bigfootnampa

Thanks Kozzy!  I hear you!  

Some years ago I had bought a big timber framing slick chisel.  It arrived very coarsely ground and far from sharp.  The steel was very good quality and quite hard though.  I lacked the good grinding equipment that I have now.  I spent a couple of months working its edge up with water stones, a bit at a time.  I used a ceramic polishing stone to finish the edge to a mirror polish!  Finally it was literally the sharpest tool in the shop!  A good friend visiting picked it up and even as I watched in horror he tested the edge with the joint of his thumb!!!!  It cut him nearly to the bone before he felt the edge!!  I screamed, but too late!  Fortunately he did heal without lasting damage!  Truly sharp edges often produce very little pain when they cut you!!!  Never test edges in such a way!  I've always loved a good sharp edge!  

Steve, IME it is not the edges that are the most dangerous.  It's when the buff wraps and grabs the back edge of the blades that all xxxx breaks loose!  This can often happen while trying to buff too near the tip of the blade!  Especially when buffing smaller or very pointy blades... like many of my carving knives!   IMO a real NO NO is to buff with an old bench grinder... as I have done in the past!  The wheel guards will work sort of like a rail gun!  The blade is forced through the space between the buff and the guard and then fires out of the top of the guard at deer rifle like velocity!!!!!!  Unfortunately this aims it right at the operator!  This is very rare as I am exceedingly careful... but when it does happen... survival is pure luck!  

Some knife suppliers recommend white diamond as their best all around compound.  I have had very good results with it!  I may try some of that no scratch pink one day.  It is a delicate balance though, improving an edge that will already shave hair easily!  A too fine or too coarse grit or any used with too heavy a hand can make the edge duller instead of sharper!  For blades like on scythes a bit of sawtoothed edge is useful!  Coarse whetting or hanging in the dew overnight (or both) can be optimal!  But for carving fine finishes off the knife... a slightly polished edge is desirable! 

Yes I have found that a light buffing will leave me with a slightly sharper edge that also lasts longer than a steeled or stropped edge.  Maybe if I really did the stropping properly it would do as well.  I am too impatient!  We are talking of fineness of edge here that few people ever experience and which takes expertise to even detect... but it is REAL!  For such tools as hook knives the difference can become quite important!  Heavy buffing will completely round the edge over leaving it quite dull!  

I recently bought a few filet knives on a clearance sale for a very good price!  The knives are by J Martini (of the famous Rapala brand) custom branded and are slightly sharper out of the package than the filet knives that I use regularly.  This challenged me as I have a certain rep to uphold!!!  On careful inspection I decided that the knives were buff finished and I went whole hog and ordered real pro buffing equipment to ensure that I am not again embarrassed like this! I also have a couple of new hook knives on order and want to carve up a good batch of wooden spoons in the near future!  EXTREME, EXTREME sharpness is pretty important for this type of carving!

How well I do know the truth of your warnings Thomas!  This buffer has a 3/4 hp motor and it is a bit intimidating thinking of it running with 8" or 10" muslin wheels! I must summon my bravest inner warrior to face it!

I recently busted the budget to get a real buffer!  I hope I did okay!  I bought a Baldor model 332B.  It's 3/4 hp with 3/4" shaft and double ended at 1800 rpm.  I am really wanting that little extra sharpness on my carving and filet blades!  It seems like a steep investment but I have worked many years with the cheap stuff and I don't have that many left to enjoy working with something better!  I already have it in the garage, so maybe I'm a bit late with this post but I am interested in any advice about buffing blades in general or types of equipment etcetera.  I am planning to use 8" muslin wheels on it.  I got some loose and some spiral sewn.  I seem to have liked the spiral sewn ones best in the past... but I may mount one of each.  I'm going to start with just white rouge (white diamond) compound.  I will keep an open mind about others you might suggest though.

As long as the entire barrel of the hinge protrudes from the back of the chest you will have clearance for the swing of the lid.  If the center of the hinge barrel falls inside the outer edge of the chest... the fitting gets a bit more complex.  Do it the easy way!

Yeah that steel will take some pounding!  

I think it is kind of tricky to laminate Thomas.  I hear that they hot press it under high pressure industrially.  Partly what makes it so HARD no doubt... the compression of the fibers.

Here we are!  Lumboo offering 3"X3" all bamboo lumber!  It seems shockingly inexpensive!  

http://www.renewbamboo.com/index.php/component/djcatalog2/item/24-bamboo-lumber/100-2x4-dimensional-bamboo-lumber

I hope it's okay to put this link in here?  I have no contact or experience with the supplier.

You'd have to split and laminate bamboo for handles.  It would be VERY hard and extremely strong... might work pretty well!  These days you can buy it mostly processed into lumber.  Rockler offers 3/4" thick planks.  For most handles you'd need to laminate that to get 1 1/2" stock.  I don't know of anyone selling it in thicker timbers yet, but I'd be surprised if someone doesn't do that soon!

For smaller hammers or guys who like small handles bamboo could be just the ticket!  It is WAY stronger than oak or hickory!  I often buy bamboo baskets in second hand stores!  They look flimsy because they are usually split to very small withes... they are NOT flimsy!

Possibly Finspong?  That is a town in Sweden.  I think it looks promising!  I would test it if possible.  It looks well used but in good shape!  What you'd expect from a quality anvil!  Also Swedes are not known for turning out cheap junk, especially in the anvil business!!!

That style of screw tends to tear up the corks.  A more traditional round wire screw is superior!  Smooth finish and pretty accurate coil are keys to a good working one!

They seem to me to be versatile tongs, but I doubt that they would grip as firmly as my tongs do.  I was interested in their handle work!  They seem to be charring the knob perhaps to cure the green wood?  Or maybe to melt the resins to minimize chances of splitting?  They get their tangs TOO hot when seating them IMO.  If they would melt them in they'd not need to soak the knobs to swell the handles into place and they would have more secure joinery, I believe!  i very much like the lightweight design of their adzes and I think that I need a couple of those for myself!

It looks to me as if your forge would be much improved by adding a few firebricks to get a deeper fire!  I started with one very similar myself!  It makes a BIG difference when you get your metal a little hotter!

Um... okay... but what is it then!  We want to know!

Poplar is a hardwood but it is not very hard or very strong.  It also has poor resistance to weathering!  I have used it for interior cabinetry.  It has a fairly fine grain, is pretty machinable, takes paint finishes well!

Use the emergency thrusters Scotty!  

Also it is likely to NEVER fully polymerize inside of the wood!  Basically you need a harder curing resin.

I agree Beaudry, about the hammer size and proper penetration of the force.  My 20 pound Anyang is a bit light for 2" stock.  By keeping a high forging heat and striking with maximum force I can handle it though.  One thing that many forget to take into account is that the smaller hammers concentrate their force into a much smaller striking area.  Far from ideal if you want to work big stock in long lengths and do it fast!  NOT a big problem though, if you have only a small amount of such stock to forge on occaision and will be finishing most of it to smaller dimensions as well! My dies are fairly petite compared to those on most hammers and I generally use dies that are shaped like a large cross peen with a slight center flat... which reduces the contact area of my dies even more (versus flat dies) and gives me better penetration of my striking force.

BTW as an interesting side note, the most challenging metal that I have forged to date, on my Anyang, was a piece of 1 1/2" round rod of Monel!!!  That stuff made the little Anyang groan and beg for mercy!!!  I did get a nice ice cream scoop made from it... but I've not been anxious to make more of them!

I have an Anyang 20 pound hammer.  I rarely forge material as large as 2"but I could do it if I needed to.  The 33 is a LOT more powerful!  You could easily forge occasional pieces of 2" steel with it.  Probably a 66 would be better if you forge 2" much of the time!  I am a fan of the Anyang hammers and also of James johnson who distributes them in the U. S.  Durable, reasonably priced, hard working hammers!  I know smiths who have HUGE old hammers set up and working and they are wonderful for appropriate sized material... BUT restoring them to good working order and setting them up to work and then housing and feeding these beasts can be quite a challenge for many of us!  One nearby smith has a giant old Nazel that he bought for practically nothing (actually about 6K I think) but it sits in a shop that cost probably 30K and he spent about 25K to get it set up... doing it on the cheap!  

I either peen the ends over or just bend them over... like a clenched nail.  Basically traditional treatment.

I'm not sure what kind of handle you intend, but I usually like to forge tapered tangs long enough to extend through the handles and be riveted.  Blind tangs with a few barbs to prevent backing out work pretty well too.  IMO you have done right to orient your handles for working bevel down... I find that to be much more versatile for most of my work... where needed I don't hesitate to flip the knife though.  

As a former professional finisher, I want to add a note of caution about Pledge and similar products.  If you ever want to use paint of varnish finishes on a piece, be aware that any contamination of the surfaces with Pledge is very likely to create ideal conditions for the dreaded FISHEYE!!!  I have endured several long drawn out struggles with furniture finishes presumably resulting from such applications!

If you want to do the work yourself I'd recommend looking into etching.  If you just need to get it done a good jeweler ought to be able to help.

This is the nearly flawless type of work we've come to expect from you!  The sheath design is quite unusual!  I am not quite sure how the sheath's single slot is intended to work.  Very cool stuff though!

On August 21, 2016 at 9:48 AM, aessinus said:

I waqs curious & did some searching.  Your posts are the only ones I've found to include hackberry regularly.  

I've a good supply, both at home & work.  The 3-4"growth along fencelines & the railway out back seem to make great hammer handles.  Even at work they have held up for several years of abuse without breaking.  Wedged & oiled seems to do the trick for keeping them tight for the safety inspector too.

Hackberry is a tree of the elm family.  Like all elms it has tough interlocking grain patterns.  Resistance to splitting is high!  It makes good strong furniture!  I've seen office chairs made of it.  I've read that hackberry root was the favored wood for froe clubs... back in the day.  It is nearly the same density as red oak but much more flexible, less brittle.  It is kind of spongey for such a dense wood and so it compresses nicely when wedged and tends to stay tight!  IMO it is a a wood that is very under utilized... comparative to it's potential.  Large straight trees are somewhat rare... but I have seen some beauties!