gearhartironwerks

I phoned/emailed Houghton. 500lbs minimum order at $1. + per lb. Not happening for me. Any other suggestions appreciated. Thanks, John

Thanks, and an excelent response on the quenchent. I'm headed there one step at a time. My immediate focus is the business of making furniture, lighting, firesreens etc. Bladesmithing is still a fun and fascinating thing that happens mostly on Saturdays and at other times during the week that I can justify having fun without cutting into reality. I did sell 3 pattern welded chef knives this week and feel really good about that. They tested out at 58-60 hrc after tempering. I'll post pics asap. John

Some observations on my salt pot: I am using a 50/50 mix of sodium chloride/calcium chloride as suggested by Bob Kramer. Both were purchased from Ace Hardware for a very reasonable price. They can be ordered online with local pickup for no extra shipping charge. A 40lb bag of each goes a long way. Share with a friend and the cost is a couple of beers. A little research online is time well worth spent. Having built a temp controlled forge, this project was pretty much the same...solenoid, thermocouple and controller. My controller is a Watlow with a manual dial...easy for old guys :) My last one was a PID that only my kids could figure out. For $ 110. I'm in control. The next pot will be built using a vertical ribbon burner with Kaowool as a refractory. The cast refractory on this pot absorbs too much heat as it takes a single venturi burner 30-45 min to heat a 4"id x 18"stainless pipe. It works and the heat is even as advertised. Ultimate controll and the beginning for me of many experiments. It's messy as salt is hydroscopic and seems to get everywhere. Living in a rainy climate does not help. I wish I had an out building to do the heating/quenching. It's dangerous as anything damp or oily does not do well in molten salt @ 1500 deg. I bought a new face shield. Salt baths do not eliminate warping. Despite thermal cycling and annealing, I still experience some warping. I was hoping for a magic bullet. Oh well... It's clean other than salt on the steel...no scale. That's a major positive. I am interested to hear what others have to say. Thanks, John

Steve, 1550 max. Input greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

Hi, Does anyone have experience with salt pots? I just built one and am getting ready to load it. At the NWBA conference, Bob Kramer recommended using a 50/50 mix of sodium chloride with calcium chloride. Both are readily available at little cost thru Ace hardware. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

Mr. Graff, If you'd like, send me an email and I'll give you my ph # and I'll be happy to tell you how to set up and use your tester. John

My humble suggestion is to keep the hardness tester. As you progress, you will want to test the tooling you make and keep notes on what works and what doesn't. Sure, you can live w/o one, but to have one is to be incredibily fortunate imho. When I first started in blacksmithing 20+ yrs ago, I naively thought I really wouldn't have to learn a lot about heat treating. Just a few basics and I'm good. If you stay with the craft, reality is much different, and you'll find yourself wanting to know everything there is about heat treating and how to approach it scientifically to meet your needs. It really is fascinating. Keep it, learn how to use it, and keep notes on you experiments. If you want to take a vacation to the coast, I'll show you how to use it. John

I may suggest Guilders Paste ( multiple colors available + mix to your desired color ) and then clear coat with solvent based lacquer. This is what I use for most interior forged works such as fire screens, furniture, lighting etc. Maintenance with this finish is not required. For a quick finish on the clear coat, you can us clear wood finish (CWF) in rattle cans. Satin is preferable and after 2 coats it becomes a little more glossy, depending upon how heavily you apply it, than I prefer. The uptick is that the gloss mellows somewhat after time. This is strictly an indoor finish. John

Thanks Rich, I fully intend to do specific testing/destructive testing. I look at this as another means to an end so to speak. Without specific testing, one is really shooting in the dark, and 'eyeballing' the quench temperature is simply not good enough (to me) if one is selling knives. The parts for the salt bath are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm anxious to eliminate some variables... John

Try youtube. That's what I did when I couldn't decifer the Chinese instructions that came with my Grizzly tester. In reality, it's a pretty simple procedure. Or, drive to the Oregon coast and see mine. Bring soap. No water shortage here...coming down in buckets today. :) John

Thanks for the responses. Woody: The heat treat: heat to 1500, soak 10 min, quench in atf at 125-150 deg, then temper 375 twice for an hour each. I've been using this pretty much for 5160, 52100, and 1095. Ian: thermocouple at Omega .com...about $50. for a K type. The Rockwell tester came from Grizzly.com. I split the cost with a friend. Basher: good point as I hadn't considered the angle of the grind affecting the diamond tip. I will now. Thank you. I can see that having the tester will require a fair amount of experimentation, and time. It's really pretty exciting and I'm looking forward to it. Dang, if I just didn't have to make a living... John

I'm not quite sure where this fits neatly into a catagory, but here it is: A friend and I just split the cost of a new Rockwell tester (Grizzly) to test our knives. I spent most of today getting the machine dialed in as per the Chinese instructions (some lost in translation), but nonetheless, everything seems to work as advertised with the rated coupons. What amazed me, in testing some of my existing blades, is that they tested a little lower than I had expected. For the carbon steel (5160-52100-1095) non pattern welded blades, the average was in the low-mid 50's on the C scale. I had expected higher for my chef knives. I have a controlled heat treat oven and have tried to adhere to suggested temps/quenching for supposed hardnesses from conventional wisdom. Wow...what a surprise reality is. I know there are a lot of variables to be dealt with and eliminated one-by-one, but this has made me a lot more aware that trying to 'eyeball' or use a magnet to judge the austentite temperature prior to quenching may not be the best way to go. I am thinking that for blades, a more scientific approach to testing a specific material, as well as more destructive testing is called for in my endeavour. My next project is a thermo coupled salt bath for heat treating prior to quenching. My hope is that it will help with heat accuracy, lack of scale/wharping, and eliminating some variables. XXXXX, this is a slippery slope! Feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

Matei, The bracelet is beautiful! John

The razor is really nice, but I also like the bases (bracelets) holding them. John

Thanks to everyone for the compliments. Much appreciated. Justin, lap welds till the # of desired layers is reached, then the billet is turned and drawn out with the ends showing up. So what you are seeing is the ends of the welds as the surface of the blade. Couple of things to keep in mind (my limited experience + mistakes) is to not make the final billet you intend to draw out, too tall...maybe 2" or so. Keep it near welding temp and draw out slowly with lighter blows. If it looks like it's going to come apart, stop and cut off your tang to hold it, reweld (mig) it on the original end and re-forge weld it. Then repeat the process. Some cussing and swearing is ok. There are some good vids online showing how to make the 'w' pattern. John

That's a beauty! John

I recently purchased 2 straight razors at an antique store with the intent of at least trying to shave with them. I used my 6000 grit water stone and did the Murray Carter strope. Sharp...absolutely! Shaving with it...pita. I'm going back to my Bic. Anyone else had that experience? John

Howdy, Here are some new knives finished today. The larger one is 9" on the cutting edge and 13 3/4" overall. The smaller santoku is 6" on the cutting edge and 11" overall. Both were forged using 1095/L6 and heat treated/etched at the same time. Pretty much the same 'w' pattern. I cannot figure out why they look so radically different. I wish I could reproduce the larger one... Thanks for looking. John

Couple of beauties! Thanks John

Nicely said Mr. Hale. John

Greenbeast, Have you etched the blade(s) in ferric chloride? The 10 series steels give a nice dark contrast to the more whiteish color of mild steel. Also, I've found that equal thickness of the three pieces seem to work well when constructing the blade. You have a nice shape and handle. John

Shops aren't for faint hearted metal head collectors. Bigger is better...and don't solicit suggestions from the better half. :) JE

Imho, forget the scrap and search out spring manufacturers in/close to your area. In Portland,Or., Benz Srring sells their rems for a fraction of new steel. Scrap steel prices have dropped dramatically from a year ago, so rems are readily available. I've found that a pointed gift or two works wonders in greasing the skids, so to speak. That applies to all things metal. :) John

Don, Your knives are beautiul...symetry and design. Great job on the handles as well...very clen and precise. I gather from your intro that they are laser cut from plate, then hand ground? Are you doing the heat treat as well? Thanks for the posting. John

Larry, Will you sell me some of that flat bar as I need to make dies for another 2 air hammers I have on order? Thanks, John Shop # 800-738-5434