TheGreenMan

Not as much good stuff in the pile as I first thought. A decent amount of small diameter rods and a few bricks with the bulk being dust/soil. I got a bit of biased look at it earlier, I guess the good stuff was mostly buried by the time I got there. I grabbed a few bits of rod and bricks, maybe two 5 gallon buckets worth. I'll find some use for it. ThomasPowers, the highest I've ever seen were two meters I grabbed off a junk pile that measured from 0 - 4000 amps. And I thought that was a lot! HojPoj, I sent you a PM about some bricks.

I think I know the answer but I'd like to put it past yinz as well. For the next couple of days I'm going to have access to literally tons of carbon (graphite) rods, plate, fabric and block. Much of it is chipped and broken but some is in nice condition. All of it is in smaller, easily managed sizes (blocks are mostly the size of two regular bricks put together). Would the block be of any use in a forge? Or would it, as I suspect, 'suck up' too much of my heat? If nothing else I'll have plenty of sacrificial anodes for electrolysis.

I found a source on Amazon for bone charcoal. It is about 1/2 the price of what the gunsmithing sites sell. It is marketed as a fertilizer. Since it was cheap I ordered some to check it out. According to the seller it is 100% bone charcoal. Looking at it now I have it it seems to be finer than what I have seen in the few pictures I found online with a decent amount of 'dust'. I have not run it through a sieve. Once it gets warm again and I can work on getting my new kiln up and running I'll test it out on a few scrap pieces of low carbon steel.

For a partially exhaustive ramble through the trials and tribulations of color case hardening and some experimentation of different techniques here is a 31 page thread about it: http://www.marlin-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3732&sid=5f79e004accccedbd5a49cb0bf4e9fea Very nice, if long, read. After doing some looking it seems that the 'finer' size of charcoals is what I am looking for. The pieces look to be around 2mm-ish to 10mm-ish in size. The patterning of the color doesn't seem to be a direct result of the size of the charcoal. The small size may just be a good way to limit the initial oxygen content in the crucible? The color seems to be more effected by the ratios of stuff packed around the metal, the amount of turbulence in the water used for the quenching/shielding around the metal, the temperature of the water and the oxygen content of the water. At least that is what I get from reading the posts at the link.

I was looking to mess around with color case hardening a bit. I am hoping someone has a local (to Cincinnati, OH) source for bone black/bone charcoal. Or an online place that isn't prohibitively expensive on price and shipping. I think I can just use the wood charcoal for grilling from the local hardware store though I will probably need to crush it to a smaller size, and it may be more expensive than in bulk. But at least it is available close. Brownell's sells both but for $120 for 125 lbs. of the bone black and $44 for 10 lbs. of the wood plus shipping.... They say that they have bone black in 10x28 sieve size and wood in #6 size. But to crush the wood charcoal to the correct size I need to know the size. What inch size would those be? As a geologist I use mesh size too. Would a #6 sieve equal #6 mesh at about 0.13''? I cannot find a picture of their product to even guess. As to 10x28 sieve size ..... no clue. Maybe they mean most of the material is caught on a #10 to a #28 mesh?

On a work site recently I pulled about 80 pounds of copper 'wire' out of an old transformer. I use the term "wire" rather loosely as it consists of about 8 mm x 4 mm and 4 mm x 4 mm 'wire'. I'm trying to think of something I can use this for. Or looking for someone who can use it before I take it in and get scrap prices for it at the local yard. If anyone in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky/Dayton area would like this let me know and we can work something out. Trade for materials, cash, old firearm stuff, what not. Barring someone wanting it any interesting ideas for uses? Besides some abstract sculpture I can't really think of anything.

Any one here from the Cincinnati/Dayton area? I'm looking to get a new brick for my 1 brick forge. I ruined the old one from moving it so much and I was making mokume gane so I can't try my hand at welding in it anymore even if I 'glue' it together. I can't find anyone locally who has them (it is driving me nuts, black powder was easier to find). And at $11 - $47 for shipping a local source would save some money. The only thing close is a pottery place that has the curved ones with groove for elements. I used them last time but it was not an ideal solution. Heck is there anyone around that has an extra brick I could buy off of 'em?

I found these foe sale online and was wondering if you all thought it would be worth buying one? From the add: These handy knives [from Nepal] saw their height in use during the muzzle-loading era; perfectly sized to cut away the excess patch material before loading. These hand-forged antiques have genuine stag handles and were probably carried in kukri pouches by the Royal Guard of Bhimsen Thapa. There is great variation as you would expect after all these years, but they are generally 6 1/2" to 7 1/2" overall, with blades ranging from 2 3/4" to 3 1/4". Sorry, no selection. Very Good condition. They have them for $35. I already bought 2 rifles from the same company (though not muzzle loaders) and they are good at telling you what you will be getting, positive and negative. I attached a representative pic.

Why are you asking your self?

I'm off on a job so I'm not near my computer much so I don't have as much time to visit as I normally do. If you go to the link you should be able to at least read the posts there. They give a lot more info than I have and go into some greater discussion as to the cause than I did. This is the only crack in the receiver. There is no indication that the receiver was hit or torqued by anything (meaning no dents or scratches of any significant size). The headspace has not been checked to see if there was any small set back to the bolt. There was no easily noticeable set back and the bolt still travels freely in its raceways.

I think this may be the best place to post this. If not please put it in the correct area. There is a discussion going on at a firearms forum I visit about what caused a crack in a 1942 German WWII rifle. There has been some debate about it being a stress crack from the heat treating, a crack cause by too much pressure from an overloaded cartridge causing the bolt to be set back and putting undue stress on the receiver bridge, from the receiver hitting something/being twisted or a combination of the above. I was wondering if any of you could shed some light on this interesting little puzzle. The thread is located here. If you can not see the pics without signing up I will see if I can post a few here.

Or you do what I do and pick them up off of deactivated tracks. (And the occasional random ones laying in the gravel by my work places ;-) .)

Sounds like a knife blank for a Gundam.

I kinda figured out a way to replicate it. I bought a "Tungsten Carbide Cutter" for my Dremel tool that gives similar looking results.

Not to steal the thread or anything.....well OK I'm stealing it. I found this picture of a mokume gane ring and have been trying to think how the texture was done. I can't think up with the technique. I probably just don't have the correct tools to do this nor even know what the tools are. I did give it one try: Being hands on I made up a ring 'blank' (a thin strip ready to be bent into a ring) of mokume gane out of quarters and some copper sheet I had lying around. I tried just drilling some closely/randomly placed holes of different sizes and then acid etched after protecting the back sides and some of the high points of the blank. Didn't really work. It looks a little too much like a manufactured moon surface than the random canyon look. If I can find the camera I'll try and take a picture of my try. Photo property of James Binnion