Gijotoole

We have a grainger on the island that sells that stuff, I think. I'll look into it. Pattern welds are a disease, I believe. I'm already looking at what else I can get ahold of to make another billet. Does anybody know how hard it is to forge weld stainless? I have a bunch of 316 (or something similar) that people have given me thinking I could use it on something. I've made tongs with it, but that's it.

I got a new rounding hammer just for this occasion and know a guy at the shipyard to try to get some crane cable for cable Damascus. I have the lumber for the stand but need to get it assembled and treated. I have to keep her outside so I need to find a way to protect her from daily rains and weather. So much to do with so little time! I just want her to be happy..

On another note, my Nimba Titan just shipped today! I guess I'll have to start a new billet when that gets here - an inaugural project.

Agreed that more round than square is preferable for twists - I have a billet that is more wide than tall at the moment so square-ish is a starting point. The steel I started with was 1.5" wide and I'd like to get it back to that for the final shape. It'll probably be a small blade, though, because I'm not too good at moving metal with the hammer at the moment and anticipate some serious grinding at the end. I'll be away from the house for a few days but I'll see what happens when I get back. Thanks for all the advice.

Thanks, guys. I'm thinking I'll just forge my billet into a square-ish bar and then give it a couple twists before flattening it back out to the knife shape. Heap, do you let your stock rest in vermiculite or just sit in the forge to anneal it? I usually keep my coil-spring knives in the forge overnight and it seems to do the trick - I haven't had any go crazy since doing that. i have some Koa and some monkey pod sitting around so I'll probably try to do the handle with that. I'll post pics of the final product when it's close to completion/done for group critique.

I'm planning on making a small blade with it - something like a mora-type knife. I didn't know if a twist - I'd like to try that one - would yield a good blade at such a low layer count. I figured that, with 1095 and 15N20, I wouldn't have a big issue with carbon migration. This is more of a "first-time try" at this new method than a "beginning of production" process. I've been a stock-removal guy since I first failed at forging (coil springs) while in Germany a couple years ago but with good known material flat stock and an understanding wife I've been able to start hammering again. Right now I have something that looks like this but cleaned-up.

BLUF: is there a minimum layer count that I should reach for pattern welds to look good? Are there benefits to certain patterns as opposed to others? So this is the third time I've tried to weld and the first success. I realized that my homemade trash can forge was getting plenty hot but it was an oxidizing atmosphere so that was probably it. I adjusted my burner (correctly) and blammo! Welded first time. So I wanted to try my hand at pattern welding but only have a hammer and my 35kg steel bick. I started with 7 layers, 4-1095, 3-15n20, and have folded twice (28 layers) with no apparent inclusions, delaminating, or cold shuts. I'll probably do one more fold, stock is getting thin, before forging the shape and was thinking of a twist or a ladder pattern. I started with .125" 1095 and .049 of 15N20. I got it from Jantz because Aldo charges me $50 shipping for one .125"X1.5"X48" bar. Any thoughts?

All excellent ideas. Thanks folks.

I have a Nimba anvil on order. I live on a military base and can't build overhead cover for my "smithy". How do I keep my new anvil-on-the-way from being rained and rusted in Hawaii? Any ideas? I leave often for work in other countries so it goes for weeks or months of absolutely no use. I was going to throw a tarp or make a kydex cover for it? help.

Edit: I have matrikote and kastolite 30. Instead of relining the forge I just changed the angle of approach of the burner and took out my kastolite shelf. It has a pretty swirl and I think the adjustment to the burner will let me get an environment more conducive to pattern welding, which is my next hurdle. I don't have a trip hammer or press so I'll be doing it all old-school. I've never been able to weld before but I was using coil spring or mild steel (old forge) and haven't given it a new go. I also believe that I had a bad burner setting so it was too oxidizing and created too much crap on the metal. Going to try it again today, so I'll see how the new setup works. Thanks guys.

I still have some satanite but it's not enough to re-line the entire forge. I might be able to get some shelf from the ceramics workshop nearby. I don't want to leave the blanket free-standing because I have an issue with poking the sides and inhaling ceramic fibers. Maybe I'll just kick this particular can down the road. My burner is currently TDC on both X and Y axes on the forge body so I have a hot spot right in the middle but it's hard to do both small and large pieces because of where the burner is. I'll probably just fill the hole where it is currently and then cut a new orifice for the burner closer to the front but angled slightly so it doesn't just blast the area directly underneath.

Coming from you two I'll take it as fact, thanks. The next batch of Titans won't be ready for a few weeks and then I'll have to get it shipped to Hawaii (ugh) but I'll post pics of its loving new home when it gets here, unless I'm already out of country. Then my wife will send me pics of what the very burly stork brought by.

Howdy fellas. It's been a while since I've been on here (work has taken me out of the country frequently lately) but I'm going to redo some of my eqpt - forge and anvil setup - and wanted some advice. I got some 1" blanket, refractory, and plistix a while back for my forge. I'm going to relive it with some of the same blanket I currently use and finish it up with some extra that I have in reserve. I wants to pour the floor and use some of my Meeco Red Devil for it. It has a 3000* rating so it should hold up. Has anybody used MRD for this application? I can't remember the other refractory I have, but it's a powder that you mix and then drop it in. I've ised the MRD with great results on my 1095 hamons and thought that I might as well use it since I have it. Lastly, my darling of a wife got tired of me working on an old 35kg bick that I found in a trash pile in Germany and told me to "just get a good anvil". I put my name on the list for a Nimba Titan anvil and it should get here right before I leave again in a month or so - I read some reviews and understand this is a good buy, any comments?

You should look-up Tom McInnis. He runs a shop in Ozark, right next door to you, called Ozark Knife Makers. I took a tomahawk class from him some years back and we forge-welded our own Hawks from rasps to finished product. I carry mine any time I go out to the bush. He uses propane but is a master blade smith. You can probably give hm a call and come by to watch him work or ask him questions. Taking a class would be best because it's only four or five students and you get plenty of attention and answers to all of your questions. Plus, his wife cooks lunch for you on the second day of class and it's amazing.

My neighbor thinks the knife-making thing is pretty neat and gave me this stuff. Before I hear them up and hammer them into something sharp; what are these? The longer thing says "52 M.H. Freeman pat'd <date> No 1". It's certainly some sort of tool with a tool-steel(?) back (different color steel and seems to have been run on bearings for some time). It also has some sort of cutter or crimping blade in it - obviously a replaceable piece of steel that is peened-in.

So I'm n hawaii, would his stuff be alright to make a dive knife out of? I'm not looking for anything to shave under water with, but could I make a few knives for my buddies so they have something to swim with while spear fishing? I guess if it won't harden then it would make a pretty crappy blade, but if it only needs to pierce it could work. . . . I guess I'll let you guys know how they turn out.

Well, the tongs are working great and were a huge pain to shape - that should've been my first clue.

So I found a big bar of shiny metal and made a set of tongs from it. I noticed that the tongs are non-magnetic and I don't have an issue dropping them I water when hot and they've been whacked by a hammer more times that I'd care to say. A neighbor (sheet metal worker) said it was probably low-grade stainless. What is good to make from that? I still have about 3' of it left and it's 3/4".

Well, I got here in one piece but I need to redo my forge and source a cart for it. I live on base and all the neighbors have babies so I am not sure about the banging hot metal just yet. I think I'll start out making some bottle openers or something to soften them up. mahalo!

What ratio ATF/oil? I sent my remaining blanks through another three rounds of normalizing today and realized I forgot to hammer out to shape. I'll go back and redo them, again, tomorrow or monday and see where I stand. The movers come to pick up my stuff tuesday so I'll be out of the loop for a couple months at least. It's been great working with you guys and I hope I can still finish these things up before I actually move. If not, I'll be back in a couple months.

A friend of mine here mentioned that I should have just hammered to shape, cleaned up with a dremel, and then finished the heat treat prior to my final finish. I still have a few ground blanks left that I'm going to normalize again after I hammer some more. I'll try it his way and still quench in motor oil, warmed up prior (as the "class" states). The oil is motorcycle oil, nothing special. Thanks guys, I'll file the rough grind off before I run it through the hardening this round to get rid of those stress points. You're all wonderful folks. Thanks for the help. The knife making/HT classes were a big help, too.

New issue: I am still using coil spring as my steel source. I forged to a flat-ish billet, normalized (3x), ground to initial shape, hardened (in motor oil), tempered, and then found this in the morning. I tempered at 350* for 1 hour and left the oven open overnight to cool off. I had blades quenched in water and oil do this. One thing I noticed in common with all of the blanks was the crack happening only where ground. My hypothesis: the grinding prior to the hardening/tempering added another cycle of stress that was not relieved. My two Courses of Action (COAs): 1) hammer to shape and use a cut-off dremel wheel for the refinements, or 2) normalize after I grind and before the hardening/tempering. Also, I noticed that quenching in motor oil does not yield a blank as hard as I would like it to be as the file is still biting pretty well. The water quench does yield some small, smooth grains, but I'm not sure if that is is adding stress due to the fast quench. Again, from reading the "classes" I'm guessing that the lower carbon content (~.63) is the culprit, not allowing it to be as hard as, say, 1095 or 1080, and therefore more susceptible to the file. Next time I'm going to temper after I belt grind. I'm really worried about grinding out my temper. Any ideas?

KEARNEY!?! My brother in law is from Kearney - last name's Boyer, and I'm from Omaha. I don't see too many nebraskites online!

Learning from the team: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> Don't ask me how I came across the threads, but I perused a great majority of the before I used the search box for "springy". The part I'm thinking of is the waist per this link: '> I have never used a farriers anvil or any anvils at all outside the two that I have (HF Special and scrap) Im saying that the futures have a larger "waist" than a standard farriers anvil which would support the "face" better. Although probably negligible, I would imagine that mass directly under the face would yield better results than air. At this point I should probably wave a white flag. I just wanted to know if the TFS future anvils were good and pointed out some design characteristics I thought were smart. Moving out... Drawing fire...

Mr Hale, I believe the term "springy" May be a non-doctrinal way of saying "doesn't act like a blacksmith's anvil, for some unexplained reason so I'll call it springy" in the thread I am referring to.