Buzzkill

OBS, this doesn't seem to be getting through to you. We'll be happy to look at a picture, but the main issue it molten iron/steel. It's NOT just a slightly more advanced version of casting aluminum. I've done a minor amount of that and I would not dream of attempting casting iron or steel at home. The size of the project is irrelevant. Even if you only wanted to cast a steel ingot the size of your thumb it's still something that requires far more knowledge and far better PPE than casting most of the common non-ferrous metals. Can you do it at home without killing or maiming yourself? Maybe, but the risk factor is far higher than with the aforementioned metals. At the very least if you don't know what you're doing you'll probably just end up burning the iron or steel and making it completely unusable. Melting and pouring steel is in a completely different category than heating steel up into its plastic state and moving it around with a hammer, and it's also way different than casting non-ferrous metals with significantly lower melting points. We're not trying to discourage you from reaching your goals. We're trying to convince you not to tackle something you are unprepared to handle which will likely result in injury or death to you or others around you.

So.... he's on a boat? This whole thing is turning into the comedy of errors. Must be Friday.

Ahh, so that's how you made your outrageous fortune. I'm pretty sure than means other people are suffering due to your contribution to slings and arrows though. Still, it's noble enough in my mind.

In my mind it is nobler to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them, but each to his own I guess.

I was going to try a particular quench medium I heard about, but I'm having trouble finding a red-headed vegan. I think that's who I'm supposed to follow around with a urine collection bottle anyway. Or maybe it was red-headed virgin. I get confused sometimes.

I've had pretty good results from sprinkling/pressing sawdust or very small chunks into the epoxy while it's still sticky and then sanding it off after it sets. I don't usually mix it into the epoxy originally. These gaps are usually no more than about a millimeter wide though. Looking back through your pics I'd guess that knife is a little handle heavy. The tang appears to be noticeably thicker at the end than the blade. It's a personal preference thing I suppose, but I usually taper the tang thinner from the ricasso back on the tang and also forward to the point of the knife. For me this seems to produce a better balance and a lighter knife overall.

For small gaps between components you can usually take some sanding/grinding dust from the material you were working with and mix it with epoxy to make the spaces less noticeable. I agree with JHCC on pretty much everything he said. On the guard I would take a round file, half round file, or a small contact wheel on a grinder and put more of an inside curve where your index finger would be in use. If you do that and radius the edges a little afterwards it should both look and feel a little bit better.

@Buzzkill : can you post some pictures of your burner please ? (or refer me to a thread if it's already done.) Thanks. Unfortunately no. I went back to naturally aspirated burners so I don't have to drag extension cords around since I forge outside but store the equipment inside. I've disassembled the blown burner and used portions of it in other projects.

I've used blown burners, but not that specific design. IMHO he made that way more complicated than it needed to be. It's like he was mixing a naturally aspirated burner with a blown burner. There is no need to introduce the fuel in that way. The fuel just needs to mix with the air. It doesn't need anything precise in a forced air burner. The only thing having a small orifice on the gas inlet does for you is create pressure at the regulator, which (if you have a gauge on it) makes it easier to take notes on how much pressure you used to get a certain result. In a forced air burner it's really only about the volume of fuel gas, not the pressure. It doesn't matter if the fuel is introduced by a MIG tip or other small orifice at high pressure or a 1/2 inch open end pipe at nearly no discernible pressure. It takes the right amount of fuel with the right amount of air mixed together to burn properly and produce the heat. Just about anything else is irrelevant. The flame holder disk he welds in the end of his tube isn't really necessary either, but it may provide some benefits. Personally I like to be able to adjust the air on the outlet side of the blower. To me it seems you have more control. Forced air burners are about as simple as it gets. There's no need to turn them into a major project. As far as reaching welding heat goes, there should be no trouble reaching that temperature as long as the fuel and air sources can provide enough of each. Containing the heat produced is another matter, which comes down to forge shape and materials. That will also have a major impact on the efficiency, but in general it takes a certain amount of fuel with the right amount of air to produce a desired amount of heat. Yes, some designs, like ribbon burners, sip the fuel at a lower rate than burners with a single larger opening, but the theory is that the reduced flame speed allows the heat to remain in the forge longer before being pushed out. Not having used this specific design, I don't know if his flame holder creates a similar effect to ribbon burners or not.

Again, it depends on what you want to do at the time. My opinion is that two half inch burners could be almost ideal for that size forge. Use them both when bringing the forge up to temp or forge welding, but shut one off or turn them both way down when only forging temperatures are needed. When welding I run nearly twice the psi that I do when forging.

This may depend on exactly what you want to do. Two half inch burners evenly spaced will provide more even heat inside the forge compared to a single 3/4 inch burner. However, sometimes a "hot spot" is desirable. For reference sake, my current forge is a freon tank using the same materials you describe. However I cut it lengthwise and cast a flat floor, so I may have a little less volume than you will have. I use a single 1/2 inch Frosty T burner and I have forge welded 1095/15N20 in it. I close off the pass through opening in the rear and leave only enough room to move the billet in and out at the front when forge welding, but I have been successful. It takes longer to come up to temperature than it did with the 3/4 burner I had in there before, but I'm not burning nearly as much fuel this way.

I'm amazed! It's just further proof that it's the craftsman rather than the tool that makes it happen. We need to make one of these for Jerry and call it Frosty's Revenge. Taking the skin of the critter that injured you and using it in a beautiful handmade tool would have to provide some satisfaction.

Just keep in mind there are two general categories of fumed silica: hydrophobic and hydrophilic. You want hydrophilic.

Dang Charles. Your broke the head off of horses?!?!? And I thought you had a fondness for the equine critters.

I actually meant welding a piece of high carbon steel to the horseshoe, but if you have hard facing rod or something else that will hold a good edge you could just run a bead or two of that on what would become the cutting edge and then forge it out.

While forge welding may be the preferred way to put high carbon on, it's not the only way. Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Hobart can also help here. Knife blades should be a quarter inch thick or less, and if you prepare the pieces properly then weld from both sides you should be able to create a solid piece of steel. Then just forge out your welds and the cutting edge. It's unlikely it would even be noticeable unless you etch the piece. Of course that assumes you have access to a welder.

If this is accurate then the MIG tip orifice is WAY too big for the diameter of burner tube you are using from what I've seen. Usually the 0.030 or 0.035 tips are seen for 3/4" tubes. For that size forge we normally see one or two 3/4" burners, or sometimes two 1/2" burners.

Is what you're describing happening inside the forge or outside? It makes a difference.

As long as it doesn't make you drool too.....

Welcome to the forum Irzy. You jumped into the deep end of the pool rather than wading around a bit. I understand your enthusiasm, but you could definitely benefit from slowing down a little bit and doing some reading on here. If you are dead set on making knives right away you should spend some time in the knife making classes section of the forum. Beyond that, you most likely made a knife-shaped object (KSO) rather than an actual knife. Unless you happened to grab a piece of steel with about 60 points of carbon or more it will probably not hold an edge very well at all. Even if you did work on a hardenable piece of steel, unless you know what alloy you are working with it will be hit or miss with the heat treatment unless you do some tests for mystery steel to determine what works best for it. As for moving the metal, I've never really subscribed to the "let the metal do what it wants" mindset. I understand it a little, but the point of blacksmithing is to make the metal do what you want it to do. That means you have to learn what happens when you hit it and then plan accordingly. Modeling clay can give you a fairly good idea of what will happen to steel in its hot plastic form. You can "stretch" the steel in a given direction by the use of different types of peen hammers and/or fullers for instance. I commend you on getting a general knife shape on your first try though. Chances are you are now a steel smashing addict. We're the support group It's hard to tell because of the bright sunlight, but I'm not sure your forge is quite as hot as it should be, and if you haven't at least rigidized that ceramic blanket you should do so to avoid breathing microscopic particles that will eventually cause you breathing problems. Another thing to consider is if you plan on working material longer than your forge you may want to put a pass-through opening in the rear for those pieces. You can always cover it with fire brick when it's not needed. In short, grab a comfy chair, something cold to drink, a few snacks, and spend some time reading through the topics that interest you the most. There is an amazing amount of good information on this forum, but you have to do some digging to find what you want. The search function on here is not ideal, so many times it's easier and better to add "iforgeiron.com" (without the quotes) to your desired search term in the web search engine of your choice to have a good chance of finding what you're looking for. Good luck, thanks for the pics, and we look forward to seeing your progress.

Mikey, I have a question regarding re-emission. In the course of your research on all this did you ever look at different forge shapes in the context of focusing the IR re-emissions? I'm thinking of something like the effect of a satellite dish or a focusing mirror. I'm not even sure it would be desirable to have a tight focus, but I am curious to know if you ever went down that rabbit trail and what you found out if you did.

Oh, we're definitely all flocked up here!

Well, don't I feel like a Dodo? Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I probably better stop now. I don't need more Egrets. After all, two err is human, but three err.... well I'm not sure about that one.

It's easy. Continent birds are non-migratory. Toucan play at that game.

...'bout the girl with kaleidoscope thighs.... Not my fault. I told her about the bruises she'd get from that anvil orientation.