viking-sword

I used to experience the same problems but not so much anymore as I slowed down my pace of doing things just a bit. I used to just step up and grab a bit, chuck it up, and drill away, though I did make sure my speed of press was correct. Now , I take the time and examine a drill bit carefully each time I use one, making sure the angles are even and as sharp as can be. I also like to do a quick stoning and polish on the cutting edge, ( I usually sharpen with a drill doctor, which leaves a course grind), so I stone, using the same pitch and angle, and smooth out the course surface, and then put it on a finishing stone so that it's almost polished and man do they cut well. It's almost theraputic watching the bit do the very best it can. Aside frome that, make sure your tang is level, and , if your still buning up bits on an even semi soft tang then you need to slow the speed of the press down. It's important to go by the proper feed and speed tables. Thanks for letting me babble on, Wes

The day was no different starting out. Planning and cutting out materials for a few projuects, then on to forging some decorative stuff, no big deal. Well, last month the heating fuel, and then the money for it ran dry, so it's working cold for me, which means doors and windows all closed up, something I failed to notice when forging fo a few hours this am, till the headache and shortness of breath told me I needed to take a break, I really didn't feel good, and about four hours later my wife came home to find me in such a state, that she put me in the car and took me to the emergency room where I spent the next four hours on 100% oxygen and more tubes than you could shake a stick at. My CO level was way above 20%, and when they drew my blood it was really dark instead of the normal bright red, and I can't even begin to describe , or remember all I felt. Now, I'm dealing with a blinding headache that I'm told will last for a good while. So this is my warning to all metalmashers, keep the windows open and doors cracked, and live a little longer, in good health. Wes

Excuse me, but(no pun intended), a good propane burner will run on only 3 to 5 pounds of pressure, and I "Know" most of us here can muster up way more than that, and I'll bet a sizable amount of forging can be done before the fuel supply runs out.:):)

Though pressing out is a way to do this, a more common way is to cut out the appropriate size and shape it round and solder or braze a buttjoint closed and dress the joint, then cut out an end cap to fit and braze or solder that piece as well. Soft sheet iron may be soft, but does not have the ductility or sheer strength needed for this project. Just my two cents worth! Wes

Another source for almost everything a leatherworker may need( and I almost hate to mention it) is e-bay. You could concievably outfit yourself very well for very little if your not objectionable to this site as many are these days.

these art supply clays come in many different colors and are very useful in an unusual way, and what i mean is that i use it to do layering experiments, so that i can determine how a damascus billet will look when it is folded in different ways. this of course makes it disposable in the end, but it takes all the guess work out of the process and is a great way to see the end results.

The paper says we got 21inches in 11hrs, in conjuntion with the high winds, it messed up the area pretty good. The airport runways were covered with 6ft drifts. All schools closed and most businesses were as well, didn't get much forging or knifework done today though the way I'm feeling right now I just need a long soak in the tub and a long sleep. Wes

Glad to hear all is well Frosty. We experienced the blizzard of a lifetime here all night long, 50 plus mpd winds and heavy snow (whiteout). The old timers who have been here 60 plus years said they have never seen it this bad here before. Had my drive cleaned down to the gravel yesterday at 5pm and woke up to 4.4ft in the drive and the front of the house drifted in almost to the top of the door. took 3 hours to shovel a path for the 4x4 plow, and the next 5hrs using both shovel and plow to get one vehicle out to the road. We usually have bare ground and tons of rain this time of year, must be Al Gore and his global warming thats sitting in my driveway.

Hey to all you metalmashers over on the mainland AK! Have ya been getting any ash fallout? Kodiak is on the upwind side of the volcano, but were getting one xxxx of a blizzard at this time!!!! Wes

This is really good info for me as I live on an island with a lot if commercial fishing going on so folks are always bringing me long (8 to 10ft) used boat and ship prop shafts of stainless, from 1.5 to 2.5 inches diameter, which may be 30 years old but looks new, so I have a bog pile of these and I don't forge stainless, but now I have an idea of what to do with some of it, thanks, Wes.

I hate to type and run, as I'd like to chime in on this one a little more,. I've been running a BIII for the last ten years, and here lately the tracking has been giving me fits. I haven't had the time to delve into it completly to fix it, so I've had to resort to the perverbial quick fix of taking some masking or freezer tape and laying down a couple of rounds(layers) down the center of the idler wheel and it works like a charm in keeping the tracking acurate, It requires changing about once a week at the rate I use it anyway, and although it is temporary, it does do a good job for the time being. Wes

Thanks for the explaination, I thought it might be something like that. I'd imagine the nails used would wear away prematurly too as you couldn't use hardened nails and bend them on the hoof to secure them if they were hardened, so I guess it all works out the way it should. Wes

Been a blacksmith and knifemaker for twenty plus years, but never did any farrier work, and upon reading this thread my curiosity brought up the question of why, aside from cost perhaps, are horseshoes not made from a higher carbon steel than they are? Wouldn't it seem logical to make them from something that would wear a great deal longer and thus cut down on the frequent need for shoe replacement? Or does that fact compliment the need for regular maintenance as a horse hoof grows and wears? Sorry for my apparent lack of knowledge in this area, but I suppose there's only one way to learn(by asking questions). Wes

Been using bearing(52100) steel, from bearings, for a long long time. Most of my bearings come from large machinery or ships. A large majority of them are made by Timken, and they are all good quality. The main thing I've learned to watch for are the roller bearings that are tapered as they are almost always case hardened low carbon and so are thier races by the way, if you forge them out they are very good steel for most anything not needing to be hardened. A powerhammer is a most usfull thing to have for working bearings and thier races down into usable stock and a very bright orange will help the steel move much better, Proper normalizing and annealing right after finish forging will make all the difference in the world when you go to cleaning up, finishing or drilling, and is also paramount to heat treating a blade and avoiding cracking and warpage. Wes

You have recieved alot of good advise, but by listening to your last post, my only input would be that it sounds like you may have a stuck ball valve or perhaps a blockage somewhere in the fuel line. Both warrent checking out very carefully, perhaps even having the valves checked out, or, to narrow down the possibilities even faster maybe borrowing another valve or regulator that is known to be workig properly. if that doesent turn up a problem I would definatly take in the bottle itself and have someone certified check out the valve on the bottle, Just my two cents, Wes

Ten PSI! Wow, I've run my T- Rex burners for over ten years and I don't think I've ever had them up that high, even for forge welding. For general forging I usually run 3 to 5 psi. The thing you really need to watch is the positioning of the flame nozzle distance in relation to the air adjustment ports. It's a very crucial adjustment for proper air fuel mixture. I can't recall without the references, but I had to experiment to see how it worked best in my forge. I have a separate forge for damascus making and it's a horizontal tube and I run two T-rex's, they generally ruh at 6 to 7 psi. Wes

There all exactly right. I grew tired of doing searches not long ago and a few weeks ago I was speaking to Glenn and he happened to mentioned the Archives listing at the bottom of the page, which I rarley get to and so I looked into it and low and behold, I found a very interesting and enjoyable way to spend a few evenings while doing reasearch for the topics that interest me. What you will find is a huge listing of every concievable topics, and a whole lot of the same topics, and each one gives a little different angle to learn from, now, you know that I'm not trying to open your eyes to this because you've been here longer and contributide much more than most, including myself; so I guess I was putting this all down for all the new guy's(and gals) who would not normal find this valuable resource until much later in there wanderings through this site. When I do go through the archives, I generally make myself look into a whole lot more stuff than I would normally, and this gets the thought juices flowing alot. Keep up the posting JR no matter what it is! Wes

After sitting through a couple sessions of trying to sharpen all those teeth I am of a mind to think that's right! It's a pain! and since I now have a portable metal cutting bandsaw, I'll just stick to using my bi-metal blades on the wood bandsaw and using them for wood only. Wes

Just out of curiosity, would you happen to have any photo's, or references to photo's of some of your blades or those of Beu Hickory's pattern welded blades from that far back? I wold love to see some of those! Wes

You didn't mention what type of problems you were having with this method of HT as far end results, but I can Imagine what they might be. For starters, anytime you anneal, normalize, or quench for the hardening process, you must know what temp you are at each time ,as going by color alone is way too much of an uncertainty,and using a magnet is a much more certain way of knowing what temp you are at, you didn't mention one so I assumed you went by color alone. Another important consideration is the viscosity and temp of your quenching oil so you know if you have a fast or slow quench medium, generally 120 to 150F degrees is good and will give a proper hardness. Finally, when you temper the blade back the most accepted and successful formula is to temper at the proper temp three times for a length of at least two hours each time, allowing it to cool to room temp between sessions. For 5160 I temper at 350 to 400F degrees minimum, and this will give me a good tough edge that will not chip out during use. I'm sure many others will chime in with good advise, but if you need more info , please feel free to ask. Wes

Though I've done a search, I could find little on the subject about whether or not anyone tries to resharpen there used bandsaw blades. Over the years, as bandsaw blades go dull, I simply hung them on the wall and aquired new, fresh blades. I have a sixteen inch woodworking bandsaw from grizzly that I've had for nearly ten years, and I use bi-metal blades primarily so that I could cut nonferrous metals for guards and they range from 1/4 to 3/4 inch in width, but I can't see just throwing them away. New blades are not that expensive, but I just can't see not trying to make these used blades servicable again. I've attempted to resharpen one a couple times using a dremal tool with a chainsaw sharpening attachment, but they never seem to work that much better. Anyone out there have any experience with this? Wes

Bill Moran first went public with his pattern welded blade in 1972, but he spent a number of years prior experimenting and perfecting the method leading up to it. Wes