Rich Hale

Most of this is covered in the forges section on the site

Actually you may call yourself anything you wish, at least here in America. Wot you title yourself with may in fact be far from the truth but is self named maybe for fantasy or egotistic reasons. The world is littered with folks that do things like that. A true craftsman, in spite of how or where they received formal training will produce credentials that in most cases show evidence of the completion of some kind of training and certification. Here if someone has a desire to crawl under horses and trim feet and apply shoes they indeed may do so. School behind them or not. Apprenticeship or not..completion of any program or not. Not sure if this is current but years ago if you shod a horse for money in England and had not gone through a several year program with proper completion including apprenticeship, you could be charged with animal cruelty. I think this same line of thinking applies to those who post on this site. Maybe well meaning answers that help whoever posed the question. I think folks that have knowledge and experience applicable to the question are the ones that have well defined answers. I think it almost appears that some of them google and then spit out solutions that they have never tried. And when I ask some of them about where they got answers or to show us samples of their work they almost never do. On the other hand there are those folks on here that I watch for anything they post and read all of them. They have shown to me at least that they post where they have skills to support and experience to back up answers or thoughts. I try and add something to a thread if I know something I have will help in that thread. When I do post with a help offer it is not from information I read on here,,unless I have actually used that information and it worked for me. If anyone sees me post in a thread and would like me to 'splain why I feel qualified to do that I will gladly spell it out as best I can. Either in the thread or with a pm if you wish. Guess this takes us right back to this thread. If you have 'puter and are a member you may post here. You may pass on wotever you wish on this site from the comfort of your favorite armchair.

I can't help but notice that Workshop rat has not posted since March of 2011.......Though maybe we would have seen some progress pictures by now.....Oh well I am sure there are others that will get some value out of all the information in here he was given.

For top tools..wood handled and struck with a hammer. The inner tube works great. I also tried it on hammers..not so good. I fit and wedge hammers now. Linseed oil is great for keeping handles longer. A dip in water now and then will ruin handles fairly fast.

Maybe...there a list of knife making suppliers in. the forum in knife making lessons. You will need to give them more information than you shared with us.

Actually David the one you linked us to would not work for wot I spoke of,,I like the other kind with a common shaped bevel on the working end. It would require a starter hole to keep from walking when it meets the material. It would work well on material firmly clamped in a vise to a drill press or a mill. I kind of geared the tools and methods to those that may not have a well equipped shop. The ones I use would work in a hand drill to drill a block of wood or antler that is either clamped to a bench or maybe even hand held...If it did come loose and start spinning they could just let go. And they are easy to start on a pencil mark,,if off a bit just adjust angle of drill or material to move back on line.

True about the ford,,,and mopar steering parts..good for a lot of things,,,tongs punches,,wot he was looking for above etc....easy to come by and most likely cheap. Chevies are a poor source as most of them are still being driven! (May lay low in here for a while 'til the dust clears!)

I looked through the tutorial you linked and I did not find anywhere it said to drill a relief hole. There is something I see in the pics that may have worked for him. If you look at the can. one end is crushed flat before steel is placed inside...on the sides of the the steel the can has folded inward. I believe that allowed the inward areas to expand outward as the pressure increased. Both sides of the can also ballooned outward the whole length. That I think matched the space needed for the heated gases inside to have room. I do not know wot length billet you tried to make. but I do a bit less than one foot long. I weld caps on both ends...I have never made or wish to make a pipe bomb so I drill one end,,the one farthest away from the welded on handle. I always expect a little rocket flame out the hole,,(but have never seen it happen). I am so glad no one was maimed in this incident. It sure seemed you looked for a good tutorial and say you followed it as directed. Sometimes that is just not enough,,try looking at various sources for advice. I started almost every life event with a thought.."wot is the worst thing that could happen?" If that leads me to step back I may not do it at all,,,but most times I will find ways that I may eliminate the risk. You posing this question here for everyone to offer thoughts is a great step. Remember that any member of this forum can post answers for you. Same with other sites. Experience is not required. Expertise is also not a must. That can be good and bad, however it will not take anyone long to figure out who to really pay attention to and separate out those that just type to see their names in ink. When i am in doubt I usually ask for them to show a pic of their work. In this case the pics of the claws show really sweet work... I have not welded SS, can or no,,but have done a lot of high carbon steel for knives and have more waiting for me in shop.

They are also sold at knife making suppliers listed in the forums.

MArk that is cool.. I may place an order with them..but not for anything to shave with.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone.

I covered that in the knife making lessons in this forum.

We spoke of this in the chat room last night. I will retype it here for others that may have a similar question. The tank they install may have a regulated flow to your house that is not sufficient to run a forge with. If you do anything to the lines or fittings you may get in a jam with the company that installs it. There are codes and regulations for this kind of use and it depends on your local rules. I suggested you speak with them when they are putting the tank in and they will either help you gain access or tell you why they or you cannot. In any case the smaller bbq size lpg bottles as well as larger portable bottles will run that forge well.

I never solder guards on pattern welded blades. I suspect you have solder on the blade. If it is flux..windex and a toothbrush will remove it. If it is solder you may have to grind it off and refinish the blade.

Wayne I hope that anyone wanting to build takes advantage of wot you offer...Tips from someone that has been there may help direct away from a build that may fail. I say fail as if it would just not function as a grinder should..However maybe even worse is one that does grind...but not well at all. poor tracking..incorrect belt speed, wobbly wheels etc. may not even be noticed by someone using a belt grinder for the very first time. If and when they get a chance to use a real well built grinder a lot of things change...all of them I can think of are for the better.

Bob L,,,if you do decide to retrofit for longer narrower belts keep in mind that 2" x 72" are real user friendly..You can shop around and find a lot of sellers for that size and belts suited to almost any task you may wish to do. The length helps a lot with making a belt last. The width has a lot to do with how much work you can do with a given horsepower drive. Wide belts take more power.

Lot of folks on here wish to ,,and do build their own belt grinders. Keep in mind that I am a knife maker and want a grinder for that..different uses may alter the build. For knife grinding you need several things that are really not options if you want one that is worth building If you wish to hollow grind knives you need a cushioned faced contact wheel the correct size for the thickness and width of the blades you will grind. A metal faced wheel will not work for this. The coating on contact wheels is measured by a durometer. Too soft or too hard will not work well. You can contact some of the well known knife grinder makers and see wot they spec for durometer ratings for their wheels. Then when you find a wheel you need to see how it stacks up to wot we know works. For idler wheels you can use steel or aluminum. Remember one of them needs to be crowned for belts to track well. If you are going to flat grind you need a platen the width of the belt and sufficient length to work. Look at pics of commercial grinders for an eyeball guess on length. The plated need to be thick enough to not bend and warp with the pressure and heat of grinding. If I were build a grinder now I would use half inch thick steel and high enough carbon to heat treat. The tracking mechanism has to be really right. If the wheels are out of line the grinder will give you problems..Tracking is a fine adjustment to move belt from side to side or take care of an inconsistency in a belt. If you use cheap belts you will not get good grinds. All wheels must have a pair of good quality bearings to run on and nicely fit to the axles. The drive wheel must be firmly fixed to the drive shaft. The frame of the machine needs to be really solid..Grinders work hard and put a lot of stresses on the frame. Some steels and some belts require different belt speeds,,as well as different handle materials. To work well with all of that a grinder needs to be changed easily for belt speeds. That can be with different pulleys that let you move belts easily, or with variable speed motors, Or you can make do like I do with my milling machine,,,I need high spindle speed for tiny bits and low for large cutters..It is tough to change,,I leave it on lowest speed setting which makes me take too long with the small cutters....some day it will get a new motor and a speed knob... My knife grinder has an adjustable height setting...seems like fluff but quite often I prefer to raise or lower it a bit. And let us not leave out a solid stand to hold all of this fine machinery on. If you read between the lines I just spent time on you may figure out that a cheap grinder is not worth the time it takes unless you keep a lot of things in mind. And if you take half a year to build one that is even passable for alright knife work,,would that be a deal?,,, Or would you be better off to work a part time job and buy something that you can begin to learn on the day you get it?

So we do not know if it is the material or the process...Order some new high carbon steel from a knife supplier and heat treat it as they direct...to the letter. Don't change anything..It will not cost you much at all..Think of it this way: you should have been able to sell two finished knives now and you are at ground zero. Since you are close try Sheridan Knife supply and see if she has some 1084, Get a three foot bar of the thickness and width she has that you are alright with. And again go with the heat treat info she supplies or from a website for that steel. Not a process that you find on a forum where you do not know who placed it there or How it really worked out for them. If you would like my help pm me.

Get a torsion bar from a car or truck,,that is large enough to make you feel you have smithed something when done.

I call all my billets pattern welded...as opposed to damascus which I do not know how to make. And I do pattern each and everyone of them.

You have to have air in or air will not go out.....even if you put in a fan...

I can only guess so many things: Wot is the fuel? how big is the chimney? how tall is the chimney? How far above the roof does the chimney go? Is there anything near that chimney taller than it? Trees..other rooflines etc? Is there a way air can enter the shop in volumes equal to wot you want to exit the chimney? Fill in the blanks for help here?

Your little cheapie flux core will likely weld the handles on billets. Tack them on first and put in forge with tongs...preheat to dull redd and weld em up...

Homeshow do you have some pics of your knives with hamons?