jmccustomknives

As far as handles go, you need to find a style you like. I prefer the narrow tang/bolt through style. I find it easiest with the tools I have. Your welds look good, most never get it the first time. You'll want to work on your hammer control since you'll need to grind out those hammer marks. Most guys want to make big knives. But really, ask yourself what you like in knives you use and build that into your design. In my experience cable does well when polished down to a 600grit and a slow etch or two in Ferric Chloride.

Well, it's a combination of both. Carbon mostly. You'll find after the third fold it will get easier to draw out. I haven't figured out the physics as to why, it may just be loss of mass from scaling (I hand forge my Damascus too). Generally though, the more alloy the tougher it is to work. Wait until you get a hold of some 52100, or it gets you.

Usually when a weld doesn't take it's going to come down to a few problems. Inadequate heat, the billet can be at welding temp on the outside, but the inside still be too cool. Oxidation and other contaminates can keep a weld from taking, is your forge running lean? Lastly, some chainsaw blade can have the cutting teeth chromed. It's always a good idea to cut the teeth off before welding.

Fit and finish my friend. That's what separates the big boys from the rest of us. Your forging can be good. Heat treat done well. It could be a functional knife. The little things that takes an ugly shank and makes it a work of art. Oh, and a well made sheath just closes the deal.

I found a gentleman who sells metallurgical coal and coke. It is the good stuff. The problem we have is most places won't sell unless we buy a truck load. He's willing to sell smaller portions. Anyone interested can message me, I'll give you his contact info. He is in the Mulga area.

There's a little story to this one. A few years ago a gentleman called me wanting to know if I could look at an anvil that was donated to the camp he worked for. I'm no expert, but told him to bring it out. I looked at it and didn't recognize any markings and gave him a general $ value and made him an offer. He said he'd check with the boss. A year later he came in to my store and I inquired about it. He said they had thrown it out in the yard and it was laying on the ground. I told him that made me sad. Another year went buy and he came in again, again I inquired about the anvil. It was still laying in the yard. 3 years later he came in and told me they were throwing it away and he was bringing it to me! Well, turns out it's a rare jewel. It has a clear ring and around 80% rebound. After a little research I think I've figured it out a little. Thomas Eves & Son was a foundry that made everything from chains to anchors (could be why there's an anchor) from the 1830's through 1875 (that's as late an entry as I've found) in Stourbrigde, England. From what I've found they went bankrupt in 1875. "Anvils in America" list that he found 2 with incomplete stampings, I found two more entries of different anvils on the net. Ironically, none are in bad shape. I wonder if that's a coincidence or if those anvils were just that well made. My best guess is this one is pretty late, 1870'ish. But you guys might know better, I'm no expert.

I happen to agree. Any group that has a vested interest to keep an "Elite" will become political. While testing is a worthy thing and the goals do show a certain mastery of the materials, when those that need to keep their group small are doing the judging it tends to get skewed. After all, you wouldn't want 6 master smiths in an area all trying to make a living. Better to keep it at 1, even though the others are more than capable and perhaps better.

Well boss, if your in the T-town area one weekend give me a holler. Also plan on attending Batsons this April at Tannehill.

1st lesson in using junk steels. Some alloys will not weld to each other. Those blades most likely have a little juju in them (cobalt usually) that gives them a little red hardness. These alloys effect and in some cases will not allow forge welding. Try slipping another type of steel in between (like pallet banding or better yet a small file). That should help weld it up, if they can be welded. Keep in mind, you'll probably only get one or two folds before you loose the carbon steel to scaling and the next fold will be the saw blades. And as you see, they don't stick.

Lol, sounds like you already know the reason. True story bro, a young man came into my store. He claimed to forge swords and make his own steel. I could tell he was a little green and didn't understand metallurgy, so being one who likes to teach I handed him a 1 1/4" x 1 1/2 roller bearing and told him to forge a knife from some "good" steel. A couple of weeks later he came back, after asking how it was going his response, "well, it's kinda square now". Not to mention, in my experience 52100 doesn't like to weld to itself. If you do get brave and try some, it does make a nice pattern. Although 52100 does, in my experience, take over the billet. (the pictured knife is hand forged).

As you can see, you don't need a power hammer or press to pattern weld. I don't own any power forging equipment. All you need is a willingness to sweat, get burned and swing a sledge hammer. A little tip, don't play with 52100.

I'm planning on a Fri-Sat thang. At least it wont be too hot, although right now a chance of rain. At least that's the forecast as of today.

I'm assuming what you are describing is happening during the forging process. Pretty common. Two things that might help. First, a post anvil makes it easier to work both sides of the blade. Second, I always lay my blade flat on the anvil to see how strait the edge is and sight down the edge keeping it centered with the recasso. Don't over work your edge, it's better to keep things strait than try to forge it perfect and grind it all away.

There's a reason why bronze was replaced by iron (and iron by steel). If you make one it will be decorative. Like steel, bronze must by handled properly to get the most out of it. But compairing the best bronze to the best steel (we'll set the steel @ 10) I'd say the bronze would be a 3. (wood =1). That's my opinion, I just forge guards out of the stuff and haven't tried a blade, yet.

Looks like a good user. That wood turned out interesting.

Well, the first thing. Never forge a file with teeth. They get pushed into the steel, deeper than you'd imagine. That can cause stress risers that will crack and weaken the blade. I'll tend to grind most of them away and all at the edge bevel. If you look down the edge you can see the teeth pushed in. As far as your tempering method, it's too hard to control the heat. I'll use a torch for that, but even then it takes practice. For your last question, the more complex the alloy the more important to give it a proper temper cycle. While a simple carbon steel can be done that way, do you know that's what the file is made of? Did you check it with a sharp file after quenching to make sure it hardened? Over all the profile looks good, I'm impressed you didn't over heat the file which is common for a newb using a coal forge.

Cliffrat, could you give reference to those "high carbon" RR spikes. There was a link someone posted here years ago to the actual government specs for RR spikes and there were none listed above .3C. As far as I've ever found, and I don't mess with them much if any, very old RR spikes (pre-26 I've read) are wrought. From '27 to mid '70's they were mild steel. And in the mid 70's they changed them. The newer spikes were marked "HC" but are just .3%C. I tried to find that link, but there's a lot of RR spike articles. If anyone knows where it is, please link.

I once had the bright idea to mix case hardening powder with my borax. In theory it would add carbon to the weld zone which not only would increase the carbon of the billet but reduce welding temperature. It was a failure, while in theory you'd think it would work, the borax didn't desolve the case hardening powder so the weld got contaminated. It might work with charcoal dust, I might revisit this one day when I'm bored and have nothing better to do.

Yes sir, I know what you mean. A little testing and that guy would find out that what he was doing didn't amount to a hill of beans. It's been my experience that few makers ever do comparative testing, heck I haven't run across many that actually had an EDC that they made. It's no wonder myths like that persist.

There's a lot of guys that will take a myth and run with it. That's why it's good to study up. RR spikes aren't suitable for a working knife, there isn't a whole lot that can be done easily that will improve it either.

It is very possible that crack was already there. Old springs often have hidden fractures.

Well, I'd start over. A crack is probably caused by improper forge procedures. If there's one you can see clearly there's probably more you can't. Those will rear their ugly head later on. Your not to far into this project, it's a to get as far as polishing out a blade only to find cracks you didn't know was there.

Looks like a variation of a pineapple twist. Involves cutting groves and twisting. Looks like this one has deep grooves cut a multiple angles and a tight twist. I'm no expert on doing RR spikes as I avoid them like the plague.

It's always a good idea to see an experienced smiths shop. As far as hammers go, I do have several ball peens and they don't get used in forge work. lol. You don't have to get everything at one time. Most of us have collected our tools over many years.

I thought it was a twist, but there is no indication of stars. I've gotten them even on the tightest twist. I'm thinking Charles might be on the track. I do wish to see the other side though.