OldGoat

Hello All, I made the trip to Fredericksburg Ohio , Yoder's blacksmith supplies.. WOW what a place, amazing ! Blacksmith heaven. Thank you JHCC. I bought 500 lbs. of coal despite the fact the bags weren't labeled and the old timer working didn't know where the coal was from. I got out in the shop yesterday , the new coal was very hard to start but once it was going seemed to be better than the other coal I had. It coked nicely and seem to have a higher temp. I'm working on getting a way to accurately measure my temps . I was just working see if I could savage one of the blades that failed. I realized that all my inclusions "failed welds" are on tang end of my billets so I'm thinking I'm not getting that end in the fire far enough to bring them to welding temps. I've been reading about stacking verses folding and about fluxes , cleaning and grinding, wow my head hurts. Its all pretty much what I've been doin g, but I can see some thing s I've done wrong . I've went back and read what you all have suggested so I'm planning on some serious shop sessions next few weeks. Im sure ill be back with question .I attached a pic of the last successful knife just because. Thank you all again . Merry Christmas to all.

JHCC , thank you excellent info, glad there`s someplace much closer, Ill be giving Yoders a call.,,, Frosty I was using pea size , it has a lot of fines in it and i try to filter those out but that`s a pain, Ill come up with a better plan for that. At one point i added some nugget size i have and that only seem to make it worse . I have good air flow i believe. Ill get some different coal and see what happens. I appreciate all the really great advice from all of you .

Thank you Gents, amazing amount of experience and knowledge you all have. I believe each of you hit on some aspects of my Issues . I had to increase my air flow to keep my temperatures up and seems to be much more smoke, I wasn't paying attention to the smoke color but very possibly more yellow (sulphur content). The smell is certainly different, Cokes up differently and not as well .As far as my cottage cheese issue I certainly believe i over soaked it because of my temp issues . In the past I would bring my billets up to white hot but not to the sparking stage to set my welds, but now I can get them close but not all the way . I need to up my note taking game because the older I get the less i remember lol. I think my game plan will now fall back and find some different coal , I live in northern Indiana and I will see if I can find some locally , if not Penn Keystone coal company sells Pocahontas #3 from West Virginia , it would be a 10 hour drive one way but would be worth the trip . I can`t thank you all enough for taking the time to offer up the great insight and suggestions . p.s Im having difficulty posting pictures, once i figure that out i can add some pictures of the coal.

I`ve spent many hours getting great information from this site. Never thought id need to seek help, but here I am . I've made several pattern welded knifes using 1095 and 15n20 , I have been very lucky that I`ve never had any issues with inclusions or issues other than my own inexperience, that is until recently. Three blades in a row have had inclusions , I`ve went back and reviewed my notes and trying to figure out what Im doing different. The only thing I can come up with is I recently purchased several bags of coal, In the past I`ve always used Pocahontas and never any issues. The bagged coal I recently bought i thought was Pocahontas , right away i noticed it was harder to light and only every gets to bright yellow in the forge, where as I could hit near white with old batch of coal. I went back and found pictures on my phone of the bags and never realized the bags were labeled Pennsylvania smithing coal . I got on line and seen that coal is bituminous but in my mind its just not the same. I normally start with seven layers and fold 4 times , on one billet i had completed the second weld and had to leave it in the forge what seemed a long time and it suddenly it cottage cheesed in the forging hammer, my temps seem to be all over place and not evenly coming to temp in the forge . I`m still a rookie at this and I know I have much to lean , so hoping you all have some insight. thanks