jmccustomknives

I wonder, do they hard face or make them so they can be hard facing rod?

Oh, rub it in. :P

Fyi, Stoody Nicormang is a manganese buildup rod designed for rail roads. It is a work hardening steel. The 309 work hardens, but I don't think it gets hard enough. If you can get it cheap and don't mind the work (and it is a lot of work) go ahead. I wouldn't drop more than 50 on it.

You'd need to get it real cheap. That faceplate is gonna be tough to replace. If you are good at welding you'll have to do a build up rod and a hard facing rod. One I'm currently working on is a cast anvil, I did 3 overlays with a 309 stainless rod, next is two with a Stoody Nicromang. It's a small anvil, but still taking about 150 bucks in rods to repair.

Nice, I'm working on one right now and want to get a hamon like that. How'd you do it?

Pretty good for a first knife, looks about as good as one of mine. What steel? What wood did you use on the handle? Looks like a softwood like white pine or such. I'm gonna make some heads spin by telling you this, but as a cheapo myself you can find some pretty nice wood on old pallets. I've found cherry, walnut, purple curley walnut, several verieties of mahagony, cocobolo and some that were really pretty but I didn't have a clue as to what they were. They aren't stablized but if you do it right they will work very well, at least until you get comfortable enough for the more expensive stuff.

A friend who metal detects on old sights give me a bunch of scraps he had found. Many were ax heads (most broke) and a few were made just the way yours is. It was interesting to study how those made from wrought iron and steel are done. As far as heating and quenching, you can do it two ways. The easy way is to heat just the edge to nonmagnetic and quench just the edge in motor oil. Don't use water, I have succesfully quenched 5160 in water and also had them crack. You can do the whole thing, that just makes it harder to get an even heat. 5160 tends to air harden to somewhat of a spring temper on its own anyway. The old method of heating the back of the ax up and letting the color run is very difficult. Most of the time I end up having to re-harden because I let to much heat to the end. Better to pollish up a bit of the blade and put it in a toaster oven at between 425 and 450F. The polished section should be a dark brown. For insurance you can do it three times. That should be a good temper for the ax.

T-9 looks like it is as much fun to forge and 52100. Play around with the lower carbon stuff and get aquanted with how it feels under the hammer. With a little experience you'll get to where you can tell how good the steel is for a knife just by shaping it. Generally, the easier it works the lower quality for knives. I wouldn't mind getting some of that T-9 and experimenting with it. I just love taking junk and giving it new life.

My teenage dauhgter asked for me to make her what she called a "Peter Pan Bowie" for Christmas this year. She is about as girley girl and "Hello Kitty" as they come. I couldn't pass on the opportunity to make it for her. How many of you guy have or have had some guy tell you about a kife his dad or grandad made for him. That's were memories are made.

All tricks noted and put in the "WILL NOT TRY" file. :o

I doubt those parts are anything more than 1085 carbon steel. It is rare for anything but really heavy equipment to use the more exotic chromium steels. That being said, I'd like to try some of that stuff. The best thing for you to do, at least for starts is get some sample pieces and do spark test with it. There are charts available to help identify steels by there spark. They aren't real accurate but will help get you started. Get some sample pieces that you know what it is and compare the sparks. Forge out a small piece, heat to nonmagnetic and quench in water. Put it in a vice and break it (wear safety glasses) and inspect he break. If it doesn't break it isn't knife material, and if the broke steel has a grainy texture take note. You want it to look like satin. I like playing metal detective, it's fun, but you want a lot of the stuff as it may take you a while to work out how to harden and temper it. I

You changed to propane and had no problems? Did you change your tips? If not there's your problem. Propane and acetylene tips are not interchangable. I would always rather talk to someone face to face when they are having problems like this. Only been in the welding supply buisness about 17 years and seen a lot of crazy stuff. It hadn't occured to me that you would be using the wrong tip, if that's what it was.

There are several grades of coal, of which anthracite is the highest grade there is. Metelurgical bitumous coal is tested for things like sulpher content that can weaken steel. Anthracite has the highest btu's of coal and is the cleanest burning. There's a resturant locally that uses it in there pizza oven, really, I was just as surprised. Anthracite is also the most expensive. That isn't saying that there might be a high sulpher content, but give it a go you might like it.

Your not running enough acetylene pressure. You didn't say what cylinder size you are using. Acetylene, unlike most other idustrial gasses, is stored in a acytone solution. You know that you are drawing more than the cylinder can handle (draw rate is 1/7 the cylinders volume per hour) when the flame turns white. You may also notice a black substance in the torch. This condition is dangerous and can ruin your regulator and torch. The other thing is starvation, turn up your pressure, since you didn't say what tip you are using there is now way to say for sure. Call your local welding supplier with the tip/tank size for proper setting or even if they can be used together. You can also do a search on Victor Cutting Torches in Thermodynes website and also Smith Torches website. They have good training materials. I almost forgot, do not turn your acytelene pressure past 15psi (ac regs have go red at this point.) Acetylene is unstable past 15 psi and can self combust, this is why it kept in the acetone. I have successfully used acetylene for hardening small blades. I used a firebrick box for a while but now have a stand that hovers the flame over the brick. I have more control over how much heat by moving the blade freely up and down and lenghtwise freely. Usually anything past 6" becomes and issue.

I wish I was your welding supply dealer. I love the rue, awesom!

According to ABS master smith Wayne Goddard in his book "The Wonder of Knifemaking" he defined Damascus steel as any steel that shows a pattern. He further stated that the term needed to be modified with what it is. Cable damascus, pattern welded damascus, carbon nickle damascus, and so on.

Your question is a little out there. Here's why, most of the charts I've seen are based on 1085 simple carbon steel. The various alloys can drastically affect transformation, temper and everything else. Just changing the carbon content will change these. What steels are you using, if it is to complex of an alloy for me I'll be some one here works with it.

Aluminum melts at between 1300 - 1500F depending on alloy, just laying a piece of red hot steel on it will melt through. Unlike steel, aluminum never tells you when it is getting close to melting. It is there one sec the next gone. If the top is thick it might present another problem, Aluminum is a very good conductor of heat, it will suck the heat right out of hot work, warping a knife blade or if you set an unknowing hand too close (wouldn't be a problem with steel) your burnt. I would replace the top with steel. Firebrick would work, but the weight may be too much and the aluminum couldn't be used as support for your fire pot. Oh, concrete is a no go also. Concrete when poured never really dries, the chemical reaction locks the water in the concrete. Excesive heat will cause the concrete to pop (ever accadentally touch your floor with a torch) and/or become brittle and break up.

Right now it's just a break even kind of thing, which for a hobby is good. I wood like to take the next step though, flea markets are fun and collectors can be excentric but the latter does tend to pay a little more.

Here are a couple of pics. I want to do a show, but there are none close by. I don't want to price myself out nor do I want to under price my work. I am cheap by nature. If you had these on your table (assuming they are good enough) what would you ask? The top is a 5160 tanto forged form 5160, narrow tang/bolt through handle (stag&mahagony) and wire damascus but plate. The bottom top is a forged 5160 narrow tange/bolt through with stag/leather spacer handle. Bottom bottom is a stock removal L-6 blade, forged guard, stag&mahagony handle.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of pricing do you guys put on your stuff. I'm kind of in a delima on what I can ask. I do little trade days from time to time and am trying to get in to a large arts and crafts fair this fall. While the fall event is more artsy and there will be more opportunities to sell my sculptures the trade days are more of the Walmart crowd. As such getting paid for my time isn't an option, they don't have the money and fortunatly this is just a hobby. I do enjoy being able to put a quality hand made knife in the hand of some one who couldn't normally afford one. My hunting sized knives (most narrow tang with stag/wood handles) run in the 60 -150 range. At least that is what I've been able to get for them.

Did you get that out of my shop, it looks just like the one I made. LOL. Got my hands on some old wrought iron (200 year old ax heads included) and wanted to try to make one after studying the axes. Good work. Real wrought iron is interesting to work with isn't it?

For 20 it's a good starter. That being said some day I'll put a pic on here of a real redneck anvil. If it wasn't so funny and worked so well it would be embarrasing. Take a little ball pein hammer and give that anvil a little tap with the pein. This will give you an idea of how hard it is. If that hammer has good rebound it will move metal better. I have a bad case of tennis elbow from a "dead" anvil. Don't try to hit the work too hard, that is a mistake I had to learn the hard way. Dead anvil + 4lb hammer + going Thor on the metal = OUCH!

Update: The Lenox file that was giving me trouble. I heated it back up and quenched it in water, which is something I never do. It seems to have gotten harder. I haven't finished testing yet. I don't know about the Simmonds, but as for the Nicholson files; we sell them and the half round bastards are made in Brazil and the mill files are made in the USA.

Do you know if your stuff is xx IPS, from what I've been able to decifer this is usually made from 1080-1085. Like you said they don't like to disclose what steel they use, I've called and asked. My next move in trying to find the xxx IPS is to call a company that services cranes, you can get a lot of goodies for a free knife or sculpture. The xxx IPS is soposed to be made of 1090-1095, but until I get some and test some IDK.