Jump to content
I Forge Iron

junkknife

Members
  • Posts

    22
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by junkknife

  1. I use a piece of I-beam that I found in my garage when I moved in. Rings like all get out but gets the job done. Just about anything heavy, solid, flat, and preferably metal will pass for a first anvil. From what I've heard Japanese sword makers still use a block of steel sitting on the ground as their anvil, viking smiths used a big flat rock. There are several very good books on how to start making knives I've read the $50 Knife Shop there is one that many of the other folks here recommend, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. As to steel I use anything that was made of tool or spring steel. Lawn mower blades, plow tines, leaf-springs, coil springs, and if you have energy to burn solid axle shafts(usually better to save those for hammers later on.)
  2. A friend of mine asked if I could melt down a bunch of AL for him. I figured it wouldn't be to difficult or dangerous so I agreed. After assembling a makeshift "foundry" out of firebrick from my old brick forge and a JTH-30 I spent a couple of hours melting and pouring AL. After working for a while I was very tired, but I didn't really do that much to feel tired and when I woke up in the morning my face was red for several days. I believe I had mild CO poisoning and UV burn from sitting too close to the gas fire while adding the AL to the pot. Thankfully nothing to bad came out of it, but I can see how this could of ended worse.
  3. The first thing they teach you TFT(one of combat systems used by several armed services) is that the only weapon a person carries is their mind everything else is a tool. Be it your fist, a machete, a paper clip, a rifle, a dinner plate, or the cord of your computers mouse all these things are tools that can be used to cause harm but without your mind they are merely inanimate objects that will sit there until the end of time unless used. It is unfortunate that crimes are committed with these objects but what I find truly disturbing is that a person that has been declared a hazard to themselves or others is not contained and treated in the proper facilities that ALREADY EXIST! There have been several tragedies that could have been prevented if action was taken when it was found that these people were a danger to others. Humans are the most dangerous animal on the face of the earth and the only one that will kill its own kind for reasons that do not include it's personal survival. Every other animal that will kill it's own kind does so for the survival of itself or the pack/herd not because it doesn't like what part of the world the other's ancestors came from, or because the other is of a different faith. OK rant over. Off to do something constructive. Think I'll try to make a Gardeners Pal.
  4. I'll make sure I wear my big black cowboy hat again next year and my hair better not start turning gray from another 10 annual conferences or so.
  5. Most common rebar is reclaimed steel so who knows what it is made out of. I know here Nucor runs their own scrap yard and I think alot of what goes into the the other big scrap yard in town ends up at Nucor too. Makes finding scrap in this town a bit tough.
  6. Woo! Just rolled home from Quad State. I think I need to find a bucket before all this new knowledge runs out of my head. I think I learned almost as much from the folks selling stuff as I did from the demonstrators. I bought a small gas forge while I was there, I think it got taken apart 3 times before I got it back to my car from guys wanting to know how it went together(the burner was put together weird). The Angel family was amazing I still don't know how they can go like that for 9+ hours a day(my arm would fall off:0).
  7. Weren't these usually accompanied by a piano in the old days. Too bad someone didn't add that.
  8. I'll be at the SOFA quadstate this weekend. I hope to learn alot.
  9. Can't seem to get the skinner straight. Should I reheat it and hit it with a light or wooden hammer then heat treat it again? And what caused this it looked fine before I hardened it? Uneven heat? The blade looks like this from edge on. I I I ( I I I
  10. Finally got these two to take a hardening. Both are made from the same half of a lawnmower blade. I tried both goop ala WG, canola oil, then I broke down and just stuck' em in a large coffee can full of water. The "buffalo" skinner is clamped down to try to straighten it(no vise yet:(). The handle of the hunter is an old shovel handle and just shoved in there for now. These are also my first forged anything. Gonna temper them tomorrow.
  11. junkknife

    More free stuff

    A bunch of hammers that my grandfather gave me.
  12. A family member just dropped a table saw off at my place that they found at a garage sale. I was thinking of putting a cutting wheel in it and using it to cut metal in my shop since I almost never work with wood big enough to justify a table saw. Would it be safe or am I asking to get hurt?
×
×
  • Create New...