RainsFire

blast out a bead with a mig welder on lowest heat.. acetelyne forge weld tricky stuff, gota do a drop the torch with a rosebud and duel weild hammers on each side..

ya, or just braze/jb weld er up..

^^cool lol I hadn't thought of a router speed controll + a blower.. that makes just about anything possible as a blower.

I personally usually use a hand crank blower on an old rivit forge, but as you said, there kinda hard to find.. so just make something work. for a while I was using a pipe drilled with 5 or so pin holes (about 1/34 dia) and an aircompressor with a valve off an old co2 tank. worked like a charm but often overloaded my compressor and made way to much noise..

so guy's, from what I understand, wrought iron is an iron/carbon alloy with really light carbon and long almost fiberlike grains. WHen nicked and bent the fibers become aparent, and it is a heavily saught after material by blacksmiths. It is also no longer in production.

SO what keeps a person from making it? It cant be a more lengthly or difficult process than making steel because the metalurgic pioneers would have used it instead.. so how hard could it be comparitivly speaking? Would there be a market for it?

-Thanks..

Ivory really? why?

beautiful head, I cant find a single flaw.. lol.

you can tame down some of the oxidazation by tossing in some charcoal or coke.. it burns up some of the oxygen.. so you'll loose less metal during the process..

nice billet, cant wait to see how it looks.

Edit: xxxx sorry guy's, didn't mean to bring back such an old thread..

my anvil's just a little bigger than that.. A 75lb Carolina short sugar (farriers anvil.. I know) and it treats me fine.. big ol'e stump and Iv'e beat out everything from katana's (work in progress) to clay tools on it..
seems like a steal to me.. but ya never know I guess..
like said before, if you dont want it gimme the guy's info..

yep, for the most part its just carbon steel that has been tempered to be springy instead of brittle and edge holding. Usually its like 1065 steel, or another alloy. Really pretty decent as a starting blade steel.

right, IM one of those guy's that get the wording confused every once in a while.. But in practice I know the difference.

thank you all for your help, and I think I will have some pictures of the hamon here shortly if it was a success.

phew, then its close enough.. I was being dumb and coated the entire thing with refractory cement(experiment) then it hardened.. so I had to grind out the hamon line, which actually worked really well. I think I'll have a super sharp hamon if it works at all.. I think I'll temper it tonight.

so, Im wondering something that you guy's could probably help me out on.. For the hamon, do I have to make the same pattern on each side Identical? this seems difficult but I cant see any other way of doing it..

yep, so please lmk.. I ordered craft of the japanese sword, so it'll be here soon..

yup, getting that book.. just need to make an amazon account lol..

Thanks guy's, Im takin it kinda slow.. I think, and im taking a few shortcuts.. (using a grinder's the big one) I kinda hammered the blade a bit thin, so the Hi will be shallow.. and more for asthetics anyway..

I didn't think the term blood groove was right.. I just couldn't think of the proper english term at the moment and figured you guy's would know what im talkin about..

so yup, thanks ya'll

OH, and also.. on a katana is there a double bevel? or does the blade just taper down at 30'ish degrees all the way? I really should brush up on my japanese sword terms... I know that it is parallel, goes to the angled part with the hamon and such, but then does it have another more obtuse angle for sharpness?

so, just finished hammering out my katana blade, 28in long plus the tang.. 1050 hc alloy. And im wondering how I put in the Bohi (blood grooves) do I grind them? hammer them in? I saw someone on youtube using a small punch type tool to engrave the grooves but I dont know if thats the only way..

can you get cotton wrap for the handle from anywhere local? or do I have to mailorder it?

Thanks-

^^that could have definatly been it, because after we tried out the crummy bbq reg, which ran at a super low pressure it began to work. Thanks again for all your help!

I do believe this is the first time Iv'e seen Knife related spam..

so, I think it may have actually been my tank if thats possible.. because today when I got home I fired it up to temper a blade I made, (gets hot enough for that atleast..) and after it had a small blow back issue.. which isnt a big deal It sort of warmed up and started growling.. Lots of heat, not quite welding temp, but definatly yellow.. so im pretty happy. It might have just been teflon tape.. and the blowback melted it or something..

Thankyou for your help yall.

My father and I are finishing up a project that has taken us for ever to complete, being a gas forge.. We took a 12in diamater tube and lined it with kaol wool, and refractory cement.. so it was done right.. Then we got a venturi blower from a friend of ours who is a brilliant inventor, but seems to have skimped on his blower designs.. We are running it without a regulator, which may be part of the problem.. but when we do use the reg, not nearly enough pressure is built up to acchieve the venturi effect.. And when we do get it going, the flame spurts, and is not constant.. I can only hit about an oarnge red heat, which sucks..

so basically, why cant I get above red/orange heat?
and why wont my flame stay constant? IT might be the burner, but it is simple and should work fine.. there's no real choke design, but there is a choke in the pipe going to the fire box, (torch tip) which seems to adjust heat, but not really oxy content..

please help me out, thankyou..

I've used coal and am using gas currently. I cant say which I prefer because I haven't been working with gas for long. But, it is very nice being able to stick my barstock in a furnace, and pull it out hitting temp. No fire working or tending.. but I do somewhat enjoy that bit.
My forge has cost me about 50bucks.. whipped up a venturi blower (easy to make) and a pepsi fountain can coated with kaol wool and kiln ceramics and its ready to go.

I use a 6 when I need to move metal.. I dont have a power hammer or a striker but 20lb hammers is insane.. I dont think I could lift one more than a few times..

verry nice, I love the beaten fresh from the fire finish on the middle and top one.

I like clinker you could yell klink for short.

wow, beautiful!! almost would be cool to leave with the old metal finish.

yes, a tanto.. I thought I said that.. I meant to anyway. what I meant with that sentence was that it would have all the characteristics of a katana, Ive seen tanto that are wood handled, and wood sheathed. just plain.

Just finished the construction of the blade, now its time for a rough shaping with sen/files, drawing out the tang a little more, peircing it. and the temper. then ofcourse, all that we have discussed.

1050 steel, roughly 12-13in blade length, will be constructed like a small katana, because I am trying to get down the basic methods in a dry run, so to speak...

thaks again ya'll.

That would be James Hrisoulas author of "The Complete Bladesmith", "The Master Bladesmith", and "The Pattern-Welded Blade".

You've been researching for 10 years and are not familiar with them? I'm shocked! If you are starting out to be a bladesmith they are necessary reference works!

And no deep hardening steels do not soak heat faster. Their alloys are such that they harden deeper in a thick place--the nose of the hardening curve is over far enough that even thicker pieces have time to make it to martensite

Note that on japanese blades the spine of the blades are generally pretty soft and it is only the edge that is hardened and that is usually quite hard and brittle.