Steve Sells

Thank you for your efforts. Lost a friend to breast cancer a few years ago, she would have been grateful for this also.

Use a temper color chart. I use the home gas oven. I set the temps close to where I know it was the last time I did that steel, BUT I have the blade polished and shiny so I can read the color of the oxides to verify what temp it was really at. The Oxides do not lie, but we can misread them a bit.

he will still have the Martinsite brittleness factor to deal with, unless he tempers it at least at 325F or so, Also as for carbon levels, Migrations happens a lot faster than most people think *(for proof look for the thread about it) so it will still be less than the hard inside and soft outside you may imagine :)

as for your similar profile theory , take 1060, 1095 and 5160, these are all used for springs, one has 0.80 Chromium and a few degrees higher hardening temp for ideal conversion than the others. Another is a few degrees lower hardening temp than the others. One needs water for good hardening, another one is a problem in water, the other can be hardened safely in either. I aint telling which is which, as they are all the same right ? But I have posted them in other places in this forum, if you read up you will find it. Welcome to the wonders of mystery metals from buying used stock.

I forge them in before doing the bevels. but they can be ground in later.

Stainless needs a different medium than softer metals. So does wood and brass for handles...

it all depends on what you want to grind, If blades, look in the blade section, try this thread for talks about grit and brands for knife work... http://www.iforgeiro...chat-june-1909/

Steels can crack from being worked at the wrong temp, as in below or above forging range or welding range. as for normalizing before forging? umm not sure how that would repair bad metal.

Last post until its finished. Tomorrow is Friday Sept 15 2011 So if you have not sent out your flowers or leaves for the Memorial, You really need to. This leaves only 10 days for post office and me to finish assembly, then deliver. Any leaves or other work that arrives after that time can not be attached, but will be sent on to the family when they arrive. Thank you

If these same kids wanna make a gun and do not plan on making more than one, means just jump in right"? Is a one time item magically not going to have any risk? its not that we try to stop them from making them, we are wanting them to wait on making it until they have the basics learned. Skipping the fundamentals is the problem here. I have walked people from beginner to a finished knife blade in just a few days, but as Matt and Sam said.. its forging with a person that knows and can correct, that is a lot different than most of the kids asking here, that are living away from any qualified smith. Also many are underage for making or even having a weapon.

Matt I do have to admit I have gotten a bit short with quite a few of them. I am guilty. I have put a lot of time not only into attempting to learn a few things, but also writing papers and publishing a few of them to share what little I have figured out. Then these guys cant be bothered to read, No, their time is too valuable to learn anything, they expect us to drop everything and give them personal service. They think they can make them easily, and are told that its OK to just make them because that in how they will learn, so they can just have fun (forget about safety and responsibility, we are just old guys protecting our craft right ?). What happens when it breaks and a person is cut? or worse? Its no wonder quite a few members here cringe when anyone asks about blades. Almost as bad as that guy advocating cold hammering truck springs into swords, then threatening to sue anyone that mentions his name and calls him on it for defamation, (not sure anyone has actually gone to court) hiding behind a web screen makes so many people do things they would never do face to face. Also hard to know (at least for beginners) who really does forge blade or fakes it like a video game.

the trouble is not just that they do not know enough to ask the proper questions, Many refuse to TRY to learn basics, One of my "buttons" is when a person says this blade keeps curving when they hammer in the bevels, how do we straighten it? then when I tell them to go back and learn basics they will know, I get called some names that can not be printed here. And people wonder why I stopped doing the "IFI Friday night knife chat", or talking to many of the beginners lately. Even had a member here accuse me and 2 well known teachers/blade smiths of not being willing to share, and keeping secrets, also a comment of us being self appointed masters. So that made a few of us stop answering beginners at all for a while, because of rude people, thinking they know it all, we gave up. When we try to teach and keep people safe, they refuse, and then these teens want to fight with us, it does make us want to stop trying. So... Who suffers? the beginner that now is alone trying to figure it out, as the teens that backed him up cant help.. We need to decide what is more important. But I guess its their egos now... not the craft, but they got their way didnt they :(

Very much a first class act

it will work, but its about half the BTU of the stuff I use for a reference also will be very smokey

1... Yes depending on alloys used 2... Depends on the alloy 3... No

If you need some one on one, Ft Wayne in only 2 hours north of you off 69. Welcome to the forum

I like the fact he showed the notching of the bit to be steeled,. This is a great post and sharing how to keep the bit in place while we are welding. Many attempt steeling with out that step and it never seems to stay in place with out it. That single thing makes it so much easier to hold in place.

Or you could look in this site and notice we have a axe section....

My Bader B3 was not cheap, but there is a reason we pay the price for these tools. Its hard enough making some of these things without having to fight our tools also. Experience helps, so does having the proper tools. We either hand sand or avoid fullers until we can afford the tool, or find another way.

I am the opposite, I like my horn to the left, I am a blade maker, predominantly right handed ambidextrous. I use the face the most and horn for drawing, not so much scrolls.

For crying out loud you are a blacksmith... so make some !

Strange as it seems, that does happen a lot when the blade is not made properly, and the $50 price cannot even cover a proper heat treat. This is why we try to get people to learn basics first, but many self appointed experts (usually young people that never made one) think we are trying to stop them from learning. That is not true, we are trying to help you to learn in a safe way. for the maker as well as end user.

Read the intro on knives, and get good insurance. http://www.iforgeiro...ew-knife-maker/

First rate, good job.

One of the things about used metals is the unknown composition, safer to state that its used band saw blade and pallet strap than to assume its one set of specs. Even tho we have to assume a few things to attempt to harden it. I have read statements from udderholm, that they use a plain carbon for small wood blades and 15N20 for larger lumber mill sized band saw blades. You did make a nice blade, since we seem to have gotten a bit off of that topic.