Rich Hale

There has really been alot of interest in the chat room lately on welding layered steel and making billets. Let me share a few thoughts. This is not a starting project...most folks can do it but it will produce a lot of failed attenpts first before you get it right. If you learn basic forging,,,how metal moves under the hammer and how to read proper working heats you will have a head start. Learning those skills take time and a lot of practice. Then you will need the equipment, tols and practice to produce perfect forge welds everytime. Not just most of the time...everytime. Forge welding takes time to learn, There is no reason to try and weld up some pricey steel into a billet if there is a prediction of failure. TAke the time to get these basics down and then think of billets..make it a reachable goal. In between practice,,,dureing which you can make al ot of usefull items..read all you can on knives,,,And pay close attention to heat treating...Just a few thoughs....Good luck

Don't worry about hearing from him that knife will be easy to sell,,,just get a good price for it,,really nice

Strine in my dreams I hope to do the quality of work you have posted here in the past, I look forward to seeing more of your work,,more of the work from your country and work from all over the world,,,,It keeps me working to improve.

There is an old claw hammer that has been in my family for years and it is in real good shape in spite of a lot of use....the only thing ever done to it in the way of maintenance is a change of the handle several times and a new head now and then.

I am now not sure what is in 0087 but it is likely a good thing also....

The trail you have stepped onto leads to many places, And I do not believe there is an area to turn around. Myself I would not try used lawnmower blades as they may have cracks from use. However you have new. There is a section on here that deals with common found steels and I think it mentions lawn mower blades. In any case give the heat treat posted earlier a shot and If they lact like I think they will you have enough material for several blades, and They will come out nice as you make them. Bp # 0087 is about heat treating high carbon steels and is a solid reference. I keep a printed copy near by. Have fun...

That would be an interseting piece to forge. I can think of a of way that will work. You can bump the middle section so it has more stock to work with where you wish the bend to be. Simply put you heat just that area and stand the piece verticle on the face of the anvil and strike the top end ,,do this s few times until the area is thicker and wider. And yes it will bend in almost all directions,,,I go back to the fire before heat is lost and straighten before heat. Then I would narrow the area where I will bend...make the wider part more narrow, When you start the bend and taper it down to the edge the spine will thin and the edge will thicken,,,the extra metal you bumped in will take car of the spine, and the spot you narrowed on the edge side will grow out as you this..HOw much to bump in and how much to nwrrow will be hit and miss on your first one. I would bump until that area is half again as thick for starters,,and narrow about one forth of the width. May play with some mild just for figureing out how much...Good luck and take pics.

Mike Hr had mentioned to me that you were doing some really nice work,,,this piece is even better that that... Keep up the good work,,, Almost every knife that is not damascus that leaves my shop is mirror polished and alot of them are used in the field. If youi would like to try a little experiment grind some high carbon steel to about a 120 grit finish. doesn't even have to be knife shaped. Then mirror polish the other side,,,If you live in a humid area just keep and eye on the piece now and then and watch for rust..if you live live an arid area like I do mist a little water on both sides now and then and watch and see....

I also have a Grizzley and it is a true value for the money. It also has two big drawbacks for grinding knives,The you work with the handle of the knife on the motor side of the belt the motor is in the way. The more expensive grinders for knifemaking are not direct drive from the motor to the wheel. I got by with this for quite a while. The second draw back is the single speed. for most of my grinding the belt speed is too fast. You can get along with this , just keep a slack bucket real handy. Now for two strong points, Number one is the price,,nothing new comes close. And it uses 2"x72" belts. They have enough length, which means a lot of abrasive surface. That tends to let the belt cool before it comes back around to cut more and also there is a huge selection of belts for this size grinder from a lot of different sources. Many places sell belts in a whole range of grits and brands. That of course means you can find what works for you in your shop and shop around for price if you wish. I use belts from 36 grit to ones finer than 2000.

There are just alot of things that are done regularly that are really dangerous but for some reason the folks involved have not had a disaster yet. Like misuse of gasoline, welding galvanize etc. Irn mentioned Paw Paw. It has been a while since his death so I will give the short version. He put some galvanized metal in the forge. He became very ill and the Docs could not chase it down. He had his family research heavy metal poisoning and the Descrition descride his signs and symptoms. It was too late for him and he passed on. A short sniff of toxic fumes from any source may not seem to have an affect on you but then again it may. Since I do not know I like to tip the scales in my favor. A prime concept to consider is how do the fumes get to you, through inhalation, not ingestion. You breathe the fumes not drink them. Think about the milk thing. I know this will not be a popular statement as I personnally know there are a lot of welders that will work in a shop if there is not cold milk availeable. Back to me. I will weld galvanize and did so yesterday. I ground the surfaces clean while a fan blew the air away from me while I worked,,,including welding. I used a flux core wire and the air flow did not bother it like a gas shield. But then an indirect flow of air could do the same thing if you use gas shield. And at times I like a big glass of cold milk!

You need a broach; You can make one, a half inch square pice of hardenable tool steel,,,I would use S-7 or H-13 as they work really well for long time. But a piece of spring steel sized to shape will do also...taper it from half on all four sides to about 3/8" square. Now you could just punch it through a drilled hole , but like you stated it will distort the metal a lot. It needs teeth to cut, you can make them. Heat the shaped piece and cut into it at a bit of an angle with a hot cut chisel so it lifts one tooth up from the square. Do this from the small end to the half inch sized end. Do this on all corners, you do not want large teeth,,just enought to enlarge the hole where your corners will be. One tooth will cut a little,,the next will enlarge the cut a bit more etc. When you have it all cut heat treat it and give it a try on scrap. Your new broach and the steel can be cool while you work. To minimize distortion make the tool with a rather long taper so the teath will only have to cut a small amount atwith each bit they take. Maybe a 8" long taper for a tool that size. May take some experimenting..good luck

Leah I am not sure what kind of area you live in but if there are preteen boys or girls near by you might stage a catch a lizard earn a buck event,,,then provide aplacde to remove them to. Might be a good idea to hide the guns, Good luck knives and maybe even put a padlock on the trebuchet while the kids are looking around.