John Martin

I own the two burner. I can weld at 6-7psi and forge at 3-4 psi. It is well worth it! If you are going to be making knives and damascus it is the way to go !

Avadon that looks like it is gonna suck to forge by hand. lol. I do that all the time, but with my friend so we take turns striking. Man it sucks, but it get's the damascus made so it's worth it.

That is one magnificent piece of work. It would be a shame to actually use it! lol. Like the handle shape as well.

Okay, that is an amazing piece of work! Great job! That must be my problem, all of the billets were close to 5 to 6 inches long, and I tried to twist all of it at once.

What I was getting at is it possible that if it used two fuel sources and was cheaper than using one or the other?

Here are some recent damascus works: I am sure you guys have noticed, and that is my next question, how do I keep my twists tight and even?

Ditto to what Sam said. I don't have a powerhammer, but me and a friend forge a lot and take turns striking, and holding it with tongs is simply dangerous and really hard to do.

Not criticizing in anyway, but why not weld it to a piece of plate so that you can optimize it's and yours performance? Happy hammering though, they are so much nice to work on for blades than a regular blacksmith anvil. It's like having a 400lb anvil under your hammer, even though it only weighs 150lbs! Nice acquisition.

For damascus, I just weld a handle on, your forge up to the handle, then cut it off, and grind both ends so the that welded material is gone, and then continue with your billet as you want. Not to go off topic, I think this pertains to this thread, I grind both surfaces to be welded, and I weld the front, then weld the back of the billet, and grind the back welding clean, then weld a handle on. I always have the problem of the handle falling off. What the heck am i doing wrong is that just one of those things that you can't do anything about. Avadon, I have attached the end of one of billets that I have roughed out. This is the blade tip. I grinded until i thought I got rid of the welding junk, and then grinded more off of it just to make sure. Then I forged the billet into rough shape and rough grinded it to check the pattern and that I had no inclusions, etc, and this is what I ended up with. Hope this explains and puts the fear of getting welding junk in your material away. oops, just realized that it would be stupid to attach a file since you can not see it. Sorry for the bad picture, had to use my cell phone. Also, is this stock a solid billet or a damascus billet?

Hello, This is simply me thinking based on observations while forging. I have a gas forge, and do a lot of knifemaking and damascus in it. Of course, oxidation is problem no matter what you are using for a fuel source. So to help cut down on oxidation in the gasser, I throw a few pieces of coal and charcoal in the back of the forge to help eat of the oxygen, and help create a neutral environment. Sometimes I have accidentally thrown a little bit more solid fuel in than I had wanted. I have noticed that at those times, the forge has started to burn higher, and I can lower the PSI by like one pound or so. So now my question is, does or would it make sense to create a hybrid forge that ran on both gas and a solid fuel? The only negative thing that I have noticed is that with charcoal is still burns at the same rate. With coal, I can turn the gas off while I am forging with a lever that came with the forge, and the coal will continue to burn keeping the forge at the same temperature. Does this sound like a bad idea, good idea, plausible? Do I just have to start tinkering around? What are your guys' thoughts on this idea? Thanks, John

thanks guys, looks like I will have to do some calling around, and driving around and try to find a local mill or fab shop.

This is truely a great thing that Frosty is making a recovery. I hope the road ahead of him is a good one.

I do not recommend a concrete floor. I have worked on them, and it causes all sorts of body issues because of how hard the floor is. I hate working on dirt though. The happy medium for me was, putting in a 4" layer of pea gravel and curshed rock. No more body problems, no more dust, and the perfect floor.

Hey All, It has been a while since I have been active on this forum. I have been greatly absorbed into bladesmithing, and consequently sold my coal forge and everything that had to do with blacksmithing. And I feel like an idiot for it, but I am completely setup for bladesmithing. I have been making several knives and making tons of lower count damascus patterns, and spending a lot of time with this guy: Peter Martin Knives but now I am getting back into blacksmithing. And in the past I ordered my stock through speedymetals.com but they are very expensive, compared to what some of you get your steel for. A while back I was talking steel prices with rthibeau, and I was paying close to 4x what he was, mainly because I order through an internet source. Can anyone think of a way that I can find a cheaper steel supplier near me? I am also in the process of re-tooling. hehe. Thanks guys, John

Cool, how fast does the press move?

No I did not.

Well, this is the first knife order I got and it is finally finished. Doug Ponzio Steel. 9" Overall. 4 1/4" Blade. 4 3/4" Handle. Kydex Cross Draw Sheath. Nylon and Sharkskin wrap. Please critique. Pictures much better than last time, and I even managed to get some of the damascus in the photo for once.

Spine is between 1/8 and 3/16. Edge is still unsharpened, about a nickel so like 1/16 to 1/8. But it was only edged quenched so that might explain the hamon.

Well, I tried different settings and light sources, and I can't get a decent one of the bigger knife. But I got one of the knife with the quench line. Thanks for the advice for shooting photos, will try other settings to hopefully get decent pictures. Here it is:

First, I have been visiting Peter Martin about once a month for lessons and he has helped me a lot and I am very grateful he is willing to teach and put up with me. hehe... The first knife is a 30 layer twist 1095/15n20. Bought the steel from Peter. So I weld it all up, twist. Forge out the knife. HT, then I got it to 220grit. Hadn't etched it yet, and I took it with me this weekend to show Peter my progress and he asked if I wanted a sneak peek at the pattern, and we etched it real quick. Well I somehow achieved a hamon like quench line on the blade. Have no idea how or why. Upon seeing this Peter, actually finished up the sanding on the blade for me and etched it so that he could see it better. Well here are the pictures. Sorry for the crappy pictures, my camera isn't worth anything. So my question is how did the hamon like quench line happen? I thermal cycled it. Then annealed it to work on it. Took it to HT, normalized. Then brought upto temp and used a air compressor to harden the spine to spring steel. Then brought up only the edge to temperature and edged quench. The second knife is my first order. 300 layer random damascus billet by Doug Ponzio. The oil on it makes the whole thing look ripply. Plus the pictures aren't great. Anyhow here it is. Any hints on how to get better pictures guys? Thanks

Also, if you heat up a piece of steel to many times in a forge. Especially a gas forge, you suck a lot of carbon out of it. This is why when bladesmithing it can't take you tons and tons of heats to forge out your blade.

Curiosity. Would like to try different ones. I use borax.

I have seen and used anyhydrous borax flux and borax, but what are all of the possible fluxes you can use? Any recipes for one? And are there any benefits to any of these?

I am looking to get into making high quality axes that will last a long time. I have ordered some mild to play with to figure out how much steel i need for each axe, but that doesn't matter. I'm looking for something that will hold its edge over time as well as HT. And be super wear resistant.

What's the best steel for an axe head? Only quench steels, no air hardening. I was thinking 4140 or 5160.