ytuyuty

Not a really "weird" animal, but I keep finding dead mice floating in my slack tank

A grinder is all you need

I have no perceived rights, and as I said your advice will be heeded

My, we have vastly differing standards of what is and what is not appropriate language. Worlds apart. I certainly won't talk about my bxxxxd files that I used on this blade. But your advice will be heeded.

Here is "Take 2" on this blade. I changed the blade style slightly, and used a whittle tang instead of a scale tang. While I did not repeat the drop test, I did beat the xxxx out of it otherwise. It's a tough blade.

Holy smokes! Shaping a wood handle with an angle grinder? Try wood rasps, my friend!

Beautiful and creative. Did you pick those woods because of similar expansion/shrinkage? I did something similar with birch and walnut. After about 6 months, due to uneven expansion/shrinkage between the birch and walnut, a noticeable lip formed between the layers. I had to sand the handle smooth again.

Work the steel hot, it will crack otherwise

My second forged knife, a hunting blade made for my nephew. Ingredients -O1 tool steel -Snakewood -Brass -Blood It's a stout blade, 3/16" at the spine. The handle is a solid piece of snakewood. I drill a large hold in the handle, fill it with epoxy putty, and stuff the tang into the hole. That way I don't have to drill the hole to fit the tang perfectly. I threw in a couple of brass pins just to make sure the blade was secure on the handle. I don't know whether or not he likes gut hooks, but he got one anyway. It can be sharpened with a standard 1/4-inch chainsaw file. Now gotta make a sheath for the knife.

Thanks, I just read about edge quenching and plates, never heard about those tricks before.

I hesitate to ask this question because I have no idea what steel I am using, but maybe it will generate some interesting discussion anyway. I made a knife and it warped and twisted very badly in multiple planes during the hardening quench. Here's the story: I inherited a table saw and a few dozen circular saw blades that are all from the 1960s. So I decided to make a round knife for leather working, using a circular saw blade as the steel. All went well until the hardening quench. It ended up warped, twisted and disfigured. I made a new knife, but went very slowly with the cutting and grinding to be sure that the steel never got hot, so I wouldn't have to harden/temper. So... How do you prevent warping during the hardening quench when your blade is 0.07 inches thick?

What do I think? Some people make helms, but they just don't get the lines correct. There is something "off" about their work. Other people get the lines of the helm just right. That's you. Congrats.

I tried using a propane torch, the outside of my forge, and I even heated a long strip of spring steel for the heat source.

FYI "Chain mail" is a form of armor in a modern fantasy game. "Mail" or "maille" is an ancient form of body armor made from steel rings.

Good idea. I'm glad this knife broke, I was very unhappy with the way it turned out, and it was going to be a gift. Now I can start again with a better (simple) design which I know that I can do nicely. I got a lot of experience filing and grinding and fiddling. I'm going to keep playing with O-1 until I learn it well. I've tried the soft back draw, but no matter how slow I try it, the blade goes from shiny polished steel to black and then orange if I hold it on the heat too long (waiting for "straw" to appear). I never see any other colors, let alone "straw."

This is/was my 2nd knife. I used O-1 tool steel. The design didn't seem very complicated on paper, but it sure was a P.I.T.A. trying to cut and file. It's going to have a brass bolster and handle made from snakewood. Hardened in oil and then tempered at 400 degrees F for 4 hours. My first test of the knife was dropping it onto the concrete floor and - voilà. I guess it was just knife-shaped object. Next time I will temper longer, and I've come up with a simpler way to make the blade - I'm going to give it a whittle tang instead of the scale tang.

The outside of my forge is very hot

As a film maker myself - spectacular job!

I do a lot of other work in the shop - a lot of grinding - and I need the tub to cool off the pieces so that I can hold onto them when they're too small to hold in the vice. Even with welding gloves the metal can get too hot to hold.

^^^ Sweet!

Sorry, I guess that I didn't make myself clear. I am looking for recipes.

About every month I go out into the shop and find a dead mouse floating in my slack tub. Anyone else have this problem?

Update: I forged a knife with O-1 no problems. Worked it hot, never let it cool off at all.

Exactly.

I was wondering if this was the problem, but as a newbie I had never seen it before. Thank you everyone