Charlotte

This is a whole new style of knife/weapon to me. I must say that they all look creepy vicious to me but nicely done as a working theme. (Zombie flicks are not high on watch list)

At that size they look like fixtures used in a vise.

There is no simple way to test for a specific alloy. The best way is to identify the make, model, year of the truck and search the internet for the specifications.

Rebar has little to recommend it as forging material because of the ridges and because the alloy it is made of can be almost anything that meets the specification of which there are several. In general the best use is for its intended purpose. Buried in concrete. That said there are a number of simple projects that can be made with it. I have bent it, welded it, twisted it, and forged sections of it to try out ideas before committing "store bought" steel to a project. If you want to try out the steps to forging a pair of tongs it is a cheap place to start assuming you got it for free.

Kind of depends on what the usage is as to how what material to use. A while back and also recently I invested in H13 round for forge tools. If you have a coal forge it is possible to forge H13 between the forging temp is some where between bright yellow and white, I have forged chisels for hot work that way. For a center punch buy 3/8 drill rod grind to shape. Critical Temperature:Ac1: 1544°F (840°C)Ac3: 1634°F (890°C)Ar1: 1475°F (802°C)Ar3: 1418°F (826°C)Preheating: To minimize distortion in complex tools use a double preheat. Heat at a rate not exceeding 400°F per hour (222°C per hour) to 1150-1250°F (621-677°C), equalize, then raise to 1500-1600°F (816-871°C) and equalize. For normal tools, use only the second temperature range as a single preheating treatment. Austenitizing (High Heat): Heat rapidly from the preheat. Furnace or Salt: 1800-1890°F (982-1032°C) For maximum toughness, use 1800°F (982°C) For maximum hardness and resistance to thermal fatigue cracking and wear use 1890 (1032°C). Soak at temperature for 30 to 90 minutes. Quenching: Air, pressurized gas, or warm oil. Section thicknesses up to and including 5 inches (127 mm) will typically fully through harden when cooled in still air from the austenitizing treatment. Sections greater than 5 inches (127 mm) in thickness will require accelerated cooling by using forced air, pressurized gas, or an interrupted oil quench to obtain maximum hardness, toughness and resistance to thermal fatigue cracking. For pressurized gas quenching, a minimum quench rate of approximately 50°F per minute (28°C per minute) to below 1000°F (538°C) is required to obtain the optimum properties in the steel. For oil, quench until black, about 900°F (482°C), then cool in still air to 150-125°F (66-51°C). Tempering: Temper immediately after quenching. The typical tempering range is 1000-1150°F (538-621°C). Hold at the tempering temperature for 1 hour per inch (25.4mm) of thickness, but for 2 hours minimum, then air cool to ambient temperature. Double tempering is required. To maximize toughness and tool performance, a third temper is often used as a stress relief after all finish machining, grinding, and EDM work are completed on the tool.

Your knife makes me smile. I don't exactly know why but it amuses me. I think it is the simple honesty of it. Perhaps, I smile because it does not pretend to be anything other than a "pointy object" I like it!

Oh! That is great stuff! You DO have the gift. May I suggest you look at the ABANA website www.abana.org . ( Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America ) You will be interested in their gallery. Also the website www.artmetal.com Has a gallery and social network that you my find interesting.

Still have one that my father acquired when he bought his first car in 1936. He used it and I still do. tough has taken a beating and was perfect "back in the day" when autos and machinery was less "refined"

You need to read the information available from these people http://www.pineridgeburner.com/. In their products they have both low pressure and high pressure ribbon burners. While it may seem a simple thing design in any burner type contains a lot of hidden gottcha. Their low pressure burners measure pressure in inches of water!

Hydrochloric acid is cheap and available, but it is not really a great acid for the type of etch you want. There are online kits for etching combined with electricity which do a very neat and reliable job. Really Deep ? can mean a lot of things. If I wanted it really deep I'd just do steel engraving on mild steel. Making and sharpening engraving tools is a special skill in itself. Get a brownell's catalogue and by a couple of theirs. If you have really neat handwriting you should be able to do what you need in a few hours of practice and have a new skill. Other wise, get some bee's wax, nitric acid, and a feather.

I like it a lot! would like to have looked over your shoulder while you were fitting the handle.

One other thing, you need a real welding machine not your home and farm cracker box. One of the downsides of small machines is maintaining interpass heat with out burning up the machine. With big rods you may be down to 20 % on the duty cycle

I've repaired one anvil and have another to repair some day soon. However, when I look at the pic is can only say that I wish the anvil I want to repair was in that good shape. If it were mine I would use it with care and loving attention. Really doesn't need repair.

When I saw the picture I let out and audible " OH! WOW!" Really out standing in proportion and design. Makes me ashamed that I don't have the artistic talent to conceive let alone execute such work.!

Grew up with parents that were both young adults in '29 and worked through the depression at what ever was needed. Kind of got in the mind set that spending money if it could possibly be repaired, improved, modified or other wise made useful was a sin. Not so much the engineering mind set as the be independent of out side resources when possible. In working life when company was to cheap to buy equipment, or provide adequate equipment I invented and/or repaired things to keep my operations going. Just kind of impatient with things that got in the way of doing the job.

I've had good luck buying worn out jackhammer bits at home depot. Also check the discount chains like Big Lots. I bought a 5 Chinese crowbars from them years ago that may be just straight 1045 forged out hex later on I bought a spud par that is certainly 1045 from the way it forged and behaved in hardening test. I don't mind paying 5 bucks for 2 lbs or so of tool steel even if it is not really S7

I use my small one forming part of candle cups from pipe. Helps with the initial flare.

Twenty years in the Industrial Gas business and I've never read a better discussion than Frosty's epistle on acetylene. Should be sticky!.

The refectory manufacturers sell a compound that is a mixture of water glass and stabilizers. I have used it and found that it helps stiffen and prepare Kaowool for coating with itc-100 or satanite. High temp stove and furnace cement probably would not work satisfactorily.

When I lived in Pennsylvania as a child the coal I saw shoveled was what would be identified as steam coal. The only sure way to tell is to break some up into nut sized lumps and light it in a coal forge. I picked up some coal from a barge accident on the Mississippi River that had been intended for a Power plant. It was the most miserable stuff to try to forge with but I didn't know any better at the time. Just looking at the color and texture I doubt that it would be very pleasant to try to use in a coal forge.

This site was posted in the Welding general fab discussions http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ That guy told me more than I thought there was to know about technique in mig welding.

There is extensive information on this site describing a number of different atmospheric burner designs. You should perhaps consider that your attitude and lack of basic information annoys many of the smiths here. I have my own peculiar design system that I've never posted because I don't have the patience to answer postings like yours. Frosty on the other hand has gone out of his way to develop and explain a very simple and basic burner system that works extremely well. That you have failed to investigate his posts frustrates him I'm sure and makes me feel that you don't want to learn. You are like the rich man that brings a car in with no oil in the engine and wonders why the dealer doesn't want to honor the warrantee. " I don't care if you think it is my fault! Just fixit at not cost to me!"

You might try looking at www.abana.org home page. They maintain a list of schools and member organizations for blacksmiths. They have extensive lists of blacksmith relevant sites of which IFI is one.

Muriatic acid, impure diluted hydrochloric acid, is great stuff for a number of things. However, do not store anywhere near finished steel surfaces. My mother, bless her dear heart, kept a plastic gallon jug of hydrochloric acid in my fathers tool shop after he died. When I went into the shop to clear out after she died I discovered that every tool had a fine coat of rust. Hydrochloric acid is a SOLUTION, Hydrogen chloride dissolved in water. This means that unless the plastic is impermeable to the gas and tightly sealed every change in air pressure will vent some Hydrogen chloride into the surroundings. Word to the wise, a lot of plastic containers in which hydrogen chloride was shipped and may still be shipped are not impermeable to Hydrogen chloride vapor. I chose to dispose of the muriatic acid by going to the Home Depot and buying a bag of ground limestone, dividing acid in several 5 gallon plastic buckets, diluting with water, and adding lime stone to the buckets a little at a time. I takes a surprisingly long time to get all of the acid killed. The end result is perfectly safe to add to your vegetable garden and may improve you tomato production.

for what it is worth I soaked an elm section in straight antifreeze for 6 months. That was 18 years ago it is still in one piece and used as an anvil support.