JimmyE

I thought about that and was going to ask, Thanks

I made a touchmark some time ago and keep forgetting to use it. I had not thought about putting it on the pin, I may try it.

The only pin material I had was brass so that is why it is, you can't see it in the picture but there is a little brown in the wood is some places. This is 10- 1x5 inch band saw blade and 10 banding metal, drawn out, cut into 3 pcs, and welded again. Was going to cut again but was running out of material and didn't want to get it too thin. Etched in 100% muriatic acid.

60 layers, Ebony handle

Thanks, Frosty. I did everything you mentioned except the oil on the second blade. I cleaned, welded the ends and went straight to the fire, it welded up just fine. I think my answer is I messed up on the quench. As far as the coach, I have looked in this state and found two on the internet, one 2.5 hours away that makes artsy stuff and one 3.5 hrs away that does classes for a few hundred bucks a day. This is a hobby and as much as I would like to spend time with someone who knows what they are doing it's just not an option right now, maybe when I retire in 3 yrs I can do that. Was just looking for some friendly advice on what may have happened. I did leave out that I reheated the blade after I had the blank formed and put in it in the vice to straighten it before grinding. And they are cracks not cold shuts. Thanks for the replies, both of you, I have time and all but the 1095 is free so I can go back to trial and error, I need the exercise anyway.

Sorry, I will have to do some more research, I don't know the difference. They were not visible until the acid pointed them out. I could see light all the way through but the cracks ran higher toward the spine on the surface than in the center.

My first post, I have looked in post and cannot find so, My first attempt at forge welding different metals to make patterned welded blade. 1st blade, spring steel drawn out, hot cut and folded and inserted a piece of 1095, welded and drawn out, hot cut and folded and inserted another piece of 1095. Hammered the bevel and shape, grind, heat treat, finish grinding and etch with Muriatic Acid. When I pulled it out the etching revealed cracks running from cutting edge toward spine. 2nd blade, 5)1" band saw blades, and 5) pieces of1095. This time I grounded the bevel instead of hammering, thinking it might give me a little better pattern. Same process as before, normalizing three times and quench. I am using canola oil without a temp gauge, but I heat another piece of mild steel and heat it up before quenching. Same results with the cracking. This blade was so hard before ht that I couldn't get a drill bit of any size to drill into the tang so I heated the tang up and hot punched it. Sorry, no pictures. I think it is one of two things or both. First the cooling rate of the different metals in the quench caused the cracks or I just screwed up on the quench. I have successfully quenched the spring steel and 1095 by themselves and got a hard blade. I don't have power hammer or press so it takes a while using arm and hammer and have another 60 layer billet of band saw blades and strapping metal ready for shaping and don't want to make the same mistake on this one.