerge the steel, or slowly?
    How far up past the edge should I quench for a hatchet?

    Next, I am to temper it. This is the part I am most unclear on. From what I understand, I can buy a toaster oven from the thrift store, wrap the blade in foil, and heat for however long I need to at whatever temp. I am sure that there are charts online that will aid me in knowing this. This also begs a question:

    What is the desired hardness for a hatchet or axe? 55 rc?

    I also wonder how important it is that I relieve the stress in it first. From what I can tell, this is done by annealing. I plan on doing this by lighting a wood fire in my 55 forge, and letting the blade sit in the coals until the fire burns itself out. How many times should I do this?

  4. Using the bottom-draft design stickied at the top, I fabricated myself a bottom-draft 55 forge. For fuel, I used simple Juniper firewood. It got very hot, but it took close to an hour to get it going that way. Even then, my friend's railroad spike was only starting to glow red, and was not hot enough to shape. I'm wondering if I should insulate the interior. I've seen the recipe of portland cement, clay, and sand used here on the forums. I do not have access to (free) cement, and was wondering if an adobe mixture would work, using clay and straw. There also is not an ash buildup. Would this ash buildup insulate it as well?

    I have never used coal or seen it used, so I do not have a reference to judge the performance of my wood coals. I think my wood coals will work, but I'm wondering if it would be worth my while to buy real coal.

  5. I am in no position to buy a real anvil. I'm sure there are, however, some alternatives. I noticed a large section of I-beam, about anvil sized, and about 1/4" thick, in a friend's yard the other day. Would this perform like an anvil substitute? Maybe if I welded some support columns in the gap?

    Other homemade alternatives?

  6. I know next to nothing about smithing, and have only done it a few times. I am learning alot lurking around the web and this forum.

    During my last smithing experience, I found that I didn't have an issue moving the metal to the desired shape. However, I had a lot of excess material that I needed to cut off somehow. It took alot of bending back and forth and pounding on sharp corners to remove any metal. I'm looking for an easier method for the knife I'm going to try and make over the holidays. Advice appreciated!

  7. I have done some research, searches on this website and youtube. It seems that all of the demonstrations I have watched have either been about Damascus or decorative ironwork. Thickness of the metal, isn't really discussed in what I've researched.

    I have never forged or seen anyone forging prior to this. I'm confident in my ability to shape things with a hammer, but this fire-welding is causing me some headaches.

    I do live in Arizona, near the city of Showlow. I'm not aware of any local groups, and at this point I don't have the resources to visit you in Glendale, although I appreciate the offer.



    My question is; Why are you trying to fold weld the same piece of steel onto itself as a layered item?


    I thought that this was part of the process. Fold and fuse to increase strength, atleast that is what my friend told me. If it isn't then it looks like I'll have to do some forum searching.
  8. Hello, This last weekend I made my first attempt to forge metal. My ultimate goal is to make a fixed blade drop point knife. I'm using an old rasp for the metal. I'm using my uncle's propane forge, anvil, and tools. First I heated the rasp to a very hot cherry red and cut about a 4 inch section off for the blade. I proceeded by heating the section and flattening it to about double the thickness of sheet metal. I thought that the thinner the metal is, the easier it would be to fold. I folded it once and tried to fire weld it to no success. I had heard that borax used as a flux works. I tried it, but I still can't seem to make the weld. Any suggestions?

×
×
  • Create New...