bound201

I've forge welded more than a few items so welding isn't much of a concern. This is a chisel not a slick so it will be used with a mallet. Timber slicks are hand use only. The blade would have two tapers, many old timber chisels have two tapers and could have a slight conical shape on top. Taper in width by about 4/100 from edge to heel to prevent jamming. I am likely to do a socket for the handle though a full tang is easier to do. 5160 would do ok I'm looking for more edge retention in these. I typically aim for 59 with my knives in most circumstances. I'm likely to use O1 in this situation for ease of heat treatment and availability but I'd like a harder edge in the range of 60-62. I've tested some older timber chisels and they fall in this range.

I'm making some chisels for timber framing, that means the blade will be ~10 inches and the handle will be 8-9 inches. These will be ~1/4" thick with a slight taper to the edge ranging from 1.5-2.5" wide. I'm wanting to laminate/forge weld steel on the back to a mild steel face, it saves cash to keep the costs lower due to the overall size of these. Any suggestions for how thick the tool steel edge should be? I'm likely to use O1 but I'd like to make similar to a japanese style chisel with a slightly harder edge say closer to 60-62 range.

I intend to do so. It is now in hand and now to figure how to get it out of the truck and onto an anvil stand I don't have as of yet lol. As for the price she sold it to me for 100 bucks. It is in very nice shape, it has chips along one edge due to never being dressed but other than that its in great shape. Can someone point me to an anvil stand thread?

Sadly I'm getting it after a gentleman passed away. He was a farrier and his wife wanted someone to get it thar would use it. I was going to get a peter wright 110lber but a collector offered 1200 for it and I walked. I'll have pics come tuesday. Now I need to build a proper stand and figure out how to unload this with getting a hernia.

Link removed In the above sale they have it listed as

I know its been used for a while but wasn't sure as to how well it would forge weld, coal will hit welding temp easily wood/charcoal I wasn't sure if it would hit it easily or you had to hold your tongue to the right, lift your left leg, hop on your right leg while turning around type thing. I'm looking at the blowers from blacksmith depot, I'd love to get a hand turn but it will be used for other purposes as well.

I've got two questions: 1. What's a good electric blower for a forge. 2. I'm not sure if I want to go the coal route or a wood/charcoal forge. Most of the work I do is damascus knife making, will wood handle this or is it just not efficient/hot enough to handle this regularly?

Would you recommend 3/16 or 1/4" thickness for the blade? I was thinking 1/4 but that'd be mighty heavy, which could be a good thing.

I've got a customer wanting a hefty meat cleaver to use on hog carcasses. He specifically wants a stainless steel cleaver so that cuts the list by a large amount. I'm not sure 440C will have the edge holding ability for this application but its a good reasonable option. any recommendations?

I was recently given a 4.5" leg vise, unable to locate a brand stamp on it anywhere. It is missing the mounting plate but overall it appears to be in decent but well used shape. I'd like to restore this and clean it up for use, any advise? I'll post up some pics later.

People around here are nuts on what they ask for a used anvil in average to below average condition. I can buy new for a couple of hundred bucks more and have a new anvil to work with.

Thanks again for the help. Looking forward to this weekend and trying it out again.

Thanks. Rich I looked at some of the lessens and must have overlooked it, I'll go back and look at them again. Just a bit frustrated on my end.

I can make a very good blade but my handles still come out meh. Right at the bolsters there is usually a very tiny gap there between them and the wood handle. My method is to take the wood block, mark it by placing my blade on the edge of the block and marking the spots to drill my block on a drill press. When I put the pins in there is always a small gap, nothing large. Do people leave extra wood in front and sand that down or is there a filler that people use?

It was just the flux. It took some elbo grease to get it off. Doesn't look like I'll have to refinish the blade thank goodness. How do you attach your bolsters if you don't solder?

I just made my first stainless steel damascus knife, with help from a local blacksmith. He's deployed overseas now so I can't ask him. It is made of VG-10 and 440 and 420 steel. When soldering the bolsters on some of the flux got onto the blade. He did the etching for me in his tank. Is there a way to remove the flux without messing up the etch? If not I may just sand and reetch but I wanted to know what would be a good mix to etch in. Also for about how long to etch the blade. Thanks.

I was thinking 5160 but wasn't sure. He said the company went under about 40 or so years ago, I told him he may want to buy a different one but this one has sentimental value to him as it was his dad's.

A local vegetable farmer came to me in need of some help, he's retired and farms only 25 or so acres. His chisel plow broke a shank and he needs a new one made, I told him to buy one but the problem is that due to the age and manufacture of this plow no one makes them for it anymore and replacement parts are impossible to find. For those not familiar with a chisel plow I've included a video of one in use below. Luckily there isn't a lot of work in this, other than getting the curve right and heat treating it. I'm just not sure what would be a good grade of steel for this project as I don't want him to have another problem with it. I've recommended him to call places but he swears no one has one like it. I'm going to probably stop by a few local ag places and look first but if I do end up making it I'm curious what grade of steel would be recommended and the heat treat recommended for it. Obviously it can't be too hard as we don't want it to break but it needs to be strong enough to retain its shape even after flexing some.

Do we have a good example thread for the etching walk through? I searched and looked at a couple of pages and didn't see anything. Just curious, thanks.

So you'd recommend the etching route? I've etched Damascus is the process similar? Obviously I'd need a design to etch into the item but the steps are roughly the same I'd assume.

This will be hand struck, intend to use this in hot metal, though am interested if people feel cold is better. Small quantities of items I produce so no major manufacturing going on so one would last me years.

I'm making a striking stamp to mark my knives and other items. What size would you recommend?

I've got a reg just didn't have a gauge at the time, I went cheap on the reg. After the adapters and purchasing the gauge I could have bought a nice higher end reg with gauge and hose for a few bucks more. Lesson learned. Thanks for the advice though as I'm hooking the gauge up and about to test it again.

I think I have it figured out. The insulation was too close around the burner inlet and seemed to be causing an issue. I took a small funnel and used that to expand it some, so far so good. Not forge welding temp but high enough to do any forging I'll need for a while.

I've got a reil burner working and was testing it a few minutes ago in my propane forge, the problem is sometimes you'd hear a puff puff puff noise. I tried adjusting reg pressure for the propane and sometimes going up would help then it would come back then sometimes I'd have to go down with it. I don't have a pressure gauge to know the PSI I was running unfortunately. It heated fine, I was able to heat a 1/4x1" piece of angle iron to forging temp, not welding but forging temp. So it does work but I'm just a bit concerned over the noise. The burner is a 3/4" with a 1 1/4 to 3/4 reducer, I have a 1/8 brass pipe nipple going through the top of it with a #57 drilled hole as my orifice. This is a venturi burner, it was outside on a lightly windy day in NW Indiana.