Steve Sells

you should look, and post this in our tailgating section. Welcome to I Forge Iron.

I never said forge welding was hard, I said forge welding a billet large enough for your hammer would be hard. I don't make hammers, I make billets for my blades, and for others to make things, Ask Rthibeau for the photo, my last hammer billet I made was for him to use. as I was warned by JPH here, making a 2x2 billet is a lot different than a 1.5 x 1.5 inch billet, he was correct .

take my word for it, its gonna take a lot more than most people guess to Forge weld up a large hammer billet...I just finished one...

I merged these 2 threads to avoid confusion. Since you just informed us they are the same thread anyway :D

NExt time you are in the area, rather than Coffee, lets hit my shop, I will get ya welding in a hour or less. As motivation, and risk of embarrassment, I can get my apprentices to weld. Actually we can still have coffee, I just bought a new coffee pot.

A36 not good for tools as too many unknowns thing in the mix. Its a structural rating not a alloy statement, It could have enough chrome and things to air harden, then Supprize. But the idea of using mild is a solid one for this.

We try to keep factual here, Bigwill. This has been covered many times in the forums, and our sticky's here. In summary, there is 30 points of carbon at best to a HC rr spike, they will never get hard enough to make a good blade, the edge will never hold up to much use, they are merely a novelty. the HC is a relative term.

not exactly true. While I have posted many times about carbon migration, there are other elements to steel that do not migrate in the heat and time allowed in forge welding. So there is still differences in the layers that do work together, OR cause problems, one reason we must take care with which alloys we use. So while carbon variations are myth, the Chrome, Vanadium or Nickel are not.

I see the handle, but not much of the blade. More pics please? lets see the steel

I based my opinion on two factors, or qualifiers. The first, I wanted the color to match the chart below,

emitting quite a bit of energy in the form of light because my chemistry background would tell me I need particles excited to the point of photon (light) ejection, at which point bonding would be able to take place.

but that ;link says rated for 1832F? That is a little low for a welding gasser How do I compare this to other products? I dont know what these numbers compare to. yo said it melts at 2100F

But being covers by some top coat our gasser may get hotter, but will that insulation "feel" that heat level?

I was at a wedding last fall, saw the Dr that has my first knife I sold... $20... I offered to buy it back at a premium.

TimB said:

Another question you brought up Thomas is the % carbon in steel. I ran into it in the BP's, I think..

See the knife sticky's Knife Making - Knife stickies here at iForge it explains how carbon and heat treating make steel hard, or not.

4140 not the best choice in a blade. Plus heat treating issues when mixed with 10 series. may pull apart due to different expansion coefficients.

So,as it goes,I am feed up with cheap, pour edge holding, poor quality knives. I had thought of putting together a billet for a patterned welded blade.

My questions are as follows:

How wide do I make the billet? (I want my finished product to be 12 1/2"overall and 1-1/2'-2" at the widest point with a thickness of 3/64"-5/64".

Welcome to I Forge Iron, I broke your post off of the other thread into its own post, so people can locate topics easier. I doubt any casters would have found it in the knife section as a hi-jack to an axe post. :)

Knee mail on its way, Sorry about your mom Art.

AU92 are close to the Rose-1 I have added to my Bifocals.

Traditional Japanese swords are cool but they started with junk steels. The repeated folding, aka Forge welding, was like working out wrought iron, and for the same reasons. to work some junk out of the metal in an attempt to get usable steel. Don't even bother trying to get black pipe into "good steel" as it wont happen, there is a lot more to it that just roasting iron in carbon.

Just buy good steel to start with. Since I am wearing my asbestos suit, Let the flames begin.:D

first choice flap disks on the hand held grinder, get it smooth, looks good enough to use for me I would only remove the deeper cuts!

Welcome to I Forge Iron.

wire brushes are $2 or less each at Harbor Freight.

Happy Birthday Mate. And happy hammering !

trade. scrap, salvage, or self smelted, rare but it happened.

Frosty THAT is a GREAT idea for RR track !!

How did you fold it? When you folded it, did you cut most of the way through one side and then fold? Just folding in half, without relieving the other side, I can't imagine having enough heat time left to close without an "eye" in the fold. Judging from the flow of the layers in the pic it appears thats what happened, but if there is any scale at all now, its not likely it can be salvaged.... Just a thought