bipolarandy

My latest knife. Made by stock removal.

I started with a 1/4" by 2" leaf spring. I used a angle grinder cut off wheel to cut the tang area and the curve at the point.



Next, a hole lotta sanding on my belt sander.



Add some 1/4" brass pins, and a ton of epoxy...




And you get something that kinda looks like a knife., kinda... Maybe if you squinted at it.




Enjoy, -Andrei

The first and only sword i'v ever made was out of a piece of 1/4' by 1,1/2' mild steel. its about as long as my arm, and it doesn't bend at all. But, Its not like i'v ever "tested' it to see if it would work.

The question is, Why do want a sword? What are you going to do with it? And a little less importantly, Are you willing to put all that work into something thats probably gonna hang on your wall or sit in your closet?

Swords are fun , dont get me wrong. But they take alot of work to look good.

-Andrei

Yeah, now that I think about it...... i'll get rid of the cut off wheel.

Im young, and I dont wanna mess up ma pretty face :wink:

Has any one ever gotten a cut off wheel down that small?
I was about to throw it in the trash..... but then I thought to myself, its kind of a waste to get rid of somethin that still works. So i think i'll keep using it..........Until, I feel like buying some more

I'll post more pics as it gets smaller.

-Andrei

That looks like one of the Old world anvils. My dream anvil....... :roll:
I got to work on one of the Bulgar style anvils Old world makes and its awesome, incredible rebound and almost no ring. And this one wasn't even in a sand box, it was just strapped down on a stump, and i think the stump was buried in the ground
-Andrei

Well, first of all. If your not using blacksmith coal, that probably means your using anthracite, or charcoal, which one do you use?

"Every time, I find a fault in the weld, or I burn the metal."
Most common mistakes with forge welding is not getting it hot enough, or getting it to hot and burning the metal. Both will result in poor or unsuccessful welds.

Its something that just takes alot of time and practice to get right. Try getting a piece of steel up to the point when it just starts to throw off one or two sparks, it should be a very bright lemony-yellow colour, any hotter and it will burn. That is your welding heat, You should start out with some simple welds , like the one i did in the photo. Take a 1/4' or a 3/8' rod and bend about an inch or so of the end back around onto the rod, hammer it so that the two surfaces just touch each other, bring it up to a bright red colour wire brush the surface clean then flux with borax or whatever flux you use, then bring it up to a bright whiteish-yellow colour, just when you see one or two sparks , take it out and quickly give it a few soft hammer blows.

If you want I can go into more detail on how to forge weld, or I'm sure one of the other guys can.
Hope that helped ya Rantalin

-Andrei

For any of you that doubted my magical forgewelding abilities....




-Andrei

:Update.

I cured the clay with a propane torch, that seemed to harden it with out making lots of bubbles.



I rearranged my setup so I could work off the ground. i put my small anvil on the concrete next to the forge



and i sat on a five gallon bucket. but after about an hour of tryin to get comfy, i just unrolled my apron and knelt on that.



This is my first forge weld with charcoal . It took me a couple of tries to stick it, but i got it eventually



Its alot harder to tell when your at welding temp in charcoal because you need so much more coal on top, you cant see the colour of your metal, and cause there are so many sparks and embers shooting everywhere you cant see if your metal is burning.

I worked for 3 hours and burned almost eight pounds of charcoal. I paid about $5 for an eight pound bag. A bit pricey compared to blacksmith coal, but its still cheaper then propane.

Plus, I love the smell of it... and the clouds of smoke that waft thru my garage and dance off the light that pours the windows and the cracks in the siding......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hehe. I remember now why I got into this stuff, Its so much fun....

-Andrei

This is my charcoal forge I just finished. It's made out of a galvy washtub with a 1" blackiron pipe for a tuyere.

I used a fireplace refractory clay I got at home depot. It didn't give the temperature specification on the can, but i think it might not work for forges, because after about 10 minutes the whole fire pot had "bubbles" all over it.


I didn't have alot of charcoal, so i took the few lumps that i had a choped them up into little pieces. That was about 10minutes worth of fuel.

this is with the blower on, its just an old hair drier taped the tuyere.




This is after about five minutes with the blower on and off. As soon as i turned the blower on a huge cloud of sparks flew up at me. I found that I could unscrew the endcap to the tuyere. and it would still get more than enough air. I may work on some sort of adjustable end cap, so I have more control over the air flow.

it almost got up to a welding heat, I think if I had a thicker bed of coals that would of helped.

This is after about ten minutes. you can see the bubbles all over the clay.
Either i got it to hot, or it didn't dry all the way. It doesn't, i'v got another gallon of clay. I'll fix it up , so by the time i get more charcoal, I'll be good to go

-Andrei

WOW, thats a cool lookin sword, i hope you finish it.
Could you post the site that you bought the kit off of.
-Andrei

What I would do is cut off a rod it about a foot long and clamp it in a vice, and then bend it back and forth until it breaks off. If the break looks like Reeaaaly small crystals, kinda like the ice on top of your slack tub, its not wrought iron. If it looks like a broken tree branch, with tons of little fibers exploding out everywhere, Thats wrought iron.
Hope that helped
-Andrei

I was thinking i would be a good way to get rid a bunch of the small scraps a got floating around my shop. And I thought it would make a cool pattern. If i can get it welded into one solid brick im going to cut and reweld it a couple of times to build up the layers. y use soft metals? y not? I dont know what im gonna use it for yet and if i make a blade out of it i can just weld a piece of high carbon steel on for an edge.

Hey guys, I got a bunch of tiny scraps of wrought iron and mild steel im going to try and weld up into a stack, I guess they call this a stack or fagot weld. I'v never done a weld like this, is there any thing I should know? What kinda flux to use? Borax, Sand, Clay? What temp to weld at?
Any info would be great. -Andrei