brickman

Thanks for the tips frosty!!

20 hours ago, Frosty said:

Use your wire brush more! Scale isn't soft at forging heat and gets driven in, you do NOT want that kind of texture. 

Use a flatter or set hammer to dress the hammer marks until your hammer control improves enough to not leave hammer marks.

I actually have 2 big butcher block brushes and a flatter, but the person i'm making this for wanted a very "hand forged" look so i kept it very rough as it i s:P.. If i was making it for myself i probably would have cleaned it up much more.. When i hammered in the bevels i had some heavy handed blows that kind of hurt my look too though =/

do you have a power hammer or press to put together the damascus? or do you do it by hand?

it seemed to have hardened really well in my quench oil. But i'm sure its nothing cmpared to my 1095 steel as far as edge retention.. This is mostly a bush chopper i'm making now so it needs to be durable and not brittle.. I'll stick to those kinds of knives for this stock

That's a very nice knife you made there though, it just looks comfortable! what finish did you put on that handle??

I plan on doing lots of full tang knives with a bolster / guard and thread and tap the tang and bolster to really seal down for a strong construction, plus i love the look of the guards and bolsters on the knives. I think the bronze and such really makes the wood stand out!

Really nice damascus also btw!! I havent done any forge welding yet, but cant wait to try it out. I've got 1095, 1065, and 15n20 to work with on my first damascus try.

17 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

typically I would say that hidden tang knives are more difficult, just to get them all straight and fitted together tightly and that a full tang knife is a better/easier first knife, but yours looks good so far! What steel did you use? handle wood? Looks like maybe oak?

                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

Good eye, it's an oak handle =] have a handful of it laying around and it's a decent hardwood so figured i would use that until i can justify buying more exotic woods.. I've done a fair amount of carpentry / woodwork in my life so i wasn't super worried about doing hidden tang because the skills to line holes up and such correctly for furniture building is essentially the same as when putting these together.. 

I used an tool steel for this, i think ~1050.. So edge retention wont be amazing but it should be pretty durable, which is more what i was going for..

I think this weekend i'm going to make a decent sized viking seax in 1065 and then start a skinning knife out of 1095 i also have. 

Still working on this, but onto hand sanding and finish work at this point.. Here are some WIP photos.. I'm pretty proud of this as it's my first, but critique is welcome as it will only make me better!

I'm dumb and realized in the last 2 pictures the guard was put on upside down.... When i'm back at home i'll have to retake them, the handle matches up with the actual front of the guard. 

4 hours ago, littleblacksmith said:

I keep what I can get. Now I kinda do a little of everything, knife making, do a good bit of tool making, and also lots of the smaller decorative/functional pieces.....

Trade shops???? :P.. I cant wait to build mine but i unfortunately dont have room for ALL that, it's just my big garage currently  

On 5/31/2017 at 1:02 PM, ThomasPowers said:

 

I will be doing a bit of everything, around the house projects, hinges, hooks, decorative pieces. And a lot of knives and axes as well. As well as general shop fabrication as well. I have 1095 and 1065 and 15n20 in a moderate quantity for now for knife making and making Damascus billets (eventually). and some angle iron.  Have a few coil springs and access to axles and leaf springs, i just have to go pick them up :P. 

15 minutes ago, stockmaker said:

Wow Brickman,  I was surprised to see your forge, very similar to mine.  You did a good job on it.    Did you buy your kaowool bricks off craigslist, I did, bought one case.   I suggest you do as Frosty recommends,  Get some Kast O Lite it provides a little insulation and protects the blocks, as you know they are very soft.  Mine also turned black in the flame, was not expecting that.  A couple pictures of my build.

Very nice looking forge you got there, i really like your burner setup. how's it work?. It looks ike there are some assumptions as to me building this, i did not in fact build this, i only etched out some of the kaowool blocks which i got from a friend i know who actually lives up by you it looks like.. This is just my new to me forge i will be modifying a bit :P. I didnt want to jump in and build my own quite yet, i traded him for a coal forge i already had.

26 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Is that soft fire brick or (?). That's gotta be one of the cooler 1st. forges I've seen in a long time. Thomas is right I expect to see some decorative wrought hardware for the door. 

I forget, why is it we're calling you brickman again? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Kaowool bricks right now. Going to put rigidizer over at least the bottom ones sometime in the coming months. =]

brickman is my first initial plus last name Brian Rickman -> BRickman.. not finished iwth the stand or doors yet. working on that still just got it up to working ability so far..

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

The Triumphal Arch!  Where's the front door?

Still working on both doors i put some kaowool bricks on the back as "plugs" for now but going to mount them inside a steel door.

Just wanted to get everyones take on what common stock of steel to have handy in a shop? I do most of my stuff from salvaged material but am always wanting when it comes to building tongs and hardy tools because i dont have the stuff on hand to make it... I just want to see what everyone kid of keeps on hand generally in their shops! bonus points with pics =D

Forgot to post this the other day. Got my gas forge up and running.. Just picked up a 100# tank for it too.

Only hit it eh left side if using the edge ;).. Problem solved!

14 minutes ago, Frosty said:

A Soderfors anvil is a monolithic high carbon Vanadium steel casting. The face on mine is about R60, a file skates more than it cuts and what it cuts is patina. Even a long time professional welder will do more damage than good if s/he doesn't KNOW how to repair anvils. Even being  experienced welding high carbon steel doesn't cover it all.

This isn't a delicate anvil, even where some moron damaged it with a torch. A person would have to hit it stupid hard to open the gap any. 

Ugh, i cant wait to get my sodorfors mounted and ready for use. I'm still using my pitted peter wright, which i love, but i really want to get some work on the 'fors

10 minutes ago, Scrambler82 said:

I didn't know that, I thought the upper "L" was blocking it, thanks for the lesson !

I missed a word in my post, "mounts" lower, not sure if I just had a brain cramp or my mind got ahead of my typing.

 On the multiple Anvils, both look in good condition, I too like the German design, a horn on both ends, but they just look stout.

Ltr

The peter wright has some pitting on the face and is only 86lbs so its a little rough still to try to get a really smooth face on, but i love the anvil. The sodorfors on the ground is an immaculate face and edge minus just one spot where the farrier used the edge to set the clips on horseshoes where it has some chipping. I cant wait to get it up and mounted =D.. I really want a peddinghaus / refflinghaus ~250#+ german anvil.. I know it's way overkill but i think they're a beauty to look at even.. I'll have one someday =D

3 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I used to snatch up all the old black diamond files (pre Nicholson stamp) at the fleamarket and now I find I have a drawerful that I moved 1500 miles and will probably not run out of them before I run out of me.

The old ones were 1.2% carbon and so I use them to juice up billets and for edges in San Mai....

Yeah i'm not sure the maker on some of the ones i've picked up (just havent looked through the bucket yet)

But i actually got some great old Nicholson files in pristine condition still in box from what looks like ~1960/70s from what i can tell. Could be older. This is my good set though and they're not going to get re-purposed.

Just now, ThomasPowers said:

See you had data you didn't share!  If you search on brass rod test knives you will find a large number of hits, including videos and discussions about it back and forth.  Some very good knifemakers use it to give an idea of how the edge is working.

I will give that a look when i get a chance =].. I have hoarded a ton of really old files from estate sales from the farms in my area and i plan on doing some knives from those as well. It was really fun making these two. =D

12 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Can you define "pretty well"?  How does it do with the brass rod test?  We've had people here telling us that their mild steel knives harden pretty well....(RR Spikes)

Did a file test (havent heard of a brass rod test?).. The file skates across it easily. I also pounded it into a big stump i have out front quite a few times and it left no indentations or marks from what i could see.. Definitely much harder than the "high carbon" railroad knife i made and quenched, but probably not as hard as the 1095 i have sitting in the corner of my garage :P.. This is going to be used as a outdoor utility knife that needs to be more durable than to hold a razors edge, and i think this will serve the purpose well.

7 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Yes that's one of my tips for finding postvises cheap.  The mounting stuff is pretty trivial to build and can lower a price substantially. In addition its hard to tell if a mount was "original" to a vise anyway as they got moved around a lot during 100 years or so of use.

yeah the mount actually looks original but the base mount definitely isn't (which is fine). It was machined out of what looks like 1/2 inch steel plate. i plan on making a hefty metal stand for this so i'll weld that bottom piece onto the base anyhow so i can just slide the vice in and out by taking off the top bolts. 

13 hours ago, BlasterJoe said:

I just recently made a karambit out of a box end none plated wrench. I was surprised how easily the metal moved. If you do forge them use a soft hand. For hardening I heated to nonmagnetic and quenched in vegetable oil. It seemed to do the trick. If you look at my thread some of the guys had some really info on wrenches and vanadium.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/51118-wrench-karambit/

 

So i'm making a couple knives out of it, seemed to harden pretty well. I stll havent put a full edge on it yet as i'm making the handle but here's some pics. 

that was before a rough grind.. 

Here is the bottom one after i did the rough grind and quench. Rough fitting on the handle and guard.. Obviously that still needs shaped and worked. 

3 hours ago, Scrambler82 said:

Nice Vice, that one lower than I thought they usually do, I don't really know !

Also, looks like you are starting an Anvil collection ?

 

What do you mean? the mounting plate just slides

and i'm sure trying, have my peter wright, and that's the sodorfors on the ground i'm mounting soon. I cant wait to use it. I'm really trying to find a german style anvil now as well

3 hours ago, Lionel h said:

Nice vise, get her mounted, start using it. Is it missing the spring ? I couldn't tell in the picture. 

Yeah it's missing the spring. Thats how i talked him down a lot in money. Little did he know i can forge one pretty easily from an old leaf spring that i have tons of sitting in a junkyard :P.. 

14 hours ago, Bayshore Forge said:

This thing looks pretty darn cool. What type of stock did you start with? 

an old 3lb ball peen hammer =] was awful to move.

2 hours ago, jumbojak said:

Billings and Spencer was still forging simple carbon steel wrenches long after other makers had switched to more sophisticated alloys for their tools. If you get a closeup of the markings I might be able to roughly estimate the date and give a better idea of the alloy, though the end profiles certainly look like the older style which was produced into the 1920s.

At one time B&S was a premium brand for adjustable and fixed end wrenches. They fell behind the times though and later attempt to modernize never gained much traction until the company was absorbed by Crescent Niagara and later killed by the Cooper Tool Group. The ones you have would probably make good candidates for repurposing.

I have a small but growing collection of the old style Billings wrenches. They can be had very cheaply and I love the look of them. Especially the obstruction wrenches.

Awesome great info! we have buckets full of them so lots of repurposing =]

D2. that stuff does not like to move.. next time i'm doing a medium carbon body and a high carbon edge.. spent too much time hammering out the shape on the d2

My first bladed project. Hardened and sharpened yesterday. pretty happy with it. making the handle from hickory today.

My first bladed project. Hardened and sharpened yesterday. pretty happy with it. making the handle from hickory today.