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I Forge Iron

Will W.

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Everything posted by Will W.

  1. It should also be noted that I am not a professional and this knife is far from perfect. I was just hoping to get some pointers from the truly skilled knife makers here. Thanks in advance.
  2. Just finished this one a few hours ago. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Im unsure of the exact alloy but it is tool steel. The handle is just some oak i had kicking around the shop. 10 inches overall. Any thoughts? Critiques? Advice? How can I make the next one better? Anything is helpful in my book. Sorry for the bad image.
  3. I understand what you mean. The same thought ran through my head, only after the attempt. That is just what seemed like the best method at the time. Based on the amount of trouble it has given me, I think upsetting the tool steel to fit the Hardie may be a better solution. This will likely be my next attempt. Even when you fail, there is always something to learn i suppose. Thank you to everybody for the input. It is greatly appreciated.
  4. Iron Poet, I did all that, and still no success. The part that really bugs me is the line between the two was gone. Seemed solid. I am not positive on the amount of chromium, though I have made several knives from the same steel, and they don't seem to be corrosion resistant like would be expected with chromium. Would low levels make a difference? I used to weld high chromium stainless steel (tig welding) quite a bit, and I know that is a pain. Frank Turley, I thought I was hitting it quite hard. Not ridiculously hard, as I did not want to bend the pieces, but as it felt more and more solid, I increased the power behind each hit. ThomasPowers, unfortunately I don't know the exact alloy. It was crowbar steel, if that helps. It was just a butt weld though. I thought, only after the fact, that I should have tried to scarf it somehow. Exactly what would be best though, I'm not sure. But after the welds, i was forging it pretty medium, I suppose. A nice orange-ish glow.
  5. Firstly, I was not sure where to put this, so I apologize if it's in the wrong section. Now, a brief story... I have never been very good at forge welding, most definitely due to lack of experience, but I made an ax the other day by welding a few sections of leaf spring together after wrapping it around a pipe for the eye. I thought I was starting to get it down.... But i digress, a friend of mine asked me to make him a Hardie cut off tool, and I only have some mild steel thick enough to fit into a Hardie hole, just needs to be made square. So I figured I would forge weld a section of tool steel onto the top for the actual cutting section. I cleaned both pieces and tack welded them. I got three heats in on the piece, brushing and fluxing in between each, and before the first. It felt good under the hammer. All seemed well. So I began shaping the tool, and they split apart. Not immediately, but about two or three heats into shaping it. So, I rushed back to the grinder and cleaned both pieces up again, and re-tack welded them. Three more heats, just as described above, and they split on me yet again. I am fairly confident each heat was at the correct temperature. Both pieces were relatively close in size, so they heated pretty evenly as well. Unfortunately, the tool steel is not large enough to use by itself though. Only on the third heat of the first attempt did I burn the steel slightly, very few sparks flying though. I made very sure to turn my blower slowly to reduce excess oxygen that could get to the steel, but just fast enough to get to welding temp. I am scratching my head wondering exactly what I did wrong. I have read about people welding mild steel and tool steel before, but are the dissimilar steels that hard to stick together? Did that one burn affect it in a way I am unaware of? Is there some detail I am overlooking? I do not know what I did wrong, and my confidence is a bit shaken, so any help would be appreciated. Apologies for the long post, and thanks in advance for your time. Will W
  6. OK. I think the next billet I attempt, I may try to borrow a few tactics of yours because I was going about this wrong. I never tapped the wire on the sides of the billet to tighten it up. More or less just wrapped it around the billet last time, which in hindsight, what was I thinking? No wonder the pieces were all over the place. Haha. Thank you for the knowledge, and your time.
  7. I just realized I misunderstood you when you said this. Apologies. Anyway, that is interesting about the teeth on the saw blades. I did not expect that. How do you go about wiring the billets as well? I've always been curious about that. Tried it once with just some mild steel and it did not go well lol.
  8. Thank you both for the advice. I really need to just get a belt sander already. It would help a lot. That sounds like a good idea. I may just have to try that. Just curious, have you made one yourself?
  9. Let me begin by saying that I am no pro. I hope one day I can be as good as some of the smiths on this site. I also apologize for low picture quality. Anyways, I just finished up this knife last night. It's far from perfect, but I am satisfied with it. The heat treat went very well, it fits my hand nicely, its sharper than sharp and it holds an edge well. But I am not a very good wood worker. The scales are rudimentary at best. The edges all the way around the scale are rounded, but the surface is flat. It feels a little too "square-ish." Any tips for a newbie? How do some of you guys make the scales so beautiful?! I know, practice, practice, practice, but anything besides that? I don't have a belt sander, which would help immensely! I made these with a wood rasp, a surform, and sandpaper. Another question I have is regarding the pins. I hand peened them, as that's the only way I know how. When all was said and done the pins stuck up above the scale just barely, but enough that I can feel it. I filed them as flush as I could without marking up the scale, but it's still not where I want to see it. I can post more pics if need be. Any advice would be very helpful. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Thanks in advance. Will
  10. I can see how that many would be needed. If I try it again, which I want to do now, I'll have to make a larger stack. Let me know how the pallet strapping goes as well, I have a bunch of that laying around, which I have been meaning to test. Really?! And that doesn't give you any problems during welding? No delamination issues?
  11. I apologize for the late reply, honestly forgot about it for a while. The actual welding went together very nicely. I used a stack of 8 blades, all bi metal I beleive, with the teeth ground off, and the shank cut off, and ended up with far less metal to work with than I anticipated, though I am new to forge welding and do not rule out user error (maybe I compressed it too much?) I would recommend using a higher count than that to anyone who tries it, but ill leave that to your judgement. Anyways, I went ahead and quenched what I was left with, if for nothing but a little knowledge. All went well and it seemed to harden up pretty well, but not like a high carbon steel. Seemed like a mid carbon steel to me, maybe. Thats just my experience though.
  12. I can't help but agree. Haha. That is all very helpful though, thank you. One possible mistake that i noticed with the first weld i mentioned that I made is that i only struck from one side. They stuck together, but you can see where the border of the two pieces was, and the piece i was striking is significantly thinner than the piece that was against my anvil, for obvious reasons. Do you flip the piece 180°, to get even layers, or is it better to only strike one side? I assume even layers would be better, but I honestly don't know. Regarding the blades though, only a few I had were mono metal. I made a stack of 2 mono and 4 bi metal blades. I cut the stack into two pieces after cleaning and tacking, and plan on testing them for weldability and hardenability, before going in blind and trying to make a knife billet. I plan on starting the forge later tonight. I will post my results. As always, any advice or constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks. Will
  13. I have made a few knives. Nothing incredibly special, but they are sharp and hold an edge well. I planned on testing the hardenability and weldability of these blades before going for the actual billet, but I figured I would try to obtain some more knowledge first. I do use flux though, and planned to grind the teeth and shank off. I had not thought to weld from the center out, that makes a lot of sense though. I thank you for your time and knowledge. Will
  14. Hello everyone. I am pretty new to smithing, and this is my first time posting anything on this site, so go easy on me. Ive made tools and knives and such, but I just attempted my first forge weld yesterday. Nothing special, just some mild steel bar stock. It went way better than expected, they actually stuck very well, so I want to keep going. I have a LOT of old reciprocating saw blades (sawzall blades) and I want to try to weld a few, and if all goes well, I may try to make a knife out of it. My question is, what kind of steel are these saw blades likely made of? Will they make a useful knife, or are they low carbon? I don't know many specifics about them, as they've been floating around the shop for many years. I have blades for cutting wood, metal, and concrete. Im not sure if that makes a difference. Any help would be very appreciated. Will
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