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I Forge Iron

Gijotoole

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Posts posted by Gijotoole

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

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  8. BLUF: I have a .375" thick piece of *tough* stainless steel. Can I use this as a floor to keep my flux from eating my forge?

    So my (homemade) forge is pretty small - about 200 ci of usable space insulated with 2" all-around of wool and another .75" of refractory (kastolite). I did my first welded blade about a month ago with not-so-great results (didn't get it hot *enough* for consistent, complete welds throughout). I would like to continue to practice my welding, but want to save my floor. I don't have access to kiln shelving for the floor and probably can't use it anyway because it would take all the remaining space. I'd imagine that the stainless would keep the flux away from the billets and give me some help with retaining some heat under the billet for the reheats. I'm trying to not have to build another forge just for welding.

    The stainless is found and is remarkably tough - eating through my cutoff wheels with ease. I'll probably end up cutting it with my torch.

    Thoughts?

  9. So I know a guy that works in a shipyard and he got me about 20' of brand new cable from their cranes and winches. I told him I'd try to weld him a knife if he can get me "some cable" but he really went above and beyond. When I get back home I'm going to see what I can do with it. It's almost all about 3/4" or 1/2" so it might be a bit small, but I think I can at least get some practice with welding it. My last pattern welded blade didn't turn out right - probably because I didn't get it quite hot enough and had some flux inclusion problems.

  10. Word. I have a separate smaller HT oven (2x k30 IFBs from a kiln that I use ICW a propane torch) for my hardening/normalizing. It's way faster than heating up the forge and I can use the propane torch to give it a nice even heat and then leave it to cool.

  11. Good point. I have PLENTY of grinding to do. The edge is almost 1/8" thick, so there's room for waves. It's normalizing in the forge right now and I have 24hr duty tomorrow so I'll have to wait until Sunday to start grinding. After another round of normalizing, of course.

  12. I decided to make it easy - 28 layers with (so far) good welds. Here is what I hammered out today. Lessons: 1. keep metal hot and close to if not at welding temp to prevent delaminating at the edges. 2. Ensure the tip is curved hard down to the cutting edge before forging to make sure it reaches knife shape after hammering the bevel. 3. Don't breathe borax.image.jpeg.5e255c023c19c69092705d0d96de0

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