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will52100

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Posts posted by will52100

  1. Just finished this yesterday, 6/8 blade, 3" long, 400 layers of 1084 and 15&20 twist damascus, half hollow (smallest contact whee I have is 8"), maroon linen mycarta scales and spacer, brass pins and washers.  Shaves well, though it needs a little more stoning.

    This is my second razor, and while it's got a few things I would do different next time, it's not bad and a big improvement over my first.  The biggest thing is I want to get a smaller contact wheel and go for a 1/4 grind.

    I tried to get a decent pic of the edge thinness, but it's hard to see how thin it is.

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  2. Well, I've got a 2 and 3 pound and 7 pound, now I just need something in between like say 4-4 1/2 pound.  The larger the stock the easier it is, but I had a couple friends over a few weeks ago and we forged 3  and 3 1/2 pounders out of 1 3/8 axel shaft, just had to cut long and upset, kinda a pain, but that's the beauty of metal working, you make the material fit you, not you fit the material.

  3. I understand the difference, but the terms solder and silver solder and silver braze is used so indiscriminately now to describe several different heat and strength ranges that I ask for heat range any more instead of silver solder or braze just to be sure of what I'm getting.

    You are correct that -100 is not cryo in the proper sense of the word, but knife makers usefully use the term, incorrectly, for dry ice and kerosene as part of the heat treat.

    I never said I would not do an interference fit, just that I'd be cautious about it, namely that there is little reason to go -100 deg. when kitchen freezers will shrink it enough and not risk damaging a couple days work.

  4. Granted it's not as cold as liquid nitrogen, but it's still considered cryo and as long as you get the blade below -100 deg. it's still doing it's job.  I did not say it would not work, just that I would not risk it with stainless, or carbon steel for that mater, as blades below -100 are very brittle, and the sudden temp change of a hot guard could cause a fracture at the junction, and if you decide to give it a little tap to seat the guard it could fracture as well.  20-25 degree in the kitchen freezer on the other hand will cause enough shrinkage to allow an interference fit with a guard that has been warmed to 200 deg. in an oven to slip on without undue stress to the blade, or taking skin off while your doing it.  This is supposition from not wanting to break a blade and not taking chances on something I've got a couple days work in.


    I was talking about silver braze, not solder, ruining the heat treat and unless you can find a braze that will remain solid at 2000 deg then don't do it before heat treat either.  Silver solder, or low temp solder, is fine, and done rite will not ruin the temper of most any knife out there.  Most times I simply wrapped a wet paper towel around the blade to prevent heat transfer if needed.  There are various low temp solders out there, but I don't know of any off hand that will flow at below 350 deg. and work and look rite for a guard, but it wouldn't surprise me overmuch if they exist.

  5. I am no expert by any means on stainless, do only a handful every so often as I much prefer carbon steel.  Anyway, I would not sub zero a blade and slip a hot guard on, might be OK, but could cause the stainless to fracture at the junction from thermal expansion.  Like I said, it might work, but my experience with cryo shows that the critical point is not the cooling down, but the warming back to room temp where if it's shocked it likes to break.  Should work fine at regular refrigerator/freezer freezer temps and warming the guard.

    I'm not up on stainless braze, I use silver braze on some applications like adding on to a stick tang, but all I've used flows in the 1400-1500 deg range and the last stainless blade I heat treated was at 2000 deg. so it would not work to braze the guard before heat treat, and would damage the heat treat post heat treating.  I have seen stainless guards made of the same material as the blade TIG welded on with strips of blade metal prior to heat treat.  Good idea to check the temp ranges to make sure everybody is on the same page as to solder/braze.

  6. The solder is less important than a flux that will etch the metal.  Regular old past flux won't cut it on higher alloy and stainless steels, and a good solder like stay brite will not only flow well and have more holding strength than lead solder, but it stays bright and shiny longer instead of turning grey.

    I've never used a solder stop, but I would be willing to bet that the sharpie trick works well as it came from a maker that I respect both as a person and there craftsmanship.  If they say it works then I'd be willing to give it a try.  I have a feeling it's pretty much doing the same thing.  Also, I have sharpies on hand, would have to go and buy solder stop.

    The argument on tanto's is unending.  What your talking about and others are is the American tanto vs. the traditional.  Or as some would call it, a knife with a tanto point.  I love the traditional blades, and really don't much care for the American tanto, but if that's what you want to make then there is no rules saying you can't, so call it what you want and make what you want.

  7. I would not recommend making tongs to a beginner, but I myself do recommend learning how.  Maybe not in the first 10 things to learn, but it's a good skill to have.  I've probably got 40 tongs, and it never fails I do't have the one I need at some point and have to make one.  A good place to start is the Quick Tongs.  I know the purist will poo poo them, but it's the kind of idea that I wish I'd come up with.  And if it wasn't for the shipping cost I'd have a dozen or so just sitting around waiting for the next time I needed a new set for something.  That said, I figured its faster and easier for me with a treadle hammer and power hammer to make a jig to knock out what I need than to burn them out of plate with the torch.  I do not particularly like making tongs, but I'm too broke to run out and pay 40$ for a set that may or may not fit exactly what I need it for, and to wait for the mail to deliver it.  I'm also not overly concerned about making them pretty.  I do as good a job as I can, but there are some people out there that have elevated it to an art form, I just want them to be comfortable, hold securely, and last a long time.  I do try and make each one better than the last, but I don't get crazy if it's not quite as pretty as some people's tongs.

  8. Squared it up on the press, then punched and drifted by hand, did the cheeks and indents and round face on the treadle hammer.  My knee was aching for a couple of days, it did not seem to want to move.  Best I can tell, it's 1045, or close to it.

  9. Just finished this the other day, forged from 3" hydraulic shaft, man that 3" thick stuff is a lot harder to move than 2 1/2"!  Anyway, it works great and is fast becoming my favorite hammer.

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  10. For welding?  Actually, pretty much zero, at least in theory.  Your not squashing the metal together to make it weld, your getting everything in contact so that it can weld.  In reality, however, even if you run the pieces through a surface grinder you've got irregularities and imperfections, not to mention flux or crud that needs to be squeezed out, so you need to squish everything together.  Check out vacuum welding for more info, it's the oxides that keep a hammer set down on a steel table from welding at room temp, if it was perfectly clean in a vacuum it'd be tack welded just from contact, this is a real issue NASA has.  One of the ways I was taught to forge weld, and I teach other's to forge weld, is to make "frontier damascus", just start with a large piece of steel, put a slightly smaller piece on it and bring up to heat and weld with the hammer.  It shows that it doesn't take much force, as all your really doing is getting the metal into solid contact with each other.  Heavy hammer blow, or a 50 ton press will not weld any better if it's not at temp and clean, than just heavy enough blows to squish crud out and bring the metal into contact.  If your pieces are clean and fairly flat, it really doesn't take much force at all to weld up solid.

    4.5 ton will do it, (I've seen people weld small billets in a bench vise) but I'd likely do two welding heats or more.  You'll have to learn your machine.  When I built my press I've got it set for 20 ton, though I could crank it up to 25.  I primarily weld with it and do some forming, but mainly welding and doing mosaic damascus.  I really recommend 20 tons or more, with a two stage pump, not for welding, but for welding larger billets and other operations, and with a press it's always a balance between speed and pressure, read up here and else where, James Batson's "Build your own hydraulic forging press" has a lot of good info, and there are a lot of work in progress presses out there.  Build heavier than you think it will need and it might be strong enough.

     

  11. I don't do much soldering anymore, if my fit is tight enough I do a solderless press fit with JB weld as a sealer.  The shoulders keep the guard from going forward, the handle keeps it from going back, the solder or JB weld keeps out moister.  Done rite, both have plenty of strength without a handle and should not just tap loose.

    First, lose the plumber's solder and get something like Stay Bright silver solder.  You can solder with lead/tin, but it'll grey out and doesn't like higher alloy steels, especially stainless, and you need a stronger flux.  Next, make your joint as tight as possible with a little room at the back, and surgically clean and bright.  Sounds like your heating correctly, the way I do it is to clamp the blade sideways and heat from the back side of the guard with a strip of solder on the front side.  I take a strip of solder, about 1/32" diameter, lightly run it through some 220 or 320 sandpaper to take any oxides off, bend into a U shape and fit as close to the joint as I can.  Wet with liquid flux, it comes with the kit, and heat till the solder flows.  Don't over heat.  After all is said and done and I've scraped the guard close with a brass chisel and clean up a bit I boil in a can of water with baking soda to kill any flux residue.  If you don't you could have trapped flux and it'll weep out and cause rust spots in the future.  After that I finish everything up.

    The aggravation of going back over a blade and solder joint to finish and having to neutralize acid flux is one reason I've went to solderless guards.  The only one I don't do it on is the Loveless style full tang guard that fits into a notch on one side and is open at the top, I haven't been able to get as close a fit as I want for solderless yet.

  12. Nothing fancy, one I did several years ago for my wood heater.  Just a turned red oak handle. drilled a 3/8 hole most of the way through, tapered the end of the poker and squared it, ground off the scale and epoxied it in place.  I set it up so the epoxy would have a little room, and the start of the square taper is just inside the drilled hole of the handle for a tight fit.  Been working good for 7-8 years now.  Wish I'd done an oil finish on the handle, but so far the poly is doing OK.  If I was to do a fancy version I'd likely make ferrules and use something other than red oak.

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