bigfootnampa

OMG!  It is probably too late to get you guys on an Alzheimer's preventative diet!  I will pray for a cure!

Walnut oil will be superior to olive oil!  Walnut oil will dry!  I use it to finish spoons and wooden bowls!  Similar to unboiled linseed oil... but less toxic... edible and even tasty!

I know I already had a very heavy machinist vice, about 80 pounds, and after I got my first little 4" post vice... I never used the machinist vice again!  It became an orphaned tool!

One thing not mentioned thus far is the use of a good random orbit sander.  With fine micron papers (usually they actually have a cloth backer) you can get right up to the point of fine buffing!  Pretty fast too, though the abrasives are not real cheap!  There are commercial versions sold that are keyed to produce standard stainless finishes at various levels.  For big flat sheets the random orbit sanders are pretty effective!  This is where they show off their potential!  

You do need a soft pad for this type work... often sold with  a selection of fine grits.

One thing about knife safety that occurs to me is that I never really mastered it until I became a wood carver.  As a woodcarver I studied various grips and strokes and learned to anticipate the full length of my knife cut... so that I always know where the cut will start and where it will end!  This can be challenging when carving hardwoods, which are my favorite carving woods!  Knowledge of how to limit the length of a cut and control it's direction is central to the art of woodcarving! The principles are pretty applicable to other types of cutting as well.  Plus the discipline of thinking your cuts all the way through, all the time... makes careless knife work unlikely!  I would encourage people to learn the basics of woodcarving techniques as basic knife handling skills!  Wrist twist cuts, using the body to clamp against with your arms, making small slices with a very small blade that has a large handle... these kinds of basic principles erase the dangerous overpowered and uncontrolled types of cuts that get people HURT!

Rashelle; I also wash my knives immediately after use and return them to the block.  That way my full array of knives is always available to use!  I also will use a diamond steel and follow with a regular steel if I have used the knife enough to dull the edge even slightly.  Thus I always have a selection of clean and sharp knives at the ready!  I do not like seeing knives in the dishwasher and they are just way too dangerous in the bottom of a sink full of cloudy dishwater!  I have yet to convert my whole household though... some dishwashing does occur when I am less than fully alert!  Since my acquisition of a Pheer belt grinder, sharpening dull knives (even chipped or very dull ones) has become quite a pleasure!  I can make a 10" blade shaving sharp in under two minutes most of the time!  It is a lovely thing!!!!  

yahoo2; I think you are probably right!  Tools with which we are familiar seem to work more naturally!  Probably why I will often use a filet knife when some other type might be more likely!  I have fished all my life!  When I was about twelve I assigned myself the tasks of keeping the family freezer stocked with fish and game (the sort of task that I RELISHED) and I mostly did that until I was in my mid 30's!  Six siblings in my family and my Dad mostly working all the time... we ate a lot of wild food... and it was GOOD!  I had a little help but shouldered the bulk of such work myself... enjoyed it IMMENSELY!  I still fish a LOT and eat plenty though lots of good fish are returned to the waters these days!  

So many women cut with the knife and the food in hand.  Takes a different blade for that!  Much safer and faster to chop on a board, but many have never worked that way.  I've caused numerous injuries by sharpening knives for such ladies!  I know now to warn them several times!  Could be why your mother never took to that knife yahoo2?  I do like my choppers to be at least 9" blades though.  I prefer 2" to 3" blades that are also narrow for cutting in hand!  So a short chopper wouldn't get much use in my kitchen either.  I have all sorts of filet knives and the ones that are not the best for cutting fish get plenty of work cutting up vegetables and fruits.  Wellll... I may have a few excess when it comes to filet knives.  It took me a few tries to find the best ones!  I may have to hold a yard sale... or two!

Scythes might go well!  All gardeners must deal with weeds!  Smaller precision type hoes are useful too!  

23 minutes ago, canada goose said:

In the video it looks like the shovels are given a quick cooling in water and the tempering is from residual heat . Maybe as bigfoot says cold  bending is safer. If his method doesn't work Is there a shop nearby with a hydraulic press ? I wonder if a LOT of cold hammering on the blade would lead to work hardening and embrittling. 

Yes... but to curve the blade you are not using forging forces.  Really by hammering against a soft anvil (stump) you are just curving the blade, not reshaping it.  Very little danger of embrittlement involved! Lots of taps though... to get an evenly curved shape whilst only dealing with a small portion of the whole blade at a time.  This is probably a ten minute project... for an experienced smith.

Quite safe.  I like to work with it!  Slight bends are no problem.  For sharp bends of small radii I like to forge it to smaller diameter in the bend area.  Forging to smaller diameter mostly thickens the pipe walls.  As the walls thicken it starts to behave more like rod than tube!  Kind of hybrid when just forged to slightly smaller diameters.

I assume that you'd like more back bend, to align the blade more parallel with the handle shaft?  Personally I would make that bend cold.  I'd fit it with a temporary handle and trap the blade under a heavy log... I'd put a branch for fulcrum under the neck of the handle socket and then step on the handle, or bounce, till I got acceptable alignment.  You are only trying for a few degrees of bend and I think you'd get it that way.  This shovel was made for trenching, which wants a different blade alignment.  Do it before you grind it as you'll not be out much if it fails, which I think unlikely.  

To add more curve to your flat shovel... I would use a well rounded forging hammer and forge it against a stump end.  The end grain of the stump will be soft enough to form nice curves as you hammer the concave side of the shovel blade.  Lots of firm raps and slowly curling the shape that you want is the way to work it... Be patient.  BTW do this cold.  

Certainly I keep my carving tools on the light to medium straw tempers!  Things like axes can be a bit softer to allow for impact strength... but I am more likely to use a slightly lower carbon alloy for those... so I still temper them pretty hard!  I would give very different advice from what you've been reading!

I have sometimes added a bit of flux and continued fullering till I welded the stem. Not real important for this application, but useful when doing some types of projects.  I have also fullered down a longer length of pipe to create a bend.  It can be difficult to make bends of small radii in pipe... but fullered till it behaves more like rod, it is easy to make even very tight bends!  A piece of rod can be welded into the fullered tube and is easier to do than fullering all the way to close the tube completely... but perseverence will get it done as well!  I love working tube or pipe. I am intrigued by watching the way that it shifts smoothly from tube type performance toward rod type behavior as the fullering thickens the walls of the tube and thins the diameters!  Candle cups only scratch the surface of the possibilities for these techniques!  Spread your wings!  Lots of handle styles and architectural potential here!  

Ohhh... thanks Steve!  I think I can grasp that!  

You are sure right!  It truly is not bad for a ham-handed old dog face like you! (;-)  Who is Augustus?  Just how did he handle that curved fuller?  Oh!  Do I have to buy the book to find that out?  Well then hurry up cause we are both OLD and I might not get to use the info if you dawdle like ya usually want to!

Wow!  I didn't expect to find out that my fellow smiths are such pitiful rubbers!  I've changed lotsa steel by rubbing it!  I especially have great results when rubbing with my 40 grit ceramic belts!  I've even burned alarming amounts of good steel by rubbing too fast!  

It's about time someone paid attention to troll control!  It looks like you've got some strong runes working there!  I'll be praying for you!  Find 'em and SKEWER 'em!

Also check Craig's List for your area... some steel scrappers and suppliers will advertise there regularly.  Farm sales are a great way to stock up your salvage pile!  Sometimes the scrap piles will go for way less than scrap prices at such events!

I bet there is plenty of steel in the Philly area!

I haven't forged a filet knife yet.  I do use them though and I am very picky about them!  I have reground blades to get the proper flex.  I agree with Frosty that grinding is the key!  The blades that I like are smooth tapered in both directions, width and thickness.  I also like them with long shallow bevels that are very slightly convex.  I have made pretty poor blades into excellent filet knives by regrinding the tapers and bevels.  This is a much better way to adjust flex than by altering the heat treatment!  Stainless is good but not necessary IMO as a filet knife of mine will always be treated quite carefully.  you can actually get better performance from non-stainless in some cases.  A good commercial example is the Browning filet knives!  Take a look at them in your sporting goods store.  They are tapered just about right!  You really want a pretty hard blade as it will need to cut through bones like they were wax!  if you mess with the heat treat to get more flex you'll end with too soft steel!  The distal taper is tricky as it needs to be quite subtle and yet become pretty thin towards the tip.  The taper in width is fairly easy by comparison as you can judge it by eye fairly easily.  Sneak up on it, testing the flex as you go, until you have it just about right.  Keep your bevels roughly ground as you work it down, or you'll overshoot and end with too much flex after you grind in the bevels... this is especially important at the tip as the bevels there can represent a significant portion of the steel cross section.

Commonly I will get the flex close to what I want and make the final refinements mostly by grinding the spine of the blades!  This avoids the need to constantly regrind the bevels!  I generally round the spines of the blades over a little, making them easier to make tight turning cuts with... which are needed at certain stages!

It's one of the prettiest knives that I've seen in a long time! It shows skill, artistry and dedication!  I'd be very proud of such a knife!

"Coyote Killer" I love that!  Last spring my wife and I saw a coyote running across the road, right in front of us!  He had a real roadrunner in his mouth and he was SMILING!  I don't think he even noticed that we were there!  We were in Branson Missouri... where roadrunners are fairly common... coyotes too... we like listening to their songs in the late evenings!

WOW!  I love the horseshoe one Yesteryear!  Is it all one piece, or did you add a piece of sheet for the candle cup?  I might like to make a few of those for my horsey friends!  I really like the kind of crazy vine-like gnarliness!!!

it wouldn't surprise me at all if they are 1095 or something close to that!  Most of my lawn mower blades are about 1090.  Most European mfrs of scythes use something very close to 1090 also.  My experience suggests that higher carbon steels seem to have an inherent toughness that persists even when they are not hardened much or are tempered to lower hardnesses.  High carbon steels tempered to lower hardnesses are still much more durable for cutting blades that have to take a beating... and the steel is still quite reasonably priced, compared to slightly fancier alloys.  This works out well for us blacksmiths!  These same steels repurposed, hardened and tempered to a bit harder finish can make good knives, chisels, drawknives, gouges, etcetera!

Ausfire; That type bolt is almost always pretty high strength steel.  They are mostly used for machine and tool assembly and are usually made in some of the highest grades of steel available.  Just for general info.  They are also commonly sold with blued steel finishes, so safer for forging than galvanized bolts!  Too expensive to buy new for forging stock... but good stuff to look for at the scrappers!

I like it!  It is a little different.  I might have left the hook open though... quicker to hang up that way.