Jump to content
I Forge Iron

-Quint-

Members
  • Posts

    108
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by -Quint-

  1. 5640 is 303, which can be forged, but it must be forged very hot, otherwise I think it crumbles. As far as heat treatment, I believe it will work harden, but heating/quenching won't harden it. When I was looking for a good alloy to use to make medical type instruments, I researched the 300 series and wound up going with 304. Quenching 304 optimizes it's corrosion resistance but like 303, it won't harden I honestly know nothing about 5673 without looking it up. By the way, I just looked in my stainless section of my Forge log and the site I have written down for info is steelforge.com. Tons of info on alloys there.
  2. I think it's gorgeous. I love the Forge finish/polished look and that olive is outstanding. As for the "hammer dips", one option is (prior to attaching the scales of course) to fill them in with some weld and then grind everything flush. If your weld is clean, the filler will blend right in and won't really be visible to the naked eye unless you're etching...
  3. Those curtains are awesome. And so is the knife, nice work.
  4. Thank you, it is truly beautiful. Just out of curiosity, since I hear of several bladesmiths doing so, why weld or braze threaded rod on? Is there an advantage to that over just threading the tang? I'm working on a blade now that I plan to secure with a nut/washer under the pommel but I'm planning to swage the tang and then thread it, so I'm just wondering if I'm not doing it the best way. Thanks!
  5. Fantastic! What did you do on the butt end? Is there a bevel on the spine? I'm only looking at the tiny pictures on my phone so maybe the pattern is tricking my eyes
  6. Not sure if this is the one they're referring to, but this is one that I have. Seems fairly decent.
  7. Thank you all very much, I appreciate the kind words. Jasent, the guard and pommel are silicon bronze (655 to be exact). I have a huge 2-1/2" diameter rod of it that I slice pieces off of and Forge into whatever I'm in need of. So much fun forging bronze, I've really fallen in love with the stuff. I'm really not a big fan of this knife to be honest. It's probably my least favorite so far. The handle seems too big (or the blade is just smaller than what I typically make?) or the lines, something... I don't know what. It came out ok, but it's not breaking my heart to hand it over to the customer, which is usually the case with me lol.
  8. Ok so not the coffin bowie you were expecting, the guard is coffin shaped (customer is a funeral director giving as a gift to another funeral director...) Why left hand? Well I forged the blade blank right handed (like I normally do, since I'm a righty) and then shortly after that I shattered a bone in my right hand so I finished the knife primarily left handed. Still a little final polishing to do here and there, some mistakes that I made I can't fix, at least not in the time I have left, so this is pretty much the finished product. 1095, deer antler and forged bronze. 14" overall, 7-1/2" blade.
  9. Yes! Good eye. I knew I had seen it before but couldn't place it. Haven't seen the movie in several years.
  10. Very nice work on the guard, Theo. Reminiscent of some of Jody Samsons cutlass guards!
  11. Double bass strings usually have some sort of organic core, like sinew.
  12. Very interesting idea. Maybe some nickel wound strings thrown in would make some great contrasts in that pattern.... As far as carbon content, I have no idea but what I would do (especially if you do end up throwing some nickel wound stuff in there) would be San mai. I know, then it wouldn't be 100% made of guitar strings but it would still be very cool and you can guarantee that it would also be very functional by making the core out of a known high carbon steel. I have a friend who owns/operates a string manufacturing company, I'm going to ask him what type of steel the plain strings are typically made from.
  13. I think you did a great job, and should be proud with only 8 months experience. Is the tang just set in with epoxy? I don't see anything peened over the crown. Also can you tell us about your 5160 heat treating process and how it went for you?
  14. I like it a lot. My only comment, based on my own personal design taste, is that I wish the profile transition from ricasso to handle was less "abrupt" but I really like the knife quite a bit. I wouldn't be friends with someone who would "turn their nose up" at it lol. The shot of the spine really sold me on it. Great job.
  15. Hello Michael Cochran, Latticino, Frosty and others! I don't have any empirical or metallurgical evidence to offer and I'm also not saying "you MUST quench three times"... If I quench a 5160 blade and it's HARD after the first quench, I stop there. My recommendation was based on my personal practical experience and yes, hearsay. I've had a few blades not harden and when I investigated and did some research I found several seemingly knowledgeable people/sites suggesting hardening three times and sometimes more. When I experimented with that, it did in fact work for me, so that's about as much stock is I put in it. I wrote it in my Forge diary, I'll write it here as a suggestion, but I'm not writing it down and asking anybody to swear on it, that's for sure. But I also don't point my blade North when I quench it Just for the record I am using known 5160 (I buy 21 feet at a clip from Admiral Steel), not leaf springs or something else that's believed to be 5160.
  16. Yes, I preheat my oil just a bit prior to the first quench. If the steel mass to oil volume ratio is too close, your oil will be pretty hot by the second quench and practically boiling by the third (the downside of multiple quenches) so you may want to have a second quench tank for the final quench. As far as edge quenching, I don't do it but I'm not opposed to it. I prefer to harden the entire blade and then temper all or part of it how I want it, instead of basically having a normalized, potentially nearly annealed spine. What I prefer is (when the blade shape allows) is to go through the process in my above post but only oven temper once. Then I have a large shallow tank that I have rigged up to hold a blade edge down in water. Then I torch temper the spine to exactly how tough I want it to be, without affecting my edge. With a large double edged fullered blade I once heat treated as above, tempered once and then clamped 2 red hot rods into the length of the fullers until the colors I wanted started creeping toward the edges. Just my preferences, they usually work for what I set out to accomplish.
  17. I mostly use 5160 and I always normalize 3 times, harden 3 times and temper 3 times, moving onto each new process while the steel is still warm from the previous process. Hope that makes sense. Sorry, forgot to actually answer your question lol. I would say put an edge on that knife and use it in your shop til it fails. That's what I do with my cracked blades that have gotten this far. I don't think any amount of normalizing or tempering will get you back to a good piece of steel. As far as why it happened, my guess would be that it has nothing to do with your heat treat but that you worked it too cold. And I say that because I've been guilty of that and got the same results. And I also DIDNT learn the first time, so I've seen it more than once
  18. "Pancake Knife" it is lol. Im glad you put it here, otherwise I might not have seen it. And I'm glad to have seen it. Fine work!
  19. I don't know if it was intentional to keep the theme going or not, but I love that the butt end of the knife would leave a rams hoof print in anything you slammed it into, like a piece of clay, or a forehead Amazing, incredible, inspiring work as always. Thanks for sharing.
  20. Definitely looks very nice, I'm sure it'll hold up to whatever light duty he puts it through. Nice recovery!
  21. Careful trying to widen a blade too much. Unless you've upset the material where you want the blade wider (or are starting with a wider billet and drawing it down where it will be more narrow), then your wide part will be thinner than the rest of the blade and you'll have to do a lot of grinding on the narrow sections to get uniform thickness. In a kukhri style blade, you would want the opposite if you're straying from uniform thickness or distal taper. You'll want that belly thicker, if anything, since that is designed to be the point of impact of a chopper. When I want a blade with a forward belly I'll either start with wide stock and draw it out toward the tang, being very conscientious of keeping the thickness uniform, or upset where the belly will be. Then forge to shape and bevel. Your bevels will make it smile, so straighten as often as possible or you'll get a boomerang.
  22. If your vise jaws are halfway decent (mostly smooth and square), you can probably just clamp it in there, the jaws will act as heat sink and plates. If the jaws aren't great, a couple of pieces of angle iron draped over the jaws will give you flat surfaces. In fact if you have the angle iron, I'd use it whether the jaws are good or not. As others have said, A2 is air hardening, so don't get it too hot and try to avoid letting the heat get to the blade (use heat sinks, water, wet rag, whatever it takes). You can even clamp the knife in your vise with the blade down, jaws on the ricasso area and probably heat those small spots enough to move them without letting much heat get into the blade (the jaws will act as a heat sink and not much will make it to your ricasso. Then take 2 flat bars or some angle and a pair of vise grips and sandwich that handle right away.should be straight and flat once it cools. Just be careful, there's not much metal there.. if you try to torque it at all it looks like it could crease or just break altogether. Tempering in the oven is cool, just follow Buzzkills advice. I still say I'd weld it if it were mine! But i'm prone to breaking stuff.
  23. Not sure if I'd have the guts to do the three point trick (ive made myself a three point jig for my vise and use it, but never on anything anywhere near that thin. You may not be able to be gentle enough... As for heat, depends on your equipment. If you suspend it blade down in water (with the handle exposed) and can quickly and precisely get those two spots sort of hot , then quickly clamp it between two plates and let it cool, should come out flat and not ruin the heat treat on your blade. A2 is pretty resistant to changing at lower heats, so as long as you don't get it glowing (and you keep that blade cool!) I think you'd be alright. If it were my project, I'd probably put some sort of heat sink on the ricasso and WELD that area up a bit, inside and out, to strengthen it, then I'd grind it flat. It looks very thin there and if I were using it, I'd probably break it.
  24. That's a great idea, I've had an 8" length of 3-1/2" round 4140 laying around for a while now (it's heavy as hell), wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I was thinking possibly a post anvil, but I would definitely get more use out of an upsetting block built into my anvil stand. Need to upgrade my anvil stand anyway now that I've "upgraded" my 130lb fisher to a 200lb Trenton. Now I just have to drill a 3-1/2" diameter hole 8" deep into a stump...
×
×
  • Create New...