Latticino

I've personally never done this, but if I were commissioned to do so would probably glue the scales to a thin metal backing, for stability and to have something for the fasteners to bear on, then assemble the knife with Corby rivets or Torx fasteners (http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/75.htm), using a method similar to that for "takedown" folding knife assembly.

Good luck and please post a photo of the finished knife.  Would love to see what you come up with.

Clearly you can do anything that you want, but the configuration will be subtly different from the one that Frosty has designed and tested.  Depending on how good a pipe fitter you are, your weld joint connection may be cleaner than the equivalent fitting, or (like mine would be) not perpendicular in all axis and leaving a lot of weld slag on the joint interior to cause unusual flow patterns.  One of the key positive characteristics of the Frosty TEE burner is that it can be manufactured from standard plumbing and welding machine parts, with minimal specialty metalworking equipment, jigs and critical measurements.  Shifting to a welded assembly runs counter to that design elegance.

If you vary the design for custom manufacture, you might as well go for building a Mikey, Zoeller or Mini Mongo style burner.  Personally if I wanted to go all out and do a custom welded fabricated NA burner assembly, I'd probably try to copy a Ransome style system with a true ventauri mixing and induction chamber.

We are constantly seeing posts from folks who want to "improve" the Frosty Tee design and then want direction on how to tune their variant successfully.  If you make changes to the design it will be significantly more difficult for folks (Frosty most likely) to give you any direction.

Traditionally it is work hardened.  Note that there is a reason that steel has supplanted copper for tool manufacture...

Well that is a tough story to follow, but I do have one additional caution, from my own personal experience being a former self employed craftsman.  In addition to taking the previous advise very seriously regarding the amount of time you will need to concentrate on the business side of the equation (sales, marketing, shipping, paperwork...), you also need to be prepared for the mind numbing effect of doing production work, even in a trade you love. 

I dropped out of engineering, went and got an MFA from a craft school and had a self supporting small hot shop glass studio for around 10 years.  I sold at both retail and wholesale shows around the country (U.S.), but it was an uncertain existance.  In my experience customers typically don't want, or at least don't want to pay for, original one of a kind art pieces in any great amounts.  They want the low end, easily approachable, paperweights, Christmas ornaments, tumblers and small vases (key fobs, S-hooks, bottle openers and candlesticks for the blacksmith).  Before you make a final decision I suggest you get yourself a small forge setup, take a mini-vacation for 2 weeks from your desk job and crank out a couple hundred S-hooks, and at least a hundred bottle openers with jigs made to standardize as much as possible.  If you are still enamored regarding blacksmithing, put a finish coat of some sort on your products and take them to a decent local craft fair and set up a table.  See how well you do selling your work and what the overall simple hourly rate works out to.

While there are some craftsmen who are supporting themselves on either custom commissioned work, or have become nationally famous for their major sculpture or collectable craftwork (yes Albert Paley is up in my area, and I've attended lectures by Chihuly, Marioni, and Morris, among others), for each one of them there are literally thousands struggling to get by. A year after my son was born I went back to engineering.

On the other hand, in your shoes I would probably still head off to the apprenticeship.  After all, I basically did that when I could for myself.  It was a great life experience, and one I still cherish.  Certainly not an easy life, but at least you have a fall back position.

If you are going to use a hard fire brick for the floor, I'd suggest going with a brick "split" (half thickness) and supporting it from the forge casing with a backing of some type of insulation (I use compressed frax blanket with small steel standoffs welded to the casing).  If it is set inside the forge insulation layer it won't bleed as much heat as Frosty indicates, but will act as a bit of a thermal sink (i.e. will take longer to get up to temperature, but will transfer some of that heat back to the cold steel when it is put into the forge, or the door is opened for same).

I've only used AP Green high alumina fire bricks, as they are more resistant to flux contact, and I had some on hand from another project.  The high alumina kiln shelf Frosty recommends is likely the same type of material (use a wet diamond "tile saw" to cut one down to size).  If I had to source something new I'd certainly consider looking at bubble alumina fire bricks like these:  http://www.ktrefractories.com/Alumina-Bubble-Bricks.cfm.  Maybe they would send you one as a sample if you ask correctly...

Try this:  Ferguson reducing TEE.  This is a very standard plumbing item, common for natural gas and hydronic piping.  Any decent plumbing supply shop should have them.

Old files are typically reasonable to good high carbon tool steel and should be able to be successfully hardened (unless they are medium carbon steel with case hardening, but that is another story).  Would have been a  good plan to chop off a small section first to see if it hardened, but since you are here I'll tell you what I would do.  A bit involved, but this will give you a chance at a final knife rather than a KSO.

Basically I would go through the conventional "safe" heat treatment cycle for unknown tool steels (do read the stickies for details, I'm not going to repeat everything that has been written on this complex subject).  Be careful when heating to not burn off your thin edges as they will heat more quickly.  You will probably have to make a less hot forge environment and move the stock in and out of the fire to heat it evenly:

1. Normalize 2-3 times by bringing the stock up to successively lower temperatures in the cherry red range and below and letting it air cool without resting on any surfaces.
2. Heat to just above nonmagnetic and quickly quench blade section only in preheated canola oil (preheat to around 140 deg. F)
3. Check if hardened with a fine file (skates on surface rather than biting)
4. Wash off all surface oil with steel wool or the like
5. Temper in oven twice at around 400 deg. F for an hour
6. Finish sand surface to remove any new scaling (reducing atmosphere during any heating will help with this)
7. Assemble blade with handle

The Resco refractory looks to be a good product, and they have an even higher alumina version (90%) that is likely to be even more resistant to flux damage.  The white color of the material will likely help as well with the thermal efficiency of the liner.

I'll let Frosty respond to the proposed modification to the burner, but I do recall him mentioning on another thread that he does not recommend using a bushing as the gas/air flow patterns at that portion of the assembly are fairly critical and the bushing makes a change in the geometry of the unit.  Any decent plumbing supply shop should be able to set you up with a reducing TEE, and they are cheap.  I would recommend following the design, as listed, and see how it works for you before you make modifications.

My experience with flares is that they are less necessary for burners that are used inside forges (as opposed to those in free air), but the stainless end will be a bit less likely to break down from the heat (and can be replaced if it does).  Without knowing the details of the nozzle configuration it will be difficult to predict how it affects the burner outlet.

1 hour ago, Anthony Karakas said:

Actually Navasky, i was doing just that on my latest attempt.  I ran out of rr spikes, so i used a piece of 3/4 tool steel.  After upsetting the piece to 4" (from 6.5") i punched and drifted the eye.  Later as i was working on the body of the hawk, i started quenching the lower part of the hawk where the eye was located, under the belief that if i kept it cooler, it would not split or crack. 

 Unfortunately it did just that! 

 

Unfortunately that is almost completely backwards of what you should be doing.  Many smiths who work exclusively with tool steel (bladesmiths) don't even have a slack bucket in their shops to avoid this temptation.  Water quenching tool steel, particularly with strong variations in crossection is a recipe for cracks and surface microfractures.  There are some tool steels and situations where water quenching is a prudent option, but with the steel you probably have and the work you are doing it is highly unlikely.

As others have already stated, slitting and drifting should be done quite hot (I don't bother drifting unless the stock is in the orange/yellow range, too much work otherwise.  If it gets below cherry red you are asking for trouble, and remember the side in contact with the anvil will cool faster).  Also you can try to forge down the sides of your blank around the drift on the anvil a bit rather than just forcing the drift through.  This will raise cheeks on the side of the hawk around the opening, but these can either be a design element, or forged out as well. 

Rounding corners of your drift will also help.  I like the traditional teardrop crossection for hawks, but many different styles have been made historically.

We run three of them at our local blacksmith group.  They certainly aren't variable speed Baders or KMGs, but for what they are they are pretty robust and functional.  We don't use the side arbors at all on ours, though I suppose a wire wheel, flap wheel or buffing wheel could easily be fitted there.

Anvil prices are crazy lately.  There is a guy nearby asking $5,000 OBO for a rusty old 200# Fisher anvil on e-bay.  Needless to say, it didn't sell and he has it relisted.  Was tempted to send him a question asking what it was made of at $25/LB asking price, but can tell he is fishing for a sucker (no pun intended...).  Anvil prices seem to have been driven up sharply by both demand and collectors.  Still can't believe that anyone can sell 10 anvils a week at $6/LB.

If you purchase seamless pipe instead of ERW (electric resistance welded) it won't have a ridge inside.  I believe that ASTM A106 will do you.

When I have worked with wrought I've been cautioned that it can be quite variable depending on manufacture. We consolidated ours to help with inclusions before attempting any significant forging. The consolidation and all forging were done at almost welding temperatures, but at that heat it moved like butter. 

Don't know what you're problems are with the O1.  I actually did some forging of an integral or two from some 3/4" O1 recently and thought it was easier to work than 5160.  If I had to guess I'd say that you were working too cold, but I haven't heard about the air cooling issue Steve mentioned.  When I forged it, I did it in one continuous process, never really letting it get much below a dark red, and certainly not hitting it below an orange.

Normalized, annealed ground and heat treated just fine as well. Give it another shot,  I  think you will like O1 once you get to know it. 

Wishing you and yours all the best Charles.  Hopes for a quick recovery and easier times.

Yes I got the 1084 from the NJSB, but am not certain if it is low manganese or not.  Just bought it off the back of his truck, and didn't know to ask.  I'll try again on my next quench, have a couple of blades approaching that time.  I assume you clay coat with Satinite after initial polish to 600 grit, thin wash up to edge proximity, then thicker trails for the "activity"?  Can I get away with quench in heated canola, as I do with normal heat treatment, or do I need to get some faster oil?

Actually my best success with differential heat treatment was way back in '79 when I was taking a Materials Science class from a very creative professor during intersession.  We used premade knife blanks, so I have no idea what steel they were, but did the full polish, clay coat and water quench.  The 10" blades hardened extremely well, and bent up just like Japanese swords (I know there is a technical term for that (sori?), but can't recall it just now).  I don't remember tempering these at all, but expect they must have auto-tempered to some extent as I still have two of them and have used one quite a bit over the years with no chipping.  Wish I had kept with it instead of taking 35 years off, might be a decent bladesmith by now...

Best of luck getting a hamon with 1084.  I've been trying to do that periodically with no appreciable success so far.  If you get a process that works reliably please post it along with photos of the results, I'd love to get that working.

Good job getting him started so early.  My son only helps out when coerced and has no real interest in doing it himself.  He is 21 now and has other things on his mind.

Nice seeing him with good PPE as well (apron, safety glasses and ear protection).

Only suggestion I have is that the tongs look a bit big for him, though he seem to be one handing them pretty well.  You might consider having him work with longer stock or at least a tong clip or ring.

Clarification:  I design HVAC systems for a living, hoods are a small subset of this. I am not a professional industrial hood designer but have been responsible for designing hoods for anything from Type 1 commercial kitchen operations, BSL 3 capture, and welding operations in my career.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of hood.  I've used both, and correctly designed they both work well.  Everything in life is a compromise, you just need to decide what compromises you are willing to accept.

The side draft hood has a lot of advantages:

1. It is smaller than a full sized overhead hood so more easily portable.
2. It is typically located closer to the source of heat.  Since the temperature differential between the hot fumes rising off the fire and the surrounding air are what drives the exhaust, the closer the better.  For equal diameter and height stacks that temperature differential will move more air at higher velocity.
3. It does not obscure the view from above or the sides

A couple of disadvantages:

1. Side drafts are not always "self-starting" so to induce the exhaust flow you often will need to start the airflow up the stack by throwing in some burning paper or the like
2. Careful attention to design is required to avoid having the bottom of the hood getting filled up with ash and/or coke pushed in while fire tending or dropping down the stack
3. Optimal design should have a smooth transition to the stack, though it isn't as critical as with an overhead hood
4. Stack support can be more problematic for a freestanding unit as the base of the hood is a lot smaller than a full hood.
5. Because it handles hotter flue gases construction may need to be of thicker material and for a portable forge it may take longer too cool sufficiently to move when finished forging.

Overhead hoods have the reflection of those pros and cons, essentially, but there are a couple of caveats:

1. Side skirts will help a lot, and can be designed with a 30-45 degree cut away if necessary.
2. Hood should be kept as low as possible over the fire to avoid inducing more surrounding ambient air.  This can be a problem with both seeing your work and banging into the hood.  Any crosswinds may exacerbate this.  For outside forging attempt to orient your hood in a direction so the closed side is to the apparent wind if possible.
3. Ideal capture velocity is around 100 FPM, ideal stack velocity is in the range of 1,500 - 3,000 FPM which should give an idea of relative cross sectional areas.  The heated plume from your forge will also spread out as it rises, so a good idea of how large a fire you are planning will help with your design.
4. As mentioned the transition between the hood opening and stack is somewhat critical.  As there isn't the same heat differential driving the exhaust it is more important to have a gradual transition so you minimize your friction losses.

Side screens not only help with crosswinds, as you have noted, but significantly reduce the amount of airflow needed to go up a hood to capture any fumes generated from below it.  Has to do with edge effects and containment of plume.  Theoretically a hood with good side skirts, if close enough above the fire to capture the plume and having a nice gradual taper to the stack, should capture more heat and fumes than a side sucker with equivalent stack (though the latter work quite well also).

Correct.  Good luck, be safe.

Without using CAD, for a shortcut I would suggest taking an image of a scroll you like (like that below that I downloaded) and scaling it up or down to fit your frame width using a Xerox machine.  If you measure the original it is pretty easy to figure the scale factor to fit it into a final size.  Can even go a little oversized to be able to spring it into place as the others suggest.

Frosty is certainly the expert on his T-burners, and I'm glad that he is helping you tune yours.  Needless to say you should never have flames exiting the open sides of the T, if you do the air is moving in the wrong direction overall and backpressure is the likely culprit.  I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but in addition to burner outlet placement, door opening size can be a contributor to backpressure problems as well.  I've had systems that needed their doors full open while they initially warmed up and then would accept more closed openings once the forge got up to temperature. Weird dynamics.

As far as a windscreen goes, my vision of a simple one for these burners is just a coffee tin with a small opening cut in the bottom for the gas fitting to slide through.  Assemble it with the open side towards the forge, covering the tee fitting, and the bottom braced against the brass fitting that holds the MIG tip. Provided the annular area left is over two times that of the two openings in the tee that should not restrict airflow, but should block the wind.  Of course if you have gates over the tee openings to adjust your air/gas ratio this will be in the way, but could be installed after the overall system is tuned.  Will have to try one on the 1/2" Frosty T that I cobbled together for my mini paint can forge (2" frax blanket and refractory cement insulation), though I forge inside most of the time.

Welcome aboard.

Don't know what your concerns are.  Those both look like fantastic anvils that will be more than adequate for forging knives and small items.  The stake anvil is particularly clean and the hardy hole in the "London Pattern" is in a much better location IMHO than the usual heel penetration.  Face, edges and horns all look fairly pristine.  I'm no collector, so don't much care how old an anvil is, but those look to be great workers and I'd be very pleased to use them.

Frosty,

My mistake, don't know where my mind was when I posted that.

The fan laws of similarity are quite clear, and it is a cubic relationship.  If you reduce the airflow a fan develops (CFM) the brake horsepower the motor uses should go down by the cube of the CFM ratio (would put in the formula, but no time right now).

However, the inlet change does effect the fan characteristics, so there we no longer have "similar" fans.  The motor speeding up may be evident, depending on what type of motor you use, but it is experiencing less resistance, so may not be drawing more power, even if it is turning faster.  That is one worth checking empirically.

It is an ammeter to measure the current draw to calculate the power the motor is using for a particular task.  The voltage stays essentially the same and the power draw in watts is just the product of that voltage and the current (for single phase, multi phase is more complicated).  Typically I use an Amprobe that wraps around one leg of the power to do testing.

Needless to say you don't want to temper the blade any further, you need to heat treat it (including normalizing, quenching and tempering).  I can't imagine any way that you can selectively heat treat just the end of the blade without affecting some of the rest of it (even if you are able to heat only one section up to 1450 and quench it without burning the handle, you are still going to get a transition between the two).

If you don't want to, or can't, remove the handle and do it properly (as Thomas recommends) you will need to re-profile again and remove the soft tip.  This time I would suggest that you stick to hand tools like files and sandpaper to avoid working too fast and heating the metal.

Are you sure it was properly heat treated in the first place?