Conrad.blacksmithing

Craigslist, 83 pounds is not convincing yes hopefully sell knives and other things.

Well, the drive will probably cost $100+ and I might have to save a bit because i am just saving for a car. I do know I just talked to the guys wife and she said he has a nice one that he uses and one for sale which I'm guessing is this one but she said to call at 6pm because he might be back in the house. I hope it is more than a 100# because the drive shaft anvil I have right now is 135# I bought at a machine shop down the road. I mostly plan to forge tongs, knives, maybe some decorations for my mom, but nothing over 1in. It has probably been 3-4 months so maybe he will go down in price especially because he already has another anvil. I pulled the picture up on a program and have it zoomed and is pretty obvious that it says "armitage" at the top and "hole forge" at the bottom of text. And the numbers look like 0.2.27

Hi, I need an anvil because all I have right now is just a drive shaft standing up on a log and I saw this one on craigslist. I can't get much information about it because the sellers are an old couple and the guy is not in the house right now. Anyway I think it is a mousehole and it might weight 180-200# I called a long time ago and he said it was 150$ but it would be a long drive so I'm going to have to pay the gas for my mom and dad (I'm 14). I live in Idaho and the anvil is in oregon about 3 hours drive. Any pricing tips especially ID would help out thanks.

Yes, Du I did do that but I figured too that the edge would be hard but I have a softish anvil and lightly TAPPED the edge on the corner of the anvil and it dented the edge so I got another manufactured 1095 knife (kabar) that I have and HIT it on the corner of the anvil and the kabar cut my anvil instead of the edge of the blade. Anyway I tried to dunk the entire knife in water to quench and ended up cracking in three places. I do think I had a thick layer of decarb and I didn't try to grind through it so I will do that next time I have no experience so I am not disappointed I just learned a ton in a couple of days.

I haven't been on the forum for a few days, on tuesday I finally just stuck my leaf spring knife in water to heat treat and I had to go to town so I quickly put the knife in the vise with the tip pointing out and hammered it. It snapped right off and I was pretty excited (because I had tried time and time again to harden this knife but didn't harden) so I asked my dad if he could put it in the oven for me since I was gonna be gone and when I got back he showed me the blade had cracked three times (very large). I am not really that disappointed because I got to learn a lot from this experience. Yesterday I started forging some tongs out of some of the spring steel I got and got one half done and the other one just needs the reins drawn out. They are just flat bit tongs. Also my dad is starting to fix up lapidary (rock) saws for some extra cash and a bar on one of them is the wrong size and doesn't work well so I am forging that for him. I will post pictures of my tongs when they are done I think I'm going to buy some rivets off blacksmith depot because I am not very good at doing it with just a bar. sorry for the long post.

Yes Thomas I tried too harden and another piece of this same steel but it has been forged a little bit before I quench the in water and the file skates right across the surface. I think I will just dump the entire thing in water real quick and if that doesn't harden it I don't think it will be able to be Hardened. Thanks for the help guys

We have a family friend that sells a lot of tools to us and I got a 3x64 from him for 600$ it also has a stone grinding wheel. He's really cool guy, he is letting me make payments on it.

I have been trying to harden a knife I forged out of leaf spring steel and I have heat treated it in vegetable oil while above non-magnetic and won't harden. I have done this several times. Then I decided to try to harden it in water so I got it non-magnetic and didn't want it to shatter or warp so I just dipped the edge in the water and after little bit dunked the whole thing. I have no idea why my knife won't harden. Last night I finally thought I had hardened it is vegetable oil the file seemed to skate across (I am not experienced) and I tempered it in the at 350 for 30mins then 400 for 30mins (All in the same hour) and today did 350 for 20mins and 400 for 40mins and had a slight straw color along the edge that convinced me it was ok. But I go to file a design in the spine of the knife today and the file just digs in and is easy to make the design. Any tips? I know if I dunk the whole thing in water when hot it will warp so I really don't know what to do.

That's right, I'm definitely glad of that JHCC. Hope I can harden this blade right. good luck with your forging. drms

I learned that I will never take a torch to the spine of a knife to temper a little more. I did that today and I was going slow and low with the torch and saw a straw color coming from the spine and all of the sudden it turned purple and rushed to the edge. I put the blade in water to try to stop this madness but I file tested and it is extremely soft so I gotta heat treat again.

Ok Thomas, I'm putting it in the oven right now good thing I checked the forum because it is getting late and just wanted to see what people said. Thanks for letting me know my mistake before it turned to a failure. drms

Today I heat treated my first forged knife tomorrow I'm going to temper it.

Thanks for the info

Thanks, I couldn't see anything about that in the stickies. So I should probably temper twice at 350 just because this steel is so hard right? I have seen some videos and done some research but am not familiar with all the names of the different crystals or phases. Again thanks for your patience and help drms

I'm there right now and can't see a "heat treat sticky" the title says "all stickies are here" so if someone could tell me where it is i am perfectly willing to read. drms

Hey guys what temp do I temper my blade at and how long? It is about 1/4" with taper towards the tip and its leaf spring steel. Thanks, drms

Awesome I don't have any friends at fast food but I will visit some restaurants and see if I can take it off their hands. KFC will have a ton I bet.

Thanks for the help I have seen first hand how big this place is. I barely scratched the surface and have learned so much I will go check out the stickies for sure. I think I'm going to check on the canola oil and see if it is expensive because I know vegetable oil is pretty cheap.

Daswulf I looked up the plunge line jig and that is amazing I was having a lot of trouble on where stop near the handle so tomorrow I will make one of those and use it for my next knife. Thanks.

No, I didn't but I will for sure. I will definitely do the Vegetable oil. Thanks.

Yes, Frosty that makes a lot of sense when I was forging this knife there were some pretty large sheets of scale coming off I was a little worried about that. Frosty, is mineral oil ok to quench spring steel in? or should I buy some actual quenching oil? Thanks.

Lol I will definitely consider that.

Ok, thanks that is really good to know. Thanks for the advice. Also thank you Lou L for the grinding technique you told me about I retried it just now and am really impressed with the results of the grind line. I do think I got the edge a little too thin so I hope it doesn't warp or get cracks.

Yeah, I just realized that. I was thinking that 02 was a steel not oxygen. Guess I gotta slow down. That is a very good idea, does it keep the blade from getting scale? Thanks again for everyone's help I have learned so much in two days that I didn't know about blacksmithing/bladesmithing.

Thanks Thomas, I don't really understand what you are saying about the charcoal and 02, my dad and I got so sheet metal and brazed a make-do box with some mineral oil. Hope it will work. Is there any oils that are better for treating spring steel?