50calmike

If you don't know what steel you have, you can't heat treat it properly. Buy some steel of known composition and heat treat it according to the factory spec sheet. A good cheap steel to start with is 1084. Click the link http://stores.njsteelbaron.com/-strse-High-Carbon-Steel-cln-1084/Categories.bok Aldo is a great guy to deal with and also a great fellow to hang with.

That is a nice spoon! My attempts have functioned, but they ain't pretty, yet!

You must temper the steel after your hardening process Before cryo treating, then temper again. The cryo treat in my experience does several things: it will relieve a little stress, raise the Rockwell hardness# by 1 or 2 points therefore requiring retempering, and refine the internal grain structure of the steel. This process is not required though and I have heard some outlandish claims as to its effectiveness, but on most "stainless" and air hardening steels it helps a lot. Just my :2cents:

Years back when I was doing Ironwork, a fellow welder was doing his thing sitting on a beam when a spark landed on his thigh. The Bic in his pocket detonated taking some flesh with it. Ever since then, I have used a Zippo. Only a little fire, no go BOOM.

Well, I took Frosty's advice and used a bit of leaf spring from an old truck. Hammered it out and made this beauty. The handle is G-10 and the pins are 1/4 hvac tube. I made and tooled the sheath for my sons Den Leader last year. http://

I am in the process of creating my first knife, actually nearing completion. I chose to forge a railroad spike into a skinner. The blade is formed and ground to near finished. Have not normalised yet but is this the time that it should be treated? Thanks, Mike

Just found this site. I am just really getting started forging and am pleased to have this library open with a few keystrokes. Mike