John Martin

I meant does it run at a low psi or would it benefit from an idler valve of some sort to reduce the rate of propane consumption, more bang for the buck?

What blafen said, also check out this link: Thermal Properties

That is really stunning, I would love something like that on a Seax, but you're right, the whole blade really seems to flow out of or into the carving, can't really tell which. Good job making it all flow!

If you do manage to make a green piece of steel, please show us how you did it, and a picture of the razor Good Luck!

Excellent job, btw, do you have a power hammer??

Great setup element, and that's great Tom. Hope the arm isn't to bad.

First, I can hold the burners while they are running, second who wants a burner to be at 1000F when it's not being used, defiantly not me. The idler valve is made to run the forge at the same pressure, but using less gas. You can tell from the video and from using it, that you are using less gas. When I am doing normal forge work, once the forge is up to heat, I simply just turn the forge off, rather than have it on idle. Forge for 30-60 seconds, and then flip err back on, heat in about 30 seconds, real efficent, but if you're doing larger work, like 5/8" and up, just turn it down to the point of where it's almost about to backfire back up the burner - where you get that turbulance in the burner and it sounds like a motorboat....that's bad - it should sound like whoosh, whoosh......whoosh......whoosh, and the flame will kind of flicker in the forge when the idler is set correctly. You should like it a lot if you ordered it.

Oh, I'll have to steel some of these ideas, and make an upset helper once I have some steel big enough.

I really like how your work all stands out and it has its own style.

Cool, that's good to hear, does it propane up low, or do you get good running time from it? The cold spot by the doors is expected though.

Try quenching in a different medium possibly. Also if you can see how it twisted, try to put some pre twist in it, in the opposite direction slighty, so that when you quench, it will re-align itself. One of the bladesmiths that I talk to frequently, sometimes has to do that with cable knives or a knife that has a lot of twisted damascus in it.

You got an pictures of it yet?

Did you figure it out? I can' tell from your post. If not, search for "edge quench" or "differential hardening"

I like the one without the scales the most. Kevin, to be honest, if you don't know what's in the steel, easiest way to find out if can hold an edge, etc.. Cuz I piece off, grind an edge on it, HT, and see how it does, use the file test, temper at 350 for an hour.

Quenchcrack, you will be more than pleased with that forge, I have the two burner bladesmith one, and if they are all of equal quality, you will be very happy, and I don't think you'll use that Whisper Baby much. (Good thing my english teacher isn't here, that was a major run-on, lol) I don't know if you considered ordering the idler valve, but it is well worth the 45 dollars, and pays for itself quickly. Instead of getting 8 hours of forging from a 20lb tank, i can get close to 12-14 hours. Of course if you do a lot of forge welding, it's less, but comparable.

That's one nice looking forge for being homemade. How hot does it get, and does it heat very evenly?

That's really, really cool. Thanks for the picture.

Pictures Chris, pictures. Sounds like it's going well though.

Very cool, little guys.

Wow, thanks for his awesome link, I might have to print some of them off.

Nice shovel, I really like the transition from shovel to basketweave to hook.

Wow, I don't think anything is wrong with it, lol. Good job, thanks for the quick tutorial.

I don't know about the soldering, but you could weld or solder the guard on before HT, but why not make it fit down the tang, like normal hidden tang construction?? And then when you HT, just dunk up to the bottom of the guard.

When all else fails and you can't either of them ferric chloride or muratic acid, just go with vinegar, takes longer, but works just the same.

Thats a 100 times better than my first knife, keep up the great work, can't wait to see more from you.