EtownAndrew

$12.80 a 50 lb bag from Cumberland coal in Louisville, KY. 502-589-5300

Welcome. Can you post some pictures of the armor you have made. Sounds interesting.

From having already gone somewhat down this road my suggestion is to spend $100 and buy a used electric kiln off Craigs list. I ended up spending more and having a lot of trial and error trying to make something work myself using my propane forge burner. As someone else already mentioned I struggled with heating up the clay too fast and cracking. Also some kilns will include a "candling" warmer temp setting that will hold the clay at less that the temp of boiling water overnight prior to the regular firing and allow the clay to release any remaining water. If you heat up too fast the steam can pop off the glaze in spots and mar the glaze if you don't end up also cracking. I did ultimately create a 16" cube interior brick kiln that worked. I'm impressed that one of the above posters was able to set a small kiln over his coal forge and fire a pot.

Do keep looking around. I ended up getting mine at the Ohio SOFA conference this past fall. There were a bunch of vendors selling used ones for $50 for small ones up to maybe $150 for larger ones. I ended up with a nice one for $65. As others have suggested you can watch Craigs list. When I first started looking I immediately saw one for $80 but held off since I thought that was a little high.

Thanks for the explanation.

That looks really good. How does triple hardening work? Do you heat it up to non-magnetic and quench it in oil three times?

I am also going to suggest spring steel. Used automotive flat springs are fairly readily available. When I walk around a scrap yard I normally come across some laying loose on the ground. Not all scrap yards let you look around so you may have to check a couple to find a good one that you'll end up going back to over and over. You can get thicknesses of 1/4" to 1/2". You will have to grind the sides clean of rust.

It does look nice.

I'm always looking for opportunities to share the fun. During Christmas one of my co-workers came over with his two sons and they all made a railroad spike knife. That was fun for all and an experience that they will remember.

I like it. The handle with the copper is particularly nice. I'm not quite sure how you put on the two handle end pieces. I recently finished a 16" overall length Bowie knife and at the time we were commenting that it could be a hobbit sword.

I have used a sliver from an old industrial band saw blade for several lock back knives. I have to harden and blue temper it. I pulled the band saw blade out of the dumpster at work.

I am also interested. I sent the Maynards an e-mail to add me to their list.