MattBower

He probably wasn't joking about the magnetic north thing. There's an awful lot of superstition out there when it comes to heat treating blades. This isn't the first time I've heard that one.

There's a company in England that's recycling antique wrought iron. They call themselves the Real Wrought Iron Company. I linked to them above. In The Art of Blacksmithing, Alex Bealer talks about some Swedish company still making new wrought iron -- but that book is over forty years old. You won't find a source for new production wrought iron outside of a few small groups of nutty fanatics who make their own in bloomeries -- and usually don't sell it. (I've tried once, and I'll be giving it another shot this winter.) If you do, let me know. Pure iron is quite expensive, and from what I've read it's different from wrought in a number of ways. (It corrodes much more quickly than wrought, for one thing.)

BTW, if all else fails you can buy some from Darren Ellis: Wrought Iron - Ellis Custom Knifeworks

"Wrought iron" is what you're looking for. The term "wrought iron" has a couple different meanings. These days, folks who don't know any better use it to refer to any decorative ferrous metal that has been forged -- or looks forged. But traditionally it referred to (normally) low carbon iron containing stringers if siliceous slag. "Wrought" referred to the process by which it was made, not the process by which it was worked into useful items. When I say you're looking for wrought iron, I'm using it in the second sense -- the one every blacksmith should use. It's still pretty common stuff in many parts of the country (perhaps less so near you than in certain other parts of the country), if you know how to identify it. Good info here: Realwroughtironco : About Wrought Iron : About Wrought Iron

I have the same drift, and Wayne Dunlap's helves fit pretty well. DUNLAP-EZCLEANER If you don't see what you want, ask. He has 'em in just about every kind if wood you can imagine. I don't really know how ordering works, though; I just walk into his shop and he helps me root around for what I want. :)

Speaking of thickness, Col. H, could I possibly prevail upon you to post a photo of that blade edge-on, preferably with something (dime, penny, ruler) in the picture for scale? And could you tell us what it weighs? I was talking to a Japanese blade fanatic the other day, and he expressed the opinion that European swords (he singled out the Vikings, though Norse would be a more accurate word) were just big, heavy, unsophisticated bashing instruments. I know that's not at all true, but data helps. And I'd consider it very edumacational for my own part, too.

Yeah, you're using the wrong magnets. Ceramic, alnico and rare earth magnets aren't quite as fragile as the ones you're using. (But overheating them will rob them of their magnetism, so don't overdo it. All you need is very brief contact -- or maybe none at all in some cases.)

I use newspaper, small pieces of dry wood kindling, coke from the last forging session and a gently increasing air blast, per the blueprint. Don't be afraid to use plenty of newspaper. I usually use four or five sheets. I've never had any troubling getting the fire to take since I learned this method.

Vinegar works really well. Hot vinegar works even better. It needs a light assist from an abrasive, such as a Scotch Brite pad. It doesn't go "rancid" in the sense of spoiling. It does lose its oomph fairly quickly, but vinegar is cheap. Just replace it and move on.

Never mind. Somehow I missed the fact that there was a second page before I popped off with my questions.

I wondered about that. I can currently only access a couple hundred blueprints, but I've read here in the past that there are lots more....somewhere.

In Virginia, sales tax "must be separately stated and added to the sales price or charge." I think that's the general rule in most states -- certainly many of them, in any case -- so if you're not certain of what your state's laws are it may be worth checking. (And BTW, I'm not a law enforcement officer and I personally don't have a dog in the fight. I just want to mention this for the benefit of those who might not know, and who would care if they did know. So don't shoot the messenger.)

Yikes. Now that's scary. By the way, I don't think the average respirator is going to cut it against phosgene. NIOSH Document: Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards: Phosgene | CDC/NIOSH

Very interesting. I wish the headline didn't say that they "shaped" stone tools with fire. What the author means is that they used fire to make stone easier to shape. Much like annealing steel, really. Modern knappers sometimes do the same thing with tougher rocks. There's an old myth that American Indians made tools by dripping water onto hot stone, causing flakes to spall off. Pure hogwash. The headline kinda plays into that.

I can see it fine. General rule: If you can't get rid of the scratches with the paper you're using, you need to switch to something coarser!

Slightly OT, but a guy I know collected many tens of pounds of swarf from a key cutting machine, on the understanding that all key stock was nickel silver. He was planning to melt it down into ingots. I felt a little badly pointing out to him that I have a bunch of keys on my key ring, and exactly one of them looks like it might be NS. (The ignition key for my 15 year-old Nissan.) The shiny silver ones are largely nickel plated brass, which becomes obvious when the nickel starts to wear. My guess was that if he melted it all down he'd get brass with a very small amount of nickel in it -- and a whole bunch of dross.

"Ironwood" is a name that has been applied to somewhere north of a hundred different species of trees. I assume the scales on this knife are desert ironwood, which is an extremely slow-growing, dense, hard species from the Sonoran desert in Arizona, part of California, and Mexico. The Illinois ironwood is probably hophornbeam. You might have some sort of hornbeam going there in Texas as well, Kevin. Or any number of other things (including mesquite). Nice knife!

If it bothers you that much, why not just burn it off and give it another whirl?

Did you use a different oil than you normally do?

Bending 90 degrees in a vise is a test of your heat treating and blade design ability, not a benchmark of how real working knives should behave in the real world! The only things I'd say about your HT routine is that 1095 needs to go a bit above non-magnetic, and it needs to soak for a few minutes to really get all the carbon into solution. This is hard to do well with primitive equipment, though. (I can't do it at the moment, which is why I prefer 1080ish steels.) As long as you're happy with your results, that's OK with me.

I had one of these tested a while back. It was 0.51% carbon and 0.80% manganese, and not much else. 1050, in other words. Which is about the same as what the old-time Japanese swordsmiths were working with, except their steel had little or no manganese. You ought to be able to get it to 60 RC or better as-quenched, but you'll need water or a very fast oil. (Canola is fairly fast if it's hot -- say 130 F or so. I doubt you'll get 100% full hardness in canola, but then you're a lot less likely to wreck the blade, too.) Wear resistance probably won't be outstanding at any hardness. It'll should give you a really nice hamon if you clay quench it, especially in water. That's if it survives. :)

Yeah, if you're talking about the carbonized oil finish, it's not really ideal for blades. Rust bluing is a favorite of mine for fittings and such. I'm not sure how durable it'd be on a blade, though.

It just depends how thick you put it on. If possible I like to heat the piece with a gas forge or propane torch, take it out of the forge and, while holding it, "spritz" it lightly with oil. It seems to help me get an even coat without runs and dribbles.

Yep. It's reasonably durable.

Sure. Applying oil or wax to hot steel is a pretty commmon blacksmith's finish. But it sounds like you knew that. What's the issue? The fact that it turned black? It's supposed to do that.