Mike Scan-D

Nice

Had this happen last night. drilling three holes in a knife handle before hardening and the third hole just wasn't having any of it. I reheated and punched the last hole due to the fact that she ate the sharp off my last 3/16 TiN cote.

Thank you Arkie

I love making these farriers file choppers. I'd never try to remove the file and rasp pattern, gives it character

Sounds typical for I.T. "upgrades". Well, thanks for the heads up on the searching. Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.

How long has the search bar been useless?

Steve Sells, pardon my impropriety, but I DO run a topic through the search prior to posting. The search pulled up no result when I used it, therefore I posted a new thread. No need for hostilities over it. Again, my bad

xxxx, I search barred this prior to posting a new thread.....nothing. But yes, i was serious.

i'll occasionally use a zinc plated stock. if its square, i take a flap disc to it on all sides. if its round stock i either flap disc or put a heavy twisted wire wheel to it on the grinder. After either prep, ill toss the shorter pieces into the fire pit in the back yard (as long as theres no wind) and cook off anything that I may have missed prior to forge heating the stock. I had a run in with fume fever, and I'll avoid plated stock 99% of the time. if you really must use plated stock, get the plating off as best as you can. Daswulf's muriatic acid bath is a good idea also, Ive done that also, but try to do that outdoors in fresh air to avoid fumes from that process.

I was wondering if anyone else has tried the heat treaters companion app for their smart phone. I downloaded it and it seems pretty informative as to chemical composition, ideal forge temps both high and low, and proper heat treating sequences for different grades of steel. I forge mostly mild steel, some spring steel, and high carbon for knives (plus the occasional "mystery metal" that gets scrounged up from convenient roadside scrap heaps). If you've used this app, let me know if you've found it useful

A bathroom fan DOES push air, it pulls from a room and pushes to the exit point outside the house. A high CFM would work fine, you already have a 3'' outlet on the housing. Mount it on a piece of plywood with a decent sized hole cut in and put a slide plate over it for a regulator.

I didnt go all that heavy JHCC, and i removed any excess that was expelled when i reassembled. Good tip though

I just picked up a Columbian also, finished the clean up and some fresh grease on the pivot and screw, plus a good wipe of boiled linseed oil on all the rest. It doesnt have the bracket or spring, but thats what smithing is for...isnt it

Ill check, thanks Glen