Gijotoole

I've been a member of this forum for years but move frequently for work, so it's hard to meet other smiths. Is there anybody up in WA State near Tacoma/Olympia?

I use kast-o-lite 3k which I originally got from the internet. I made the first coat pretty thin, more of a slip than a mortar and then laid it on thick for the subsequent coats. I ended up not needing a rigidizer after all. I’ve fired both of my forge builds within a day or so of the final layer and have never had an issue. I did find that the first batch of k3k from the internet was really hard - really really hard - to cut through when I wanted to adjust my burner approach angle. The second forge that I built, and use now, was with k3k that I got from the internet. I recently built a PID controller for the T-Rex burner and had to drill a hole for my TC; cheap dewalt bits went right through. I have no complaints, though. The forge gets crazy hot crazy fast and I haven’t witnessed any damage to the chamber. The $70 in controller parts holds it within 3*C. I have the list of parts I used, for those of you who use an atmospheric burner and want a temp controller.

I'm moving soon; just wanted to see who's out there. I've been dabbling in sharp things for a few years but it's always nice to have the opportunity to check out a real setup/smithy/shop or event.

Yanagi-ba. Oops.

Well I brought my pattern-welded knife with me to Cambodia and decided to give it a test run - it fell apart. I'm not even sad about it; it was an excellent test of real-world use and it failed. I'll have to get better at it, I guess. On the other hand, the other knife I made from 5160 has been a beast and hasn't shown any real signs of wear other than a patina from use on the bamboo and hardwoods. The local people here really dig the fact that "this American dude makes knives". Thanks for the help, everybody.

Thanks, fellas. My wife hardly uses it because she's afraid of messing it up.

Thanks, fellas. Other side. Yes, I have a few marks on it from the stone and the polishing belt. I'll get them out sooner or later.

Not too impressive for most of you but I finished up a naganiba-style knife tonight for my wife. It's 1080 with a pheasant wood-copper-mun ebony handle. I couldn't give it the traditional blade style, though, because I don't have a wheel or stones up to 15k grit. I gave it a flag grind and a compound bevel to get it to work. The wife likes it so I'm happy. I just hope we can take care of it properly. On a side note; how many of you get some questions from a newb and just dig to give them all the answers and lessons you have and then get no response. I've gone through weeks of living on this and other forums to get the lessons or tips that I am searching for answers on and am immensely appreciative of the advice some of you experts have given me (Frosty, Glenn, Rich, and Stacy, to name a few) but some new guys just don't give back. sad face.

Ice been told that kastolite 3k is pretty resistant to flux, which is why I used it on my first forge, and so I went with it again for my new one. I have clad the incident of the forge with about 3/16 of k3k and gave it a layer of metrikote. I still need to make a kastolite floor brick, to hold pieces when I'm welding, but he's almost done. Carl.

Well, I figured that if I dip the eip cable in fecl3 it will get a patina. If it's stainless or galvanized then it won't. Bad news - the big cable is stainless. The smaller cable is carbon, but it's a bit small to do anything with. I think I'll give it another go and band a handful of cables together to make one bundle of four cables and see how that welds. After I finish building my new forge and get a burner in it, of course.

Ok, so I built (am building) a new forge out o a propane tank - I live on base and epitome are literally giving them away. I did it safe, though; I drained it, took off the valve, filled it with water and soap and rinsed a few times over a few days - no issues. Grabbed some supplies from htt and started packing yesterday. It has about 3" of kaowool with about 3/8" of kastolite 3k. I have a 1" burner coming from hybrid and plan to be burning next week. My old forge held up great with the k3k but it was too small. This new one has about 7" x 11" of chamber space and should let me get into the axe heads that I want to do. I'll post pics of it when it's more assembled.

Great discussion

I have ferric chloride. Will that tell me anything? I've read to only use FeCl3 and zinc outside.

Somebody told me that they think the cable I have is galvanized; how do I find out other than tossing it in the forge, which is outside, and seeing if the flame color changes? It is a 6x19 cable with two individual nylon threads that ran through its length - black and green, and they're removed now. Also, I have read on other forums that if I throw galvanized metal in the forge and the zinc melts then I'll probably never be able to weld because of the residue - I'm still looking into this. Cable in question pictured below. I can't get it to rotate for some reason.

I have kastolite 3000 refractory. It's not melting or anything, but I was worried that if I continued to *attempt* to weld then it will fall apart on me.