RainsFire

very cool, I like the themes of your damascus knives.

my brothers getting a lump of coal in his stocking.. I've made a knife I was thinking of giving someone, but I think it's to xxxx nice to give away I usually make flower's and the like for the women in my family, but I'm desperatly trying to get good at forge welding to make some nifty little pendants. my uncle will probably get a chisel or knife.. my little cousin is a blackbelt.. (4th grader so she practically bought her belt.. but no biggy) and is into japanese sword arts.. but weilds a large tanto or wakazashi instead of a katana because of her size.. the're cheapo practice blades so I thought it'd be cool to make a nice hamon'd tanto..

ha, I just was fortunate enough to fire it up on thanksgiving.. so thanks for that!! time to eat.. so I gota make this quick, I think im going to go out and make an experimental really small forge with firebrick, probably 5wide, 8deep, and probably 8 tall.. should be interesting, I'm trying to whip up some damascus. results should be up in about an hour.. time for turkey!

I dunno why, but that seems so much less romantic (might not be the right word..) than Asian martial arts.. maybe its just the shape of the blades.. or the fact that everyone is shaped like a bulldog.

For the last few days I've been firing up a charcoal kiln using the direct method making a few barrel fulls.. and realized, I better make sure that I actually can and enjoy using this fuel before I invest so much wood and time into it.. so anyway, while one of my kiln loads was cooking away I scraped all the coal residue from my coal forge, blew out the dust ect... and filled er up with charcoal. Best solidfuel smithing experience of my life, and who would have thought.. free fuel too.. Fire maintenance was easy, crank hard and put more on top.. no tweezing clinker, no coke formation.. no burning the impurities from the coal on top.. just solid heat.. It was an easy to build fire, expanded fast, got to be the perfect size, was just plain awesome.. I even achieved multiple perfect forgewelds first attempt THe only downsides I could find at the moment to this fuel was how fast it goes.. I was a little suprised really, I had heard it went fast.. but not that fast. That and the spark's.. I didn't think they would be hot but aparently they are, as I now have a blister on my lip to prove it.. sorry for the insanely long and pointless post about my little experience but I was stoked.. It was really the first time I could easily forge weld consistantly..

heh, M.. if your using solid fuel I like to put the steel as close to the top as possible while still having something to burn up the oxy entering from the top.. know what I mean? that way you have max depth below the steel to eat up most of the oxy which means less to the steel.. 4-Mule team borax works fine for me.. Just tried out charcoal for the first time today and loved it.. easiest forge weld ever.

cool, how hot do you think it'll get? I have alot of waste oil for our Mercedes turbo D's.. All good pure veggie oil, and it'd be interesting to try out.. probably would leave a nice finish on the steel

your my age ehh.. roughly anyway.. anyway, don't worry about it.. I have a lot of experience dealing with people like that, and xbox's break a xxxx of alot, or so I've heard.. I'm not into game stuff mainly for that reason. hit some steel, think it over, talk to his parents, and dont worry about it.. parent's can solve anything you cannot.. even just a friendly chat between yours and theirs would help alot. I dont see why he wouldn't just send it in on the warrenty.. maybe if you offer to pay shipping.

I work in a lean-to on the side of a barn, and my gass forge heats up the space really quickly..

aye, unless you live in the twigs and are armed to the teeth!!

haha, I have made so many things out of these its unreal.. chains, practice welds, scribes, clay tools, hair pins, dental tools (messing around a little..) and so on.. good stufs, that and old garage door springs.. you can heat it up and pull on both ends and you end up with 6 or so feet of usable high carbon wire.

thats what I'm finding out I just need to find something I can give back.. I cant thank you enough though seriously!! It'll be put to good use.

wow, that would be awesome!! you're right, I definatly qualify as pinched for cash.. but I would still like to pay for it, It would feel kinda wrong if I don't.. you know how it is thanks alot for your help!! I bet I am just over heating a bit.. the lighting where I work is a bit intense, and I usually heat to a dark oarnge.. I bet this next try works. I'll shoot ya an email, thanks again!

very cool, you are very fortunate to have someone that knowledgeable even near you, let alone instructing you. looking forward to another update!

how old am I and where do I live? hmn.. kinda don't really see why it matters, but I'm 16, have blacksmithed for 4-5years and have blade smithed for a year at most.. I live In the Corvallis Oregon area. I'de be interested in purchasing that steel from you if you would be into that. I have yet to find a good steady supplier for small ammounts of steel.

its so weird.. rules and ban's are really only for the people what follow them.. If a criminal decides not to, then they have a leg up on the rule abiding citizens.. I personaly would not relenquish my heritage related blades to anyone.. even if it meant storing them in a burried vault. will they ban kilts next? They could be used as weapons.. I think..:D

alright, I guess I'll polish it back down then.. I'm running low on steel this has got to work!

nope.. no system for me, I figure if something happens everyone will know fairly quick.

ugh, just gave it a quick polish by hand up to 400grit, and no hamon not even a hint of one. I think the whole blade was hardened because there is no difference between spine/cutting edge as far as I can tell for hardness. can I bring it up to critical a few times and recoat? or should I sand it back down with a coarse grit?

I wonder how effective this will be.. It's not like banning weed was super effective. All those people (and possibly more) that want to do it are now just breaking the law.. At least thats how it is here in Oregon anyway.. But I guess it is totally justified, I visited my aunt and uncle recently who are way into martial arts so the topic of swords was brought up.. They pointed out a place in the canyon near Mt. Baldy where a man was brutally hacked at by a few punky teenagers with swords because they were tresspassing and got freaked out or something. (This is in Southern Cali so..) maybe a ban on cheap swords would do it.. not alot of criminal blade weilders would spot the 3k for an expensive katana just to rob a grocery store..

Wow, Lamey those are beautiful! amazing!! I normalized on my last one twice, the edge was hardened but I did not check the spine. (whoops..) there will probably be a difference even now after the tempering right? I'll go out and give it a polish to see whats going on. pictures up possibly tonight at 400grit and etched whether there is a hamon or not..

Thats the thing, I can see the line just fine its just, after doing all the finish work it's gone.. I dont just mean where there is clay residue vs where there is not, its an actual line in the metal (hamon) but it polishes out lol.. you're probably right about the tempering part, I dont know what I was thinking.. Thanks!

so, I have attempted at making a temper line 3-4times now with no success. I use 1050 steel, and satanite. I leave the steel coarsly finised at about 100grit.. I rinse/scrub it with water and a rag, then I wipe it in windex with a clean paper towel.. so the cement does not come off.. I heat it up to above critical.. (almost orange) and quench in a trough of water edge first with a few dunks. I check for straightness (perfectly straight because I normalized so cool!!) and quench it again to completely cool it. I chip off excess satanite carefully so as not to shatter the hardened blade.. and tempered it at a blue tapering to straw color from spine to blade. I then polish with a coarse stone, tapering down through finer and finer stones/papers.. I usually get to about 400, and realize there's no hamon.. so I etch it in vinegar for about 15min.. and still no hamon.. what the heck? please help me guy's.. thanks.

cool, that'll be a sweet one! you dont really need to attach the kaolwool to the tube if you use a coating of refractory cement or satanite, plus then if you do welding the flux wont eat the kaowool quite so fast. any way, cool design!

sometimes wind is almost benificial.. expecially if you are as low tech as some of us.. I used to let the wind keep my coal forge sustained while I went off to gather materials or something.. Obviously not super high wind, but a gentle breeze and an open tuyer kept my coal relativly warm.. (about oarnge heat) this is with an old rivit forge so it might not work in a permanent one, but you get the gist.. up here their's not much of a threat for wind.. I dont smith durring the summer (not yet anyway) and the wind is usually non-existant anyway..