jack hollingsworth

A good tip if you use a wire wheel on a bench grinder is to put silicon or gap filler into the wires near the centre of the wheel (not on the outside edge where you will be using it of course). When it sets it will help hold the wire in the wheel and prolong the lifespan of the wheel. Be sure to push it right in there though, it can be messy but its worth it. Having less pieces of wire flying off into your apron/clothing is also a plus.

money helps! i find it gets me most things i want, sometimes even the opposite sex...

cheers for your input, i was leaning towards the vegie oil.

G'day,
i've made a dagger out of 1075 and 15N20 (first patern weld ) and would like to hear what you guys use to quench this combination. I've got old cooking oil or ALOT of old engine oil from trucks. The blade is 32mm wide, 6mm thick and about 250mm long. I've left 6mm of flat steel in the spine of the blade and the rest is bevelled. I thought it might be wise to ask first just incase, i dont want to ruin this one. What would you do? I promise pictures once its done too ;)

how ya goin? here is a knife i made whilst at work. I found a broken piece of a file and some old leather gloves and decided to do this..

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/jack.lee.hollingsworth/Metal?feat=directlink

My first stacked leather handle and peened end, i really could of done alot better, but hey, its for slaying dragons, not looking pretty.

thats awesome!

still on for saturday Mick? i'll give you a call friday arvo to confirm. need any steel?

love it! nice work mate. i want one

hey, here is the finished knife. Ive had it done for a while but havent been able to load JPEG to this website so here is the link! Picasa Web Albums .

pictures of past projects youve worked on are handy. Also, show that your keen to learn and will show up every day! say what your really good at and say what you'd like to perfect. And being an apprentice, know how to take a great deal of cr*p lol. Apprentices that take things to heart and sook, tend to get picked on more. being that your 23 i'd say you know that already. i find it easier to get a job if im talking one on one with the supervisor/boss rather than being a random resume in a pile or inbox.. Get them talking about the place rather than you talking about yourself.. people would rather talk about themselves than listen.
Good luck!

nice, that red morell burl is good as, i want some! where did you get it? you had that with you at Mikes ( ABA.. QLD ) on saturday didnt you?

clear coat laquer in a spray can works well. but it comes off with use..

G'day, at my work there are a few lengths of "spring steel" flat bar that were left over from a job.. The boss said its 1447 or just "spring steel"... does this sound right to you guys? Ive had a look at this link and others: Steel designations and common steel compositions - British Blades :: Custom Knife Making

would it be 1(plain carbon) 4 (4 alloying elements or is it Molybdenum) and 0.47 percent carbon?
I'm no expert on spark testing but its a whole lot different to mild steel and similar to when i sharpen my chisel (bench grinding).
any thoughts guys? are the numbers a bit mixed up?

hello there, just thought i'd show how nice stainless steel and aluminium can polish up to.



the only downside is that any little imperfection shows up very easily.

i do alot of MIG welding and i tend to clench my teeth when concentrating.. i love to belt out a tune whilst welding away so this is good encouragement!

that'll look shmicko when its polished mate. I made a Machete out of a random stainless (316 i think, not a blade steel i know also) and you can get a mirror finish quite easily since its not hardened. make sure you post pics when you get more done, i want to see.

that will come up brilliant if you use a few more grades of paper b4 hitting it with the polishing mops. i had lines like that too.

i used alot of elbow grease and sand paper.. i think the finest grade i used was 1200.. i also used a buffing pad hooked up to my drill with a bit of cutting compound, it really did the trick to finish it off. I have gone back and redone the whole polish because of a few little lines.. they were driving me crazy. Dont move on to a finer grade sand paper until every single imperfection is sanded out is what i discovered the hard way.

can you post a pic of your tanto Hammbone? I gave my friend a japanese sword making book for his birthday that i plan on borrowing Im quite new to bladesmithing and i'd it shows. this knife is still a lesson in all things bladesmithing for me. but i hope to make it pretty enough to give to my friend. Ive seen the start of a documentary of how they make Tamhagane steel, very labour intensive and hot process. No wonder its near imposible to get. Hey chuckster, the hot metal probably got too close to where the air comes out and oxidised just like with an Oxy/Acetylene torch.. im pretty sure thats what happened with mine.

its made from a file (w1 i belive), i had more of a stick tang happening but then it melted off when i wasnt keeping a close enough eye on it so i used a flattened out bolt to make up the rest of the tang. I had intended to use the thread to tighten it all on but never did. so yeah, hopefully it wont weaken it too much as the join is in the handle. i dont think this knife will get used very much ;)

yeah the more i look at the pictures the more i pick at it. i know what to do different next time. When a ship comes in, its rush rush rush, and long hours but then its gone and everyone gets laid off until the next one.. thats what i was told, im in the fabrication shop where its more continuous. The company i work for is fazing out the ship repair as they cannot upgrade theyre dry dock as it is heritage listed now and so they cant be competetive.. but they have the facilities to take on any big manufacturing contract.

My old tafe teacher (college) told me to worry about three things to get a good weld.
1. weld preparation.. Make sure its clean, enough gap if doing a root run.. etc

2. Settings.. you just have to play around and weld on a bit of scrap until you have something that feels good to you.

3. Technique. once you have the other two all you have to do is practice! and that will get your technique down pat. (maybe pause more on the sides)

This is what a told my dad to teach him how to use his gasless mig and he is getting pretty good for half blind, rough bugger.

I hope this helps anyone reading this thread, ive learnt a lot from everyones imput here so far.

Hey there, these are two weld tests i did today. It was bare wire ( 0.9mm ) and in the vertical up position. One is 10mm buttweld and the other is 20mm buttweld (Im aussy so its metric). I had to do it to become certified for DNV standards so we can build things for the international ships that come into the dock. These will get sent away and have all sorts of tests done on them. Hopefully they pass. I just thought i'd show how i did it.

another pic, it has since been glued and now im waiting to get a go with the stainless mig at work so i can weld on the butt cap (the stick tang goes through a hole in the stainless because i had no access to a tap and die set)
The blade is W1 by the way and the fittings are 316 stainless. The handle is called Kwila, it is a Papua New Guinea hardwood. I cant wait to start shaping the handle, ive been busy doing long hours at work.

thats such a nice blade Rich, i like how its not so "busy" or complex, its refreshing. How do you secure the handle on? is it peened at the end cap or some other method? Do you have a picture of how you put the billet together to start off with that you could post?