Will W.

Guys, I was trying to be serious! ... But I do love pizza.

Frosty Thanks for the information. Strangely enough, the spark looked almost the same between a disk and a wheel. The wheel produced a few long sparks every once in a while however. It may just be that I'm looking too far into it, idk. We all see colors differently.

I like it. Looks pretty nice. The only critique I have is that the handle looks a little square. It would probably feel more comfortable if it was rounded more, but that's a matter of personal taste. Nice work.

Well I welded the steel up into a Damascus billet yesterday. The welding went great, but good God was it a bugger to move under the hammer. Unless I was near welding temp, there really was no major progress being made. Maybe HSS? Not really sure. I don't think HSS likes forging, iirc. Definitely not stainless, chrome oxide probably would have inhibited welding.

Perhaps my shop is more brightly lit than your own, but when I was cutting it, the sparks were nowhere near as bright as yours appear to be. They were very dull, dark almost.

Interesting. I'll have to give it a try with a grinding wheel later and see. Maybe there was something wrong with the cut off wheel.

Hello everyone. I purchased some o1 a while ago and I just got around to working with it, and the spark that comes from it is strange. Mind you, I've never worked with o1 before, so this is new to me. The spark was very short and dark red, rather than the long branching yellow sparks common from HC steel. I was using a brand new cut off wheel in an angle grinder, if that makes a difference. I'm just wondering if this is normal for o1. Like I said, I have no experience with it, but the spark is making me question if I truly got what I paid for Thanks in advance.

In the door, that is. Not the fire. Read through the forum. There is so much information here on countless subjects. You'll learn a lot, including things you didn't know you needed to know. If you do not already have a forge, look up the JABOD here in the solid fuel section. Its a very simple and very effective design. A block of mild steel as an anvil, vise grips as tongs, a hacksaw, and a decently heavy hammer will give you the ability to do a lot of work. Enjoy the journey.

Well... don't leave us waiting in suspense! We want to hear this story.

The looks you would get from the TSA for trying to bring them onto the plane would be priceless! I guess you'll have to give them pie too.

Don't forget your tongs and your hammer! On second thought, if you bring pie, Frosty might let you borrow his.

I have to agree with Steve. I've made damascus (definitely not as much as Mr. Sells has, mind you) out of 15N20 and 1080 before, and the layers always appear uniformly thick and relatively even. It draws out just fine. Ive actually been wondering something relating to this lately. During the forge welding process, will carbon diffuse into the nickel? Or through it, into another layer of steel? Or does it act as a sort of carbon diffusion barrier?

The first idea that came to mind concerning this would be to take a piece of slightly larger angle iron and fitting your actual swage piece inside of it, then arc weld the two together, thereby doubling the thickness and rigidity.

This is true. It works decently well for finishing blades. It barely works for flattening and taking out hammer marks though, and that's mainly what I wanted it for. Looks like I should just build a 2x72 for that. I'm using some decent quality ones (can't remember the name right now) but I know what you are saying. Those aluminum oxide ones that come with the machine are garbage.

Or just do like Thomas said and weld a high carbon bit in.

I second this entire paragraph. Properly heat treating a small knife is a challenge for novices, to say nothing of a sword. If you want a blade that will function like a machete, conventional wisdom would say: go buy a machete! If you want a properly heat treated functional sword, then contact one of the experienced swordsmiths on this site and have them make you one.

Yeah, I've got nothing either. Same thing as what Smoggy said.

What you have planned sounds good to me. I've done skinners basically to exactly those specs, and they come out very sharp, plenty enough to skin.

Now that sounds like a man speaking from experience. Lol.

I don't think it going bad will have any effect on its ability as a quenchant though. You just wouldn't want to cook your fries in it (which I wouldn't recommend even if it's non spoiled quenching oil lol.)

Aside from the fact that it's a sharp pointy piece of possibly poorly heat treated steel? I think Thomas pretty much covered it. Maybe you should start by making some other tools that require heat treating, such as chisels, screwdrivers, springy tongs, spring swages, etc. That will at least give you a start towards understanding the complexities involved in knife making.

Definitely salvage springs, torsion bars, bearings, etc. They are very useful for a number of different projects. For damascus, I strongly recommend buying known steel. Not only do you know exactly what it is, but you know exactly what temperatures it welds at and exactly what temp to quench at. You can also choose steels that have similar properties in these two categories, but contrast each other well (the reason why 1080/1095 and 15N20 are so commonly used.)

Very cool, I like it. Nice work. Can we get some dimensions? And was it stock removal or forged? (We like details lol) The overall blade shape is well executed, the handle shape looks comfortable, the bevels appear nice and straight (picture makes it a little hard to tell) and the polish looks good. I know you didn't ask for critique, but here's mine: The only thing I see is the closest pin to the blade. It looks way too close to the edge of the micarta. If it sees heavy use, that is an awful thin area right there. I see the symmetry you were going for between all the pins and the lanyard hole though.

To be totally honest, Randall, I would practice forge welding on small projects first. Make some chain, for instance, with the two ends welded together. That will get you started. After a few feet of chain, once you have a good idea of the process (color indication, amount of flux needed, how hard to strike with each successive weld amount of air needed, etc.) stack up some mild steel into a billet and try to weld it together. Fold it a few times, just to get the hang of it. Do a billet or two of those, and then maybe work on a San Mai with some mild and a plain high carbon steel. Forge welding is not incredibly difficult, but there are a few things that need to be done rather precisely to get it to work properly. I recommend mild steel because if you screw up (and if you're case is anything like mine, you will) it's not such a big deal versus screwing up on good blade materials. Believe me, I wanted to make Damascus long before i had the ability to, and I mangled a lot of perfectly good blade steel trying to do so, and I became SO frustrated that I couldn't do it. I was trying to make a huge leap instead of taking steps. Its difficult to progress that way.

Agreed. Great work, templehound.