Buzzkill

This is true, but he is correct as well. If you try to push too far and your accuracy suffers and/or you begin to create additional unnecessary safety risks, you don't do yourself or your clients any favors. If you make a mistake which is unrecoverable you will have to start over, further delaying the delivery of the product, or you will have to deliver a substandard product. Neither of those options are beneficial to the paying customer, and both become significantly more likely the longer you continue to work after your performance starts to deteriorate. In the extreme case if you injure yourself pushing too long and too hard you will delay delivery of the product, have an additional medical expense, and possibly significant recovery time and/or reduced capability for a while. A solution may be to sleep a short time and get back to it, but I agree with him that it is better to stop before making big mistakes or causing injury than to try to meet a deadline. Anyone consistently in that predicament has either taken on too much work in too short a period of time or has been unrealistic with clients about how long it will take to make the product(s) - or they haven't managed their time well. I can't argue with anything else you mentioned though.

It's trickier than it would seem to make a karambit fit your hand properly. Your index finger is in the hole, so you only need enough room for the other 3 fingers in the handle portion. It also feels best in your hand if the ring is positioned so that your fingers all rest in a nearly straight line when holding the knife how it would be wielded. Here's a scan of a couple prototypes I made a few months ago. They are just rough ground, so the finish isn't great, but the dimensions are comfortable for me. karambits.pdf

The outer shell can be almost anything. I've used an empty refrigerant (freon) tank. Those can often be picked up for free at an HVAC or automotive shop that deals with air conditioning. I used an empty disposable helium tank for inflating balloons. Those tend to be about the same size as the refrigerant tanks. I've used a section of thin sheet metal. I've used part of a small grease drum (30 gallons I think) that I cut to the shape I wanted. I never did this, but at one point I considered snapping together 2 or 3 sections of stove pipe for a shell. If you build a frame to hold the burner and/or doors in place the shell doesn't need to be structurally sturdy. It's just there to help contain the fiber blanket and protect it from external damage. In extreme cases people have used chicken wire and rigidized fiber blanket to create a forge chamber. That's not a recommendation - just an example. When you're starting out it's hard to know which things are ok to substitute and which things should not be compromised. If you've done your research feel free to ask questions here and we'll let you know which ideas are viable and which ones should probably be abandoned.

The bricks you have are really only good for closing off the ends of the forge. As you've seen we have an extensive forge section here. Yes, using 2 layers of 1" thick 8 lb. density fiber blanket rated for 2300 degrees F or greater handles the insulating feature of a forge well. However, those layers ideally will be rigidized and definitely should be sealed with something to prevent airborne fibers that can get into your lungs. A lot of us use Kastolite 30 to both seal the fiber blanket and to provide armor against mechanical damage in the forge as we move pieces in and out. That material, or its equivalent, can handle the high heat and direct flame, it can take a fair amount of abuse, and it's somewhat insulating as well. The Rutland 2200 degree stuff is really not suitable for a forge. It is possible/likely that you will reach temperatures in excess of 2200 degrees F, and that material is made for joining pieces together, not to withstand direct flame impingement for extended periods of time. Most of us are rather frugal people. You can assume that if many of us are recommending the same materials then it is worth the expense. If any of us had found a significantly less expensive way to construct a durable, effective, and efficient forge we would have already shared that information with the group. Some of these materials seem pricey up front, but in the long run they pay for themselves.

Here you go: T Burner Directions finished.pdf

The bricks you have are not very good for a forge. The light bricks which can be cut easily using a dull handsaw or hacksaw are much better for this application. The bricks you have may be able to withstand the heat, but they will absorb and transfer heat at a significantly higher rate. That means more time to heat the forge interior and more fuel used both for the initial heating of the forge and maintaining the desired heat. Over time you will burn far more fuel, which will cost a lot more than purchasing the lightweight insulating firebricks if you choose to use what you already have.

Hmm. I tried knitting needles in my bottom blast forge, but they didn't meet my Grate Expectations.

Hmm. Do you suppose that's the reason they are quieter anvils than many other brands that used different techniques to weld the HC plate?

I don't comment much on topics like this where I have little knowledge and no experience, but I am following with great interest and I suspect many others are as well. I guess I'm just saying don't let the lack of comments dissuade you from posting new material. What you have shown us here is amazing and interesting. I'd like to see anything related to this topic that you're willing to share.

Justin, Those are high temperature mortars, They are designed to stick things like refractory bricks together. They usually do not function well when exposed to direct flame for long periods of time like we see in a forge. You may want to search for "kiln wash" at a ceramics/pottery supply store.

I think this is specifically in reference to ceramic belts in the lower grit range. The idea is that breaking the ceramic pieces creates new sharp edges for grinding. I'm not sure I buy into the concept much. I have a hard time understanding why the "new" sharp edges aren't continually formed while using the belt if it's valid. A fresh ceramic belt is a joy to work with and seems to nearly effortlessly remove steel, hardened or otherwise. However, I have yet to personally experience a worn belt returning to anything close to that new belt performance. I've used compressed air to clean some particles out and a rubber belt cleaning block to get some minor improvement on clogged/worn belts, but it's still nothing like a new belt.

Regardless of what else is true, if fiber blanket is rigidized and then covered (sealed) with a castable refractory (which is what we recommend), the chance of airborne particles escaping in the concentrations that cause health issues is negligible at best.

Jon, the short answer is that Owen and JLees blades are forged almost entirely to shape - including the bevels - before any grinding. That means there is a very small angle between the blade surface and the grinding belt when they finish the bevels. It looks like you left your blade a bit thicker, so in order to remove the needed material you had to use a steeper angle between the blade and the grinding belt. The effect of that steeper angle is a more defined line at the point where the "brut de forge" portion of the blade meets the ground portion.

My guess is B is your castable refractory, C is the bentonite clay. A and D do not appear familiar to me. However, testing is not too difficult. Take a small amount of each, add water, and mix. The castable refractory (assuming it's water setting) will set up fairly quickly - a few minutes to an hour. The bentonite clay should distribute the water equally throughout the material and become mud-like. It will not get hard or dry out quickly. Sand should not give you hard substance or a mud. Hope that helps.

Good thing you took the time to sort it out. A couple principles we live by in our business: If you're going to go broke it's always worse to do it while working yourself to death. In other words don't let fear of losing business by raising your prices make you both unprofitable and worn out. The other one is if you have more work available than you can handle then your prices are too low.

Keep in mind that copper transfers heat significantly more than steel does. You don't want your hand to be in contact with one end of the copper piece if the other end will experience higher temperatures than you want to hold in your hand.

So, the pipe you want to cut threads on is the gas input line and you also plan to use that for a threaded choke plate to spin on. Is that correct? There may be some threaded lamp pipe in the size you need.

At least you have an excuse, Jerry. Some of us can lose an item we had in our hands 30 seconds earlier without moving 3 paces - and have nothing reasonable to blame it on.

To my eye the discoloration you're referring to is due to cracks in the steel that you probably couldn't see before breaking the blades. That type of discoloration is associated with oxidation of steel, which means there had to be a way for oxygen to get to that part of the steel. That's usually an indication of getting the steel too hot or continuing to forge below the temperature at which you should be putting it back in the forge. I didn't see any of that in the bottom picture, but it was there in the top two. I agree that your grain structure appears to be coarse. Normalization is important for reducing grain size. For the first cycle it can be quite hot. This will create large grains, but it's more important to have uniform grain size at that point, so it's ok to go up even into the high end of the forging range for the first one. The next two should be at successively cooler temperatures with the last one being just past non-magnetic. This should give you uniform small grain size when you quench.

You can do a hollow grind with an angle grinder. You have to adjust the angle of the grinder to the steel to get the depth of the hollow grind. Also, the grinding wheel changes shape and size as you use it, so that creates some additional challenges. If you want to do it with any real precision you would need to build a rig that holds the grinder at the same angle and also keeps the grinding wheel in the same proximity to the knife edge. It's much harder than using a belt grinder with a contact wheel, but it can be done.

1095 benefits from a soak (time held at a specific temperature). It also needs a fast quenching oil to get the most out of it. Although it's a very common steel, especially in pattern welded blades, it's really not the best beginner steel. It's entirely possible that you did get the piece hot enough, but with the wrong quench medium it did not get hard enough to skate a file.

Break or brake? At least 3 different possibilities there.

I wouldn't rely too much on the tertiary flame color in open air (i.e. excess oxygen) to judge the atmosphere it would produce in a forge.

If you try to forge brass or copper that's also a major issue to keep in mind.

Good info. Thanks for sharing. I didn't really need another rabbit trail to run down, but now I've got one when I run out of things to do. That looks like less effort than some of the NARBs I've built, so if it functions as well or better overall I'm on board. I hope my latest one holds up for a while, but if it doesn't then I know what I'm going to try next.