Jclonts82

The teenagers loved it, kept asking if I would make them all one... I suggested a followup class with more time and they could hammer out their own things. I gave the knife to the adult leader of that age group. He loved it. They do an annual scouting-ish meet each year called a mountain man rendezvous. All ages of teenagers from the SE quadrant of AZ meet up for a few days and things/projects like this fit in perfectly. I suspect We will be making RR spike objects to be used for trading and showing off and whatnot.

You recall correctly. From some other forums suggested to me, that is what I have found to be the preferred ratio. Looking at it, its not going to be very much steel. He wants a 2.5-3" cutting blade and not a folder, yours looks great BTW. So if the blade is 1/4 inch at the spine, that puts it at just under 1" spine to edge... and my stock is 1.5" wide, so the majority of the work will definitely be thinning the whole thing and drawing the taper on the handle. To me, it doesn't feel right to just cut 1/2 inch off the width of the bar. I wanna hammer the whole thing. Maybe I will do a rubic twist or something neat like that with the handle?

Thats my thinking too. The lab tech that asked for it is kind of a knife-a-holic, but not a smith. After running some of these steel choices by him he said probably not stainless for a razor. He liked the idea if O2, but we cand find any online, I sent 2 emails to some larger distributors to see if they would supply a smaller order, we will see if I get any responses. I also got a line on some quench oil from McMasrer carr, someone lical is gonna sell me 5 gallons, unused, for $50. That might be enough for the W2. So I'm thinking imI will make one out if 52100 and another from W2 and see which he likes more. The other will be a wedding gift for a cousin of mine that is starting to get into old style shaving.

So I was asked to show some of the boys (14 &15) in my church some metal working. Being boys they were only interested in knives. Normal. So I had 45 minutes and decided to make a 'blacksmith's knife' as I have seen it called. I've never made one before, but for a start to finish in 45 minutes i think it went ok. If I had more time i would have smoothed out the handle a lot more, and cleaned up the heavier hammer marks. But a I kinda like the roughed in work. Blade is 1095, about 7 inches on the blade, about 11 inches overall. Quenched in 170 deg canola oil after soaking for about 5 minutes at 1550. Torch tempered the spine until it turned blue and ran dark straw to the blade edge. Spent 5 minutes at the big water sprayed 4X106 grinder made for grinding full glass sheets. 36 to 80 to 220 to 400 to 800 grit. Shave sharp and called it done. Aaaand ive never worked so fast, I'm beat, time for bed

for that matter, anyone know a source for O2 steel in the states? It seems nobody that I can find carries it. Plenty of O1, and a UK site that lists O1/O2 ? unsure what THAT is supposed to be.

Forgot about the stones. I have a set of 5 that go from 1000 to 3000 to 7000 to 10,000 to 15,000 i think at the top end. I will check out those forums as well, lots of reading to do...

I see that, I was trying to find THAT post that was mentioned in a few other threads, but was unsuccessful. Thanks

Looking for advice on steel options for making a straight razor. A colleague at work has asked me to make him one, fixed blade not a folder (horay, much easier) at 2.5-3 inches blade length. I don't plan on doing a hollow grind, as my skills there are not up to par yet, so I think I will be doing a full (edge to spine) wedge shape/bevel. I have in the shop right now 1095, 52100, W2, 15n20, and I am perfectly willing to buy any other steel if the community here has a good preference. My tools I'm currently working with: Propane forge, mainly hand hammers, Log-splitter press with dies for drawing steel out only, 4X106 wet belt grinder (somacca) and a 4x36, and a 1x30. I usually quench all blades in heated canola oil. I use the forge for the hardening process, and it can hold temps pretty well for doing step-down (ex 1650-cool, 1600-cool, 1550 hold for 5 mins-quench) thermal cycling before a quench. I don't really want to send out for a heat treatment, but if there is a compelling steel that is above my skills/tools to harden properly I would be willing to send out to give it a shot. I appreciate any advice, I'm currently leaning towards the 52100 as I have had the best edge results with that steel. Since there is a range that is acceptable for these two the specs on my 51200 bar is listed at Carbon of 1.05% and the W2 is stated to be Carbon of 0.94% Thanks

I usually buy from the new jersey steel baron. looks like your location is NJ, might be a short drive for ya?

(inside joke) maybe you could use a bananna for scale next time?

That's brilliant. And a good enough answer for me as your research seems to point well in that direction. thank you.

Just curious about the meaning of the 3 that is below the obvious name weight and date here: And on the other side, in what looks to be different tooling/stamp style is 150(4?) Thanks for any ideas.

This is the 9th blade-object I've made. 2 of the 9 were not knives, but pill counting spatulas for fellow pharmacists as gifts. I really liked working with the cable, I plan to do lots more, and have a neat idea rolling in my head for an axe hopefully coming sooner rather than later...

MJ, what is the wood used in the handle? It has a neat almost 3d look to it.

So my grandfathers friend, longtime family friend, did some lathe work for me to turn some burner flares on my new forge. Wouldn't take payment, but said (jokingly) just think of me next time you make a big knife. We talked a bit about the new craft Id gotten into and he said his ideal knife would be something out of Mad Max, like a giant bowie born from an apocalypse. While I was at his place I saw he had a swage block sitting in the dirt and make a mental note if it. Knowing this guy likes to wheel and deal with trades for random stuff I made a plan to show up with a knife and trade it for the swage block. Plan was a success! Made from an old rusty cable choker for pulling out stuck dozers and whatnot. Nowhere near as well done as JMCcustom's latest offering, but I'm pleased with the results.

Hard to see in this pic, the only one I had available at work that shows the chain, but first its 253#, so that helps... then I have some simple galvanized flat straps that I lapped over the feet and screwed to the stump its mounted on. BUT THEN I have a large chain wrapped around the whole anvil that is welded together, chain cant be slid off off. THAT chain runs to the ground, where a 8' piece of 1" rebar is hammered all the way in the ground, looped over and welded to itself through the end of the chain... Nothing is certain, someone really dedicated could get it out of there, but id would be a heck of a job doing so.

I've done it once, so BY NO MEANS an expert. But I stacked the alternating layers with the teeth up, welded a handle on one end, annealed it then took an angle grinder to the teeth and made the whole surface that had the teeth flat. I did not cut & stack or fold to increase layers, just twisted it after welding and drawing out. pics here Also one pic not in that post, this is the side with the teeth ground off. I imagine ThomasPowers has done more BSB/PS than anyone else though.

If you don't mind sharing, what is your etch process? I'm finishing up my first gonat cable damascus and am looking for different options. This is a 1:2 FC:water, 3x 5 minute dips, light sand w/1000 grit and wipe with blue shop paper towel between each dip. Then soaked in a baking soda/water solution for 30 minutes. Final light sand and spray w/ WD40 to get the water off . I like it so far, but always want to learn other methods. It is dark though...

Wouldn't you be able to grind through them easily while profiling? That could also depend on the depth of penetration on the weld.

I can see that, I just wonder about creating a void? For my purposes, I think I would just tack weld the top and bottom. MAYBE one tack in the middle to keep things from moving too much, while still allowing enough movement for the blows to push together any imperfect surfaces and fill spaces on the two welding surfaces.

Grew up on a cotton farm, 5th generation. Learned to weld out of necessity. Became REALLY good at 'making do' with whatever you could get your hands on to fix equipment. Fell in love with re purposing 'junk'. I was always interested in knives, and general metal work. Plus a huge history buff. Fast Forward to 5 years out of pharmacy school, 33yo, wife, 2 kids, and in need of another hobby for stress relief. Saw something on the history channel called "forged in Fire" Figured it was about something dumb like aliens or something, but watched one episode. Thought it was kinda cool, obviously lots of made up drama for TV purposes, but cool enough to watch again. 2 more episodes and I decided, "I'M DOING THIS' That was March of 2017, and I now have 3 anvils, 2 forges, 3 different sized belt grinders, a VERY high speed buffing wheel, drill press, log-splitter press, shopsmith wood worker, 3 vices... and not nearly enough time to use all of it!

how hot was the billet when side hammering? Also, I have forge welded 52100 (typical ball bearing steel) to W2 a few times, and every time I did any hammering I had to kep it above the non-magnetic threshold. I found (with my limited experience) any cooler than that and the materials would stretch too differently, 52100 being VERY stiff, and would lead to weld failure/shear. Good luck!

I have 2 of the 1" burners you're talking about on my BIG (18" X 9" D shape) forge I made for larger projects (axes, twisting long cable) and I love them, they work very well. I still have and mainly use my first smaller (5" X 11" D shape) forge with a 3/4 home-made pos burner. Both easily reach welding temperatures, but for me the Alec Steele burner is a GAS HOG, I hope you have some good sized tanks! Good plan, look forward to seeing some pictures and some nice work come out of it.

Quick search for examples yielded this. The typed description on this video mirrors what TP described above. "Teeth are cut into a high carbon bit which will anchor it into the soft iron axe body for forge welding." ironically searching for this example is the first time I found an explanation/reason for the notches. Unfortunately the majority of my 'research time' is limited to while at work, and the comp has no sound so I can't follow commentary, I can only watch or read. I'm simply curious if there are other reasons for doing it.

I have seen some examples of forge welding the cutting edge (HC) into lower carbon, WI, or pattern welded body. Many times I have seen (the cursed youtube) the inserted edge notched every 1/2 - 1" or so with a chisel before being inserted for the weld. Why is this? Are we introducing more surface area to weld? allowing flex room for the insert to bend better to match the body? I'm wanting to eventually give making some axes a go, and am researching beforehand.