Tyler Murch

That process is not marquenching. Marquenching is defined as when steel is quenched into a quenchant that is heated to the martensite start (ms) temperature of the particular steel you are working with. The ms temperature for many steels is around 450 - 500 F. The piece is held in the quenchant until it reaches the same temperature as the quenchant, it is then pulled out and air cooled. Marquenching results in a more gentle and even quench. You get less warping, and the steel is tougher at the same hardness as straight warm oil quenching.

What is the martensite strart temperature for 1084? For a full marquench, the oil has got to be heated just over the martensite start temperature. 140 F is actually below the martensite finish temperature I believe.

140 deg oil? C or F? That's great for a second knife. Good job.

Here is one of my forges. It's not pretty, but the work that comes out of it is. Do you want a pretty forge? Why? It made this hammer which made the sword that it made.

That certainly isn't fit for a blacksmith anvil. I haven't had any trouble finding a suitably heavy block of steel at the scrapyard. Don't forget that a 100# block of steel is equivalent to a much larger standard anvil. A large percentage of the weight in a standard anvil is in the extremeties, horn, tail, feet.

Rich, I believe you struck it squarely on the head when you said " if the piece does not represent me as I see myself at the time of its birth it never leaves the shop." I believe that in blacksmithing, and in most everything else in life, one must do and say what one thinks that day. Sure, everyone has some standards and ideals that remain constant at all times, but one's thoughts and feelings about things are shaped differently every day. One should not be commited to a particular thought that one had about a particular thing yesterday. Let your work reflect what you think the day you made it.

Now I gotta make a bigger one. Thanks

I made this bowl from about 4 feet of 7/8" round steel. I did all the bending with only hammer, anvil, and inertia (slamming). Tyler Murch

All these were made by me using, for the most part, techniques already described here by others. JPH, if you're odd, I'm a freak.

The tomahawk was made from a 9/16" spike, smaller than the normal 5/8" spike. It actually came from a rail road in Alaska that was laid for when they found some gold up there. Excuse the loose and dry knot. :p

The construction goes like this- I scarfed each end, folded each end over about 1-1/2", then bent it in the middle with a hand held fork, hammered it closed, then welded the face. I drew the lines on with a pencil first, free hand.

Thanks for the input guys.

Thanks Key. I used the rasp just as it was.

The grip texture was done with a hot wire. Thanks

New hawk of mine. Farrier rasp. Water quenched. Hickory handle. Grilled grip treatment. :cool:

after looking at the pictures you put in the gallery, it looks like some of them may be good welds, but the end of the scarf is too thick, so it fused, but it didn't blend in, maybe

work quickly, the thin edges of the scarf cool fast, tap it lightly until you know they are welded, then hit it harder

Working in (rather than on) big steel! I like it. Did this a few weeks ago, similar. Similar and identical are similar, but they are not identical.

Better pic of the texture. The hammer he uses to give it this texture can be seen in the link in my previous post.

By Tai Goo

The surface of that plane doesn't look like what I was talking about.

I no longer heat treat directly in contact with the fuel, so I can't tell you what steels it will definately work with, BUT, any steel will decarburize and carburize, thus it should work with any steel, BUT some steels are more resistant to decarb. I believe O-1 is one of them, off the top of my head.

As I recently learned, it is probably the effect of spot carburization. When heating and heat treating in a coal or charcoal forge, the places on the steel that are in direct contact with the fuel carburize, and the places not in direct contact with the fuel decarburize. It's what SOME people MAY call a blister effect. There will be lots of small raised round dots varying in size. I've seen some probably 3/4 the diameter of a dime.

Thank you. Paracord has just recently come back to intriguing me. This is the first one I've done in this style. Also, forging knives from this size of stock really makes you have to make the most of the material you have by forging well.