jmccustomknives

I use oil or a version of "Goddards Goop", 1/3 pariffin wax, 1/3 hydrolic oil, 1/3 vegitable oil. That stuff stays solid, it's great for smaller blades.

Your's looks a whole lot better than my first knife. One of these days I'm gonna start a "show me your weirdest hammer" thread. I made a 12lb sledge out of a hydrolic cylinder. It will move some metals. As far as checking steel, get a spark test chart. That's a good place to start. It helps to have peices that are known steels to compare with. A quick look at some of my work, you'd be amazed (or maybe not) that is is 100% made from someone elses junk. If you do it that way, test your stuff (as you should anyway).

That rules out any of the "voodoo" steels. HS steels don't aneal down that well. I'd bet L-6. Here's my formula. Heat to non-magnetic, quench. temper @ 400F for an hour.

That stuff will be tough to move under the hammer. I can't think of anything that it would make that would be usefull around my shop. It wouldn't get hard enough for most tooling, although it might make a good hot punches, chisles and such. Give it a go, it might be worth the effort.

Sounds to me like A-2 or some other air hardening steel. It wouldn't be the first time steels got mixed up.

More than likely, L-6 if the tips are carbide. If the tips aren't then some kind of HS tooling steel. Sometimes those companies have there own steel formulas. L-6 can make a really tough knife, it's one of my favorites.

All it takes is a little imagination, anything is possible. Just cruze the sculptures, they will blow your mind. Heck, I just recently found out it was possible to forge brass. That opens a whole new area of possabilaties. Thiink of something, try it. You'll ruin more metal than not, but half the fun is getting there. As far as the anvil, the heavier the better. I will admit, mine is just a rr iron welded on a heavy base. The whole thing weighs over 150lbs so it don't move even under my 12lb sledge.

I like your style. I can't say I've ever put much thought into making my own steel since there is so much available that is much better than anything I could make. I would be neat to try. Please share when you do it.

I've been selling welding supplies for 17 years, I've never heard of them. That's probably where the problem starts. A system is only as good as it's parts. No parts, it's useless. Look into some more reputable systems where parts are more readily available. I like Hypertherm, I don't like Lincoln with Thermodyne being in between.

Nice work. I'd give it an A+.

I wanted to do something a little different, I thought I'd use the stamped tang of the file as the butt plate. Needs a little more clean up, but not much. I kind of like the patina, so I don't want to polish it up to much.

I wouldn't wory too much about the piping, looks just like mine. That part doesn't get too hot (relitivly speaking). For safety's sake pulling the zinc off won't hurt. Better safe than sorry. As far as first forging. Get an old truck leaf spring. Wrecking yards will probably give them too you, or sell for cheap. That steel us normally 5160 (I haven't found one yet that wasn't). It's a little more forgiving on the forge than a file. In my experience 5160 doesn't "red shut" (break apart like cottage cheese when over heated) near as bad. Probably due to the chromium. Good luck.

I know what you mean. Abrasive chop saw sales have been going down, this is the reason why. Those machines can be dangerous. You really don't have much choice though. I don't know how well the carbide blade saws would do on the high carbon steel, it would have to be anealed to do anything. In that the abrasive blades have the advantage.

Well, I replaced the wood with stag. I just wish I knew scrimshaw. A deer scrimmed on the handle would be cool.

Any design is better than mine. 100% junk yard dawg. The hammer is a truck axle as well as the anvil.

nice B)

Just check the scrap yards. These sobs are steeling anything that isn't bolted down around here. Every week it seems some one comes in to replace some piece of equipment or such. Usually the theives don't know or care what it is, they just want to sell it for scrap. Keep your stuff safe, try not to let any one know you have it. The fewer that do the safer it will be. As Jimmy said, all it takes is one load of 00 buck and the problem is solved.

Got a friend who goes out metal detecting, to him it's just trash. To me it's treasure. He's glad to give it to me, I'm glad to get it.

Ok, here it is. Forged from two pieces of 7/8 cable. The guard is forged from 1 piece of 5/8 cable. The handle doesn't quite work though. Any suggestions for that center piece, the wood and leather doesn't work for me.

Super glue, 2 part epoxy and gorilla glue. Even liquid nails will do. Most guys will use 2 part slow cure epoxy on there knives.

The dead I don't worry about, I like it! :ph34r:

I figured I'd throw this in since it was mentioned that the little lincoln migs were made in the USA. Not true, the migs sold by the big box stores (lowes, home depot and so on) are made in mexico. I found that out the hard way when I sold a guy a replacement gun without checking and it didn't fit. Turns out if your mig has a serial # that starts with M it's a mexican machine. Hobart was bought out by Miller and is now their "red headed step child", but as far as I know they are still made in the good ol' usa. When my mig finally goes I will replace it with the miller 211.

There will be noise. The amount you make depends on your equipment and there are steps you can take to quiet down a bit. A gas forge + a magnet on the anvil and you may not bother your neighbors too much. They can get over a little noise, but that's an American attitude. :P Most of the time they will be suprised at what you are doing. Mine though I was making cabnets.

This little test knife was forged from a NTN ball bearing. I believe it is close to 52100. I should really get a power hammer if I am going to keep doing these. :angry: All in all, as a test knife it turned out pretty well. Gets razor sharp and stays that way. If anyone knows what the metalugy of that steel is, share please.

You should be able to heat it up and let it air cool. It will be springy enough for what you are doing. Watch the thinner sections, they can air harden enough to break. This isn't the ideal way of doing it, but it is the redneck way to get by.