chrisfrick

The Sodium filled exhaust valves were used extensively in the old aircraft piston engines (and VERY large--4360 cubic inches, 28 cylinder was the largest ever made) and although I've never seen it or heard from someone who's had first hand knowledge--the sodium filled valves have a tendency to EXPLODE when the sodium is either heated and exposed to air, or just exposed to air. Having this information beat into my head for years and years, I just stay from them to be safe.

I just finished and got to use my RR anvil for the first time last night--the track itself is actually a support piece that's welded to a 1" X 8" X 8" piece of A36 plate for the bottom, and a 4 1/2"X2 1/2"X10" piece of 4140 (that only took me 3 hours to heat treat using about 8 pounds of charcoal) on the top as an anvil face--the track section is 10 inches long and the whole assembly looks pretty darn good. Very, very quiet operation with a really nice "ding, ding-ding" sound when lightly ringing it. I would have posted pictures, but for some reason my camera's focusing ability has left it taking blurry pictures.

Wondering if all that stuff came from the demolition of the old rail yard? Why doesn't he want to break up the lot? Like Brasilikilt said--it's guys like that who make it so hard for guys like me to find a decent piece of steel to beat on! Just checked his page and it states CASH ONLY over, and over, and over again--I don't like this guy already!

I've used liquid wrench, WD-40, diesel oil mixed with lacquer thinner, and my current favorite is a product called Mouse Milk (google it, there's a website)--used extensively in the aviation industry and from my experience is pretty good.

Tim Lively's video is great--I've owned a copy (downloaded from amazon.com) for a little over a year now. I've made the forge, used the charcoal, and have nothing but good things to say about Tim and Marian and their video. There are TONS of little things they do in that video that they do not mention--very minor details, such as how he forges the choile (sp?) or finger relief, and lots more (I haven't watched it in a while). Everytime I watch it, I pick something up. I made a mini version of his knife and it works great--I could have gone a little easier on the tempering, but for what it is and does is fine. On the forge design, I just finished lining my second "Lively Forge" and have added more holes in the tweer (sp--I know it's wrong). I'll be firing it for the first time on Saturday. The thing that really, really helped was using appropriately sized charcoal--I bust up the lump charcoal (not briquettes) to about a 3/4 to 1 inch size and fabricated two "bricks" out of a refractory mix I found on line somewhere for placing over the top--sort of like making a small oven. I haven't tried welding with it yet, but I'd bet money that it'd go pretty good. Been using a "modified" hair dryer with excellent results for the air supply. Anyhow, buy the DVD if you can--well worth the money and then some. Have fun!!

Well said. All of your points should be taken very seriously by all who attempt to do what we do. (Especially the fact that we all wield 20 lb hammers and move 200+ lb anvils with ease!). On the glove note--I agree with Glenn. I have never used gloves in my just over a year experience smithing. I feel that there is much, much more control to be had with bare hands, and if you need gloves, you're either doing it wrong, or need to figure out a better hold for the piece. (I do use welding gloves on occaision when quenching in oil, so maybe I need longer tongs?!) Your positive attitude will take you far. Keep it up!

I've got a 3 year old son who, at every chance he gets, runs out to my anvil, grabs some small scraps of steel, or some tongs (in several cases he grabbed one of my cold chisels that I forgot to put out of reach), then proceeds to beat the anvil with them all the while saying, "I make meetal dadee!" Can't wait until he's a little older and stronger!

Spot on post, Quenchcrack. Point taken--I'll stop asking questions now. :)

I hate this guy! One more thing to add to my "must learn how to do this, even if it takes me 80 years" list! Very nice.

One thing that will kill most insects almost instantaneously is Lacquer Thinner--I use it on black widows and it drops them in their tracks! (probably *really* bad to use around a forge, though--nevermind ;)

Is it white pine, or yellow pine? BIG difference in hardness--white is really, really soft and the yellow (more common in the Southern U.S.) is much more durable--so durable/strong that it is used in anything from making ladders to flooring. IMO, yellow pine should be fine for a knife handle--you could also explore the option of getting it stabilized, too.

Makes much more sense now after looking at the video--assuming they cut the knife out from the blank leaving the friction stirred section as the cutting edge. I think it would be fun to just hang out at a place like that and watch it for a couple of hours (or days)!

Aside from the *massive* cost of a friction stir welding machine, what on a knife do you need to weld? Or are you just wanting to mix up the material (which I don't think is possible)?

That's a slick setup--sorta like the one I got, except it's on my back yard lawn without a covered area, so everything is "super" portable. I too, started out with a RR track (and soon figured out that mounting it upside down, in a 5 gal bucket of cement worked good for the first one or two hammer blows and then it was all over!). I've got a similar forge, however I "dismantled" one of my wife's "dead" hairdryers and made a variable speed controller for it (not going into electronic engineering here--go to radio shack and buy some books!) that works awesome. You got a screamin deal on that piece for your anvil--I got one half that size (2 1/2"X4 1/2"X10") for about $125--and that I had to save up for, for a long time). I'm going to weld the large piece I have to the top of my RR track, standing it on it's end (and as you said before, similar to increasing the mass under the hammer area), and then already have it welded to another 1" plate on the bottom for bolting to my home made anvil stand (used 2X12's--looks pretty slick, and when it's all done, yes I'll post pics). Don't worry, I'm familiar with the welding of this type of materials--preheating, cooling, etc. Currently I'm in the process of building another forge, just for the sole purpose of heat treating my new "anvil top" as the Lively design is a little too small for that big piece of steel I got. Gonna get crazy with some furnace cement and pearlite. Anyhow, nice work man. The next project you need to work on is *making* your bolt tongs. You shouldn't ever have to buy those types of tools--I use the cheap stuff you get from one of the major home building supply stores, but have some 4140 that's just waiting to be transformed into some useful tools.

What kind of drill were you using? HSS, Cobalt, Ti coated, etc.? I have had very, very good results with Cobalt and that's pretty much the only thing I use now. Aside from that, Dodge hit it on the head--use the proper speed and feed for the drill and the material and a cutting lube helps too.

That's awesome, man--too bad you're way over on the right side of the country. Would be fun to hang out and make goofy stuff like that!

The knife in my avatar is 5160, made from the right, rear main leaf spring of a '65 ford pickup, 7 1/2" blade with an 11 1/4" overall length--takes and holds an edge really nice. I'm able to chop up seasoned oak, bamboo, chicken, beef, carrots, prune my apricot tree and can still shave hair with it (okay, it's more like pulling the hair out by scraping, but it does hold a good edge given the abuse I can put it through). I have heard that most U.S. auto manufacturers used 5160 and it was pretty much standard on the vehicles using leaf springs from the '50's to the '60's and then the auto makers started experimenting with other alloys. (at least that's what I've heard--could be totally wrong.) I have also heard that the newer vehicles are using some rather nasty elements such as selenium (again, could be totally wrong), but they're not really consistently 5160 anymore, which would explain some coil springs *not* spark testing like 5160. And yes, you can heat the coil springs, unwind them, and make blades--may or may not make *great* blades, but you can get enough material out of one spring to make a dozen knives and if the material doesn't hold up well, the only thing you've lost is the material--you've gained valuable experience forging them!

First and foremost, nice knife!! I've tried to use tung oil on cocobolo (very, very oily wood) and never really got it to work quite right. I do like the paste wax products that "dry hard" but you need to really work them into the wood and be careful not to let it dry until it's all smoothed out--kinda hard to explain, but the wax will dry with ridges that you can just barely make out if you look at it really close. Second to that would be shellac, however shellac doesn't really like water all that much. Another idea would be to do a test piece--try to get some different products together and try them out if possible. Also, try to locate a "hardwood" lumber yard. There are many yards that only deal in exotic hardwoods and there *may* be someone at one of those places that could help. Lastly, try Google--that's what I end up doing most of the time ;)

Nice looking chopper there--try hacking up some wood with it, then inspect the blade for chips/cracks/bent edge/etc. Really kinda cool looking with the "feathers" in it. Nice work!

Maybe throw in a "no B.S." warranty-it's not covered if they do something with it that they weren't supposed to.

I love cooking, and I love knives, but have yet to make myself one (been focusing on camp knife stuff). I *do* know what makes a good chef knife and actually prefer the longer blades (10 inch-that's the length of the blade alone, not blade + handle)--a lot of people like the shorter ones, though (8 inch). If you can, google Shun knives by Kershaw--very nice, high carbon center with SS laminated sides friction welded to the inner carbon piece. They also have a "D" shaped handle design that's very comfortable. I don't have any, as they are way beyond my budget, but have tried them out several times and really like them. If you can, go to kitchen supply stores and look/feel the "high end" chef knives and also take note of the various blade grinds/designs and also ask the salesperson what they think of them and what they would most likely use a specific blade design for (chopping vegetables vs. carving a turkey). And as mentioned before, food produces some rather nasty chemical interactions with steel (I'm thinking that's why most knives used for food are stainless?). Hope my ranting helps.