Jason Fry

Worked on the top of the center upright, to get the pivot in place for the leaf springs. All recycled/used/scrounged materials so far. Closer look at the pivot.

I ended up breaking my tap wrench threading holes for the head guide, so I switched to laying out the flywheel. The idea is to bolt the flywheel to the car room, so that if the tire wears I can just replace the tire. I plan to put three big nuts welded to the flywheel, maybe four, so that I can adjust the stroke length. I’m thinking of setting it up for six, 6.5, 7, 7.5 inch stroke. I left 10 inches of room in my layout on the head to allow for some flex in the springs. The flywheel is 11 inch circle of 1/2 inch plate. Any comments from the gallery about stroke length? I was thinking of keeping adjustable by 1/2 inch increments, so that I could have another way to tune the hammer. Is there a standard or recommended stroke for a hammer like this?

So yesterday I started some of the assembly process. I have a Lincoln 180 running flux core. It's "almost" enough machine for most of the welding required here. Cranked to the max, it'll run a bead and get some penetration on 3/8 to 3/8, but the proof will be in the pudding as to whether that's enough. I'm building this with no cash, a couple of babies, and life being what it is, so I'll have to settle for a few things that may be less than ideal. I hope to chronicle some of that stuff through this thread, so that other folks can learn if "almost" is or isn't sufficient in some of these cases. As for now, I've got a list of things to scrounge or buy for next weekend's work. I'll try and put some pics up of the weekend's progress maybe tomorrow evening.

I started a Rusty hammer yesterday. It’ll probably take me three or four weeks more work to finish, but I have a few pictures from day one. Yesterday we did most of the major cutting, layout, and engineering. This kind of project is like building from a tub of Legos. You know what you want to build, find the pieces you have that will work, and you put it together. It’s not at all like building Legos from a set. The head of the hammer will be about 40 pounds, and the anvil around 400. I have a 32" length of 5 1/2" solid that'll go inside that green sleeve in the pics. Layout on the floor... we don’t need no stinking plans, LOL. Most of the big parts laid out. A closer shot of the spring arm and head lay out. After that, I put it all in the truck and hauled it home. 1000 or 1200 pounds in the back of a Tacoma is quite a load. Lowrider for sure, LOL. Lots of drilling, tapping, welding to go, but I have the next two weekends to do it. I'm sure as I hit challenges, I'll ask you folks plenty of questions, lol.

I bet we have 15% humidity on a wet day here I think you're on to something there, Frosty. It was worse when the forge was really hot. I'll try the nozzle further back and see how it goes.

Could be, Mike. This is the cast forge from the other thread. It had run about an hour and a half total before the huffing started. I did two short 20 min or so heats that pushed off a lot of steam, but that was with the other burner.

Could be, Frosty. I can sure check those variables. Currently the burner is in about a 2.5" opening in the bottom of the forge, but the opening is unfilled. Could be exhaust, alright. Also could need to be further back. Currently the nozzle is flush with the inside of the forge. Also could be, Tim. That's one of the first things I've tried in the past. Turn it down till it huffs, then turn it up a little, and there's the minimum it'll run. This seemed to be different, though, as I was running at fairly high pressure and had been running over a half hour before it started. Even so, may try cranking it up a bit more.

I've got a 3/4" burner built on Mike's design, but it has been a couple of years since I put it together. It'll get to welding heat in a roughly 300 cubic inch chamber, and runs ok from about 5 on up to 12ish PSI. Haven't pushed it higher than that. It tends to want to huff a bit, like it's back burning or something, even at 10 PSI and welding heat. The choke tunes the flame just fine as far as oxidizing/neutral/reducing. Any ideas on the huffing?

Ah, the perils of trial and error learning. The hand me down blower didn't push enough air to be useful. I hooked up a 1/2" Mikey and ran a couple of heat cycles to boil off the steam out of the refractory. After that, I switched over to a 3/4" Mikey and ran it up to welding heat. Stuck two billets just fine. Looks like it will work for the intended purpose, and should be more efficient after the Matrikote arrives from Wayne. I still have one more forge to go, hopefully with a few less "I'll settle for that" and a few more "this is the right stuff."

Scored a hand-me-down blower for the price of a couple gallons of gas. Got the iron parts from Lowes and started working on the burner setup, then got called in to work. Maybe tomorrow...

I think I understand what you mean... extend the length of the flare to throw it softer, and leave a bit of air space along the hole the burner goes in through the refractory. Given these limitations, would a blown burner serve me better? That's on the list of things to do...

Thanks Mike. I have some Metrikote on the way from Wayne. Burner is a 3/4 built off your book design.

This one's built for welding, but I intend to use kerosene for flux. Limited to Damascus billet welding, not blacksmith type stuff at this point.

I just poured the castable on a vertical forge. Used plibrico brand, 2400 degree rated. They have a 2700° I would’ve gotten if I had known about it at the time. Internal diameter of the chamber is going to be about 7 inches, height 9 inches, calculated at 298 cubic inches. Rectangular door openings on each side, so I can pass through a long piece if I need to. Burner opening at the bottom. I cast the lid as a separate flat piece. Got the molds out and then poured the bottom. Likely let it cure a few more days, then do a few lower temp test fires before starting the real work. I've got a 3/4" venturi I plan to use until I get a blown burner built. I'll use it for test/curing fires at least. For the room.... any particular coatings that would help in this case? Would ITC or similar improve the performance? I expect I'm trading durability for fuel consumption... Don't expect this one to be super efficient... going for bullet proof.

Good revisions. The lighting is more even on the second and third ones. The knife-floating-in-dark is a cool effect.

Good looking knife. I'm not convinced on the photo. Tip of the knife is out of focus. You've got a bright spot in the middle of the blade, and the handle is buried in shadow. The diffuse background is kind of cool, but if the pic is of the knife, the knife needs to be in the center, IMO.

Plenty of knife steel dealers online. Look for some 1080 or 1084 to start with.

I've just begun venturing into making my own Damascus. This was my second billet, 160 layers of random pattern 1080 and 15n20. I rounded out the knife with polished stainless fittings and some dark giraffe bone on a fileworked frame handle. OAL is 9 1/2" or so. I'll have this knife and several others at the Lone Star Knife Expo March 25/24 in Dallas. Here's the show flyer, for those who want the info.

Alright folks, here we go. 25 inches overall. Osage handle, blued D guard. Weight is 2 pounds 2.6 oz. Glued up with epoxy, then peened the tang over the butt of the guard.

Fit up the D guard tonight. Likely handle tomorrow. Still alot of finish work to do as well. Laid it out on paper first. Mild steel bar stock and dykem after that.

After finish grinding comes a lot of hand sanding.

Got away with it. Clamped and shimmed to a piece of angle iron, and put in the oven at 350. Think I may end up at 450, but I'm leaving myself two more steps, as I've figured out it straightens better with each temper bump.

Yep, that's a risk. Kids and day job got in the way of my HT schedule. I haven't had that issue before, where one cracked after HT before tempering, in over 500 knives, but I know people it has happened to. I have cracked them in the quench a few times. Using a new steel, heat treated by eye instead of digital, in an oil that's marginally fast for the presumed steel, it's a risk, alright.

Heat treated this evening. Had a little warpage, but not too bad. Got file-skating hard. Haven't tempered yet, but I figure I can get some of the warp out during the temper cycles.