jmccustomknives

By no means am I an expert but there are two things I have found that works. For the curving of the blade I'll use a peice of 2x4 as the anvil. It doesn't tend to distort the edge near as bad as using something hard, just smokes a lot. My anvil sets higher than most, I can squat down and it's at eye level. This allows me to check for strait/flat as well as the bevil being correct and centered. A short piece of RR flipped upside down works wonders for this.

If your familiar with the show "A Thousand Ways to Die", the narrator has a unique voice. Sometimes when I'm doing something stupid I hear him in the back of my mind monologing about what I'm doing. Yeah, time to stop. I don't want to "star" on that show, nobody does.

I just got the Diamondback. The positives, it does reach welding heat and works well for bladesmithing. It is small and relativly lightweight making it perfect for doing demonstrations. It is also pretty fuel effecient. I also like the hard insulation as it doesn't require as much matainance. The negatives; the forge chamber is small. I get a lot of scale (chokes will probably help this). It seems to take a while to reach welding temp (that's the trade off from the wool). It doesn't seem to get hot enough to work wrought iron. All in all I am pleased with it as it was the most bang for my buck. The coal forge will always be ready for the bigger projects.

It's 50% art, 50% science, 50% sweat, 100% passion. And unlike hotrodding and fishing, others can enjoy what I do. Well, except for the neighbors, they didn't care for the big blocks or the ring of the anvil. :P

I haven't shared anything in a while. been trying to tighten' up the finished product. The top was forged from a 1 3/4 ball bearing, the bottom was forged from 1 piece of cable on my brand new Diamondback forge.

Idk, the only thing I could think of that would even come close is tube borium. Stoody makes it. It's tungsten carbides in a lower melting parent material used to build up things like horse shoes. Other than that, spray powders.

I'm with you. I built a hammer out of a piece of hydrolic ram (about 12lbs worth), ground the striking face to a convex. It is ugly, but who cares when it does the job.

He's right, the use dictates the shape. After all, you wouldn't use a kitchen knife for hunting knife. My favorite to forge is the clip point. Watching the steel come to life and form the curves just facinates me.

I've got a show coming up that will require me to do demonstrations. I'm looking to purchase a small gas forge for shop use but somewhat portable. I want one that will get to forge welding temps. Any experience? Suggestions?

Out of that list, the Miller is by far the best. Stay away from the little inverter welders, they are light wieght and are becoming more common. The problem is, they have on average a 5 year life expectancy (doesn't matter if they are used or not). The offbrand stuff can be an adventure to get parts. Now that doesn't mean that that particular machine is in good shape, always check it out and weld with it before you buy any used machine.

My shop is 20x20, forging is outside. If I had more space I'd find something to put in it. Nature abhores a vacum after all.

All I know is I don't like you :P , to find the holy grail of yard sale buys; a Hay Badden for 10 bucks. Why oh why can't I get that lucky.

Well, stainless does have advantages here. But carbon steel does make a good knife, you just have to care for it more. I've got a band saw knife I use in the kitchen, had it over a year now and not a bit of rust. The trick is to clean it after you use it, dry it off and put it away ( I don't even oil it). Never put a carbon steel knife in the dishwasher. After many years it will pick up a brown patina like grandma's knives.

Ah, the art of the trade. Do tell, what kind of steel did you carve/forge it from.

LOL! :lol: Reminds me of my first attempt. I made a machette out of a car spring, built a big fire and quenched it in a bucket of water. I wasn't happy with the shape so I started grinding on it and,,, :o it uncerimoniously broke in half. Learn the soft back draw/and or edge quench. If you get a little warp you can usually straiten the blade after its tempered.

Tannehill is a nice place, you should go during the bladesmithing symposium and the winter meeting. That being said, I let my membership go due to the fact our local chapter never met once. I guess somebody should new should have taken the lead. Most other chapters do meet regularly. Good luck.

Nice looking knife. You might want to check the hardness though, at a 350f draw the 5160 (what most modern leaf springs are made of) is still much to hard. You are doing great, the clip point is my fav blade and that one has a nice profile.

If you have the option, go ahead and empty them out just for safety. A leaking acetylene tank can cause explosions, oxygen a flash fire. These tanks have safetys that can release the pressure if over heated from being in an enclosed box. I'm not saying this will happen, the odds are next to none. Things happen though. A tire fire out in the middle of nowhere + full tanks aren't a good combonation. FYI, I'm in the welding supply buisness and safety is a huge concern. The small tanks are always customer owned and most companies just swap them out for convenience as few fill oxygen on site and none will fill the acetylene. Recently a person purchased a small acetylene and transported it in his Toyota suv, he left it overnight not aware it was leaking. The next day he got in the suv and smelt the acetylene so he went to let the back windows down. You couldn't tell what kind of vehicle it was, somehow the man survives minus his eardrums. The explosion was violent enough to deploy the airbag. Just thought I'd share that.

I don't know if you do this but I always anneal the whole blade before I harden the blade. When I harden the blade I only heat the blade, I try to keep the color out of the handle.

A while back a thread started about forging files with or without teeth. I forged this knife from a file in which I ground most if not all the teeth from the edges and about 80% from the sides. The knife was then ground, heat treated in such a way as to get a hammon (I was experimenting on methods). After it was ground I didn't see any defects so it was etched, and low and behold, inclusions at the edge.

I had one of those cheap anvils, was my first too. It gave me a horrible case of blacksmiths elbow. Took me about 6 months to get over it. Since then I made one out of a piece of RR iron, it works wonderfully. I'm in the process of hard surfacing the old cast anvil, hopefully it will work a lot better.

I'd be glad to hook you up with some 5160, but I'm nowhere near you. One tallent every blacksmith develops is the "magnetic" personality. Steel just comes to you. Just this week I had 25lbs of bandsaw blades, one coil spring and two wedged from a fork lift (idk, it's steel) show up. Tonight I had a 7' grader blade (1095?) show up. Then there's the art of the trade. Last week I got a box of Kaowool for a small file knife. I bet if you made some phone calls to scrap yards, auto shops one of them has a spring they will let go for a knife. :rolleyes:

To properly anneal, you'll need to be able to get the file near hardening temp. An oven won't do this. You don't have to anneal it if you are just grinding the file, it will make it easier though. Keep the file cool while grinding, then use your oven to temper the file.

Can you imagin the fireflys. :o Long sleeve FR shirts, hats and an extremly long stick for your smores. B) It is a shame though, what we could have wrought (pun intended) with it.

I have a older bladesmithing book were the author says L-6 has vanadium, I've never ran across 1 manufacturer that listed it as an alloy. I've got plenty of plate that size, I see no reason to forge it. Stock removal for me is twice as fast as cleaning up the forging on thin material. I've used it for some damascus, the stuff that worked turned out real well. I think the problem you have is high carbon + thin cross section. I love working with L-6, it is very forgiving and makes an excellent knife. I think you will find forging high carbon stuff gets a little easier if you use 1/4 " stuff, at least that's my experience.