jim frank

Sort of a tangent here: my propane forge gets pretty unreliable when the wind kicks up above 10 mph or so. I'm at about 6000 feet above sea level, and the mixture setting is just a smidge picky. When the wind blows, I get serious dragon breath out the end of the forge, or the steel heats unevenly.

I have a used home medical version as well. It works just fine to make my propane torch a lot hotter, but with 5 LPM at maybe 3-4 psi, it has nowhere near enough capacity for any kind of cutting. I got it for free at a yard sale, so who can complain? :)

Hmm- my propane forge has a liner made of portland cement, clay dirt from the yard, silica sand, and perlite. The proportions were about 1:1:1:5, if I recall correctly. I use a layer of half inch kaowool inside a two inch layer of the above refractory, and have never had problems in many hours of operation. I've used portland cement in every homemade refractory I've ever made, and if you keep it under about 10% be volume, it seems to have few problems.

I had a rod of S7 that I bought from Taurus, and I finally made it into something useful. I wanted to experiment with heat treating, so I did an air quench of the edge (with a blow gun) and then put the blade in a 625 degree oven for about 24 hours or so. ( That should have transformed the spine to mostly bainite, and tempered the martensite edge pretty well) The fittings are copper, poplar, and apricot wood, stained dark with an ebony oil stain. I plan to donate the knife to a charity auction later this year. Then when it (hopefully) sells for much more than it's actually worth, I can brag about having made a hugely valuable blade... :p

I like how the 5160 shows a grain like the 'hada' of Japanese tamahagane steel. (That's the woodlike grain) It must be from a combination of the mill rolling and the forging process. The transition line from your heat treat is so uniform and straight that I thought it was a bevel when I first looked at it. Very nice work.

I'll have to try the wax remover. Sounds good.

There is a really nice tutorial at Jesus Hernandez' site. the URL is habaki making Jesus is a real gentleman, and a dedicated smith. His site is well worth a visit.

Hmm- I called up a gal out in Mack and signed up. I'll have to dig up the newsletter at home and post the contact information. I can't imagine that even a crummy treadle hammer could be any worse than trying to swing a six pound sledge with one hand while holding the work with the other. There are very few blacksmiths around here, that I know about. Maybe some of the GVBG members will have a treadle hammer. The last time I was at a hammerin/meeting, it was in Clifton, but I forget the guy's name who owned it. I was up there a couple of months ago, and the shop is gone. It was just south of the railroad tracks, about half a block west of 32 road, sort of catty corner to the convenience store. He had a great shop, all sorts of mouth watering tools, gas and coal forges, power hammers, huge belt grinder, milling machine. Too bad he's not there any more.

Hi everyone. I've lurked a bit here and there, and decided to register so I can access the blueprint page for a treadle hammer. I mostly post over on Sword Forum International, and several of our guys there are also active here. I just rejoined the Grand Valley Blacksmith's guild, and I look forward to going to local hammer ins and such. I've been hammering steel for about 30 years or so, just as a casual hobbyist, and I'm finally starting to get better at knife making. I have a nice little smithy, with a coal and a propane forge, a couple of tempering ovens, a wire feed welder, a good old anvil, and a post vice. My grandsons and my nephew are enthusiastic about making knives and swords, and they are a bunch of fun to work with. I recently welded up a stack of stuff in a cannister, and about wore myself out hammering the billet into a size that was workeable, so my next big project is to whip up some kind of treadle hammer. I love forging! :D