Steve Sells

Welcome to I Forge Iron, and unlike Grandma making sweaters, we can make money with our hobby

In most cases when people have an electrical problem, they hire an electrician. That is what we do for a living, and why we have licenses, the power company is not obliged to train you how to do this. Also in most cases the perple ou can talk to at the power company are not electricians, those are out in the field working. Have you contacted one to see what they said?

in case ya missed it, this section was typo'd to read Cold MATAL rather than metal... thats all. The subject was not the issue, but the typo in the name was the basis for the word play :)

thanks for posting I wish it was closer to me... AND I had a way to keep the wife from knowing...

its the line between between the hard martensite edge and the perlite spine areas as for red clay. I don't think the blade cares much about what color your clay is, its like me asking you what is better: green or blue ? its a open ended things without any information to base the answer on, all I can say is try it. whats it gonna hurt?

I have NO clue, how many thousands of centuries that nickel/iron rock was moving through space before it exploded over Argentina. Just as its funny how granite develops over time, marble with its banding colors. Its just something to think about. Not my field of study at all, but to think that these items we view as so nice and solid, were at one time very fluid. The marble was mud and sediment; the granite, parts of lava flows, just interests me to think about.

If you want to bang away and make a blade, Fine, then forget the O-1 for a while. Use W or 10xx series or 5160. These are forgiving steels, and make good blades, even if you get outside the safe forging range of temperatures. IF your long term plans are to be using O-1, it makes a fine blade. I would suggest, that while you are working the 10 series, work in ONLY the temp ranges allowed for the O series. This will get you used to that color temp, even tho 10 and W can be worked outside this range, it is to get YOU use to that working range so when you do try O-1 you wont ruin it as easy because you have become use to the more narrow forging range, by the previous working of the other steels that way :D

I got ya one better, not only was my wife supportive, but the Zoning inspector loved my brick side draft, seems that he served an apprenticeship to a blacksmith when young, so he already knew the real dangers or lack thereof in having a smithy. I can't ask for much better than that.

Don't blame me for this sub section titles typo, I don't have the controls for setting these up, Its Glenn that sets the sub sections up. But I might be the carrier that gave him the typo disease :o

try here http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/grader-blades-4628/ or here http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f14/grader-blade-knife-8322/

I have only been smithing 20- years or so, blades for about 15, I broke a 0-1 blade 2 days ago, the tang was 3/16 thick where it broke. And it was normalized still. I can only assume it got a crack from me hitting it when it was to cold, it happens at times, most likely from me not paying attention to the heat color and thinking I can get one more hit in before returning to the fire. But I am sure that in 4 months you know that already.

NO, first the entire process is a heat treat, as it is using heat to change the structure of the steel. You started correctly, but then got a bit off in details heat to non magnetic then allow to cool slowly, this normalizing. Then heat again to non mag and cooling fast quench is the hardening part. tempering is relaxing the steel as its very brittle after a hardening, even a differential, it does not magical make it less stressful for the steel. I covered this in the sticky, but here we go again... if using clay that holds in the heat, slowing the cooling of the area covered, thats why we cover the spine and not the cutting edge. Using an Edge only quench is closer with out the fancy pattern in the line of demarcation. is cools what is in the liquid, and the spine being out of the quench cools a bit slower. in both cases, it should leave a line where the martensite and perlite meet. Tempering is only heating to a low temp to relax the stress of the steel, How hot that is will effect the hardness of the steel also, I cant give y ou exact temps with out knowing the exact steel you are using. but most simple steels 530F is plenty. if you heated it again to non mag it will cause another transformation into austenite then ouy are back to the begining again.

you also ignored the fact of a failure of the blade while in use could hurt your client, or mother in this case.

who knows what ideas crazy people have, but we do have one member that say's he can actually can tell the alloy of a steel by feel, so maybe she was tasting the metal? :D

What part of the information in the links was not clear about differential hardening? Please let me know so I can clarify in the sticky so others are not confused about this. I also have differential tempered blades, and it is not the same process, and I saw no noticeable difference in the etching from it. I do understand that many people don't understand the difference between harden and temper, Sadly even some smiths, remember the TV commercials all the rage about Tempered steel blades in razors.. also a tempering is needed after any hardening operation for stress relief if nothing else.

search using the term Hamon, we have a few links explaining this. including these two. http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f14/differential-heat-treat-chat-9579/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f52/japanese-heat-treat-clay-mix-4613/

here is a photo of myself with my favorite bottle opener :D

I remembered your Geology studies from another thread. Just having fun with you, but I will go sit in my corner now.

heat and hit with hammer, you got pieces Ask any 3 yr old it is as simple as that

Yes good deal One thing about wrought is there are various grades, depending on how much it was folded and welded back into itself, Your looks a little better than the 5/8 rounds I have. They need to be flattened and re welded a few times then then can be used for many things. Where as the wagon wheel I have Is all ready to use as-is.

Bob I think the 6 mil yr old tag was to let us know that it was a properly aged rock, and not NEW rock like from Mt St. Helen's, or that one up Frosty's way in Alaska, as we all know it takes more than a few weeks to age stone for the nice colors and patterning in the Granite that we expect from a quality vintage volcano flow

First to correct the mis quote you made, its not 50+ cents and higher per lb, its 50+ cents per GRAM !!! for Campo Del Ceilo meteorite currently. that's 250 grams at $125.00 or more ! and it doesn't work well for blades in this state, it still need refined. As it shatters when heated and hit. that the reason for using the Can weld to start it so I don't loose it all over the floor of my shop. After a pattern welded blade gets beyond about 1,000 layers the pattern tends to "wash out" meaning it is hard to see defined layers when they get so fine. because our eyes only see so much detail, like looking at a tree from far away, we see the green top but not any leaves. When closer we may see leaves and bark, but from distance, because there is to much detail to process, we see trunk and tree. The meteorite layer are the same way, with a magnifying glass you should see layers, but not with the necked eye, as its too fine to notice layering of the meteorite, rather is should appear to be a mono steel layer, as the only true way to get homogeneous layer with that rock is to melt it with the wrought in a crucible. But I did it the way our ancestors had to work out the bloom from their furnaces. For a finished blade I can now use the meteorite as the bright layer. I am planning for around 200 layers in the final knife; should end up with about 100 layers of 1087, and 100 layers of the meteorite I blended with Wrought iron [that blending of wrought and rock is in-itself layered to 120 layers]. so for appearances.... I stated it is the equivalent of 24,000 layers, because 200 layers of blade when finished, multiply by the 120 layers of refining of the rock layer itself = 24,000. that is how thin the layering of the rocks and wrought become in their part of the final billet. at this point, I hope this is clearer what I meant.

I have a problem with some one playing the membership of this forum for fools, and refusing to respond when we have sent you PM's. You said you will be going to find it elsewhere? You have it in front of your face. I am tired of this game of yours. I though that after our talk in the chat last weekend, you were starting to listen, I was wrong. so I am going to help you ONE more time, By helping you not post for a while, giving you more time to learn how to click a link for information. Simply: You may not post for the next week, Please use this time to help yourself.

nice, Now your journey to the dark side is nearly complete.... my young apprentice... I am your Uncles sisters half brother by marriage on her sisters side... ( gotta love space balls)

As for where I got the idea for using Meteorite? From Col, JPHrisoulas PhD ret. of Salamander Armory, and my former teacher: Bill Wyant, of Avalon Ironworks. These 2 men have given me skills and motivation to try more than just simple blade work.