Bonnskij

Thank you. Looks like I did overlook something. So cryo directly after quenching it would seem, and the longer the wait after the less of an effect it will have.

On the other hand, dry ice temperature seems to reach nearly the full potential of cryo treatment, with little gain achieved from liquid nitrogen, so that's interesting. Dry ice is definitely doable at home.

The purpose is quite similar, so I'm glad it seems the form follows the function. Hoping to get around to making a sloyd knife in the near future!

I haven't come across an answer for my question, so I'm hoping I'm not overlooking anything obvious.

I am wondering if there's an amount of time after the first tempering cycle where it becomes pointless to do cryo treatment? The thing is that I have access to various low temperature freezers at work, but generally do my heat treatment in the evening to better judge the colour of the steel (I know it's not optimal, but we work with what we got).

Could I potentially quench, temper once, leave overnight, take it to work for cryo then take it home and temper again? Or is there another method that would be better with the tools and timing I have available?

Thanks!

Have fun with it! I think they're really convenient to have around for little odd jobs

My first "anvil" vs my second (and current) "anvil". I keep looking for a big chunk of metal to upgrade again somewhat, but so far I'm out of luck. Very rarly a used anvil pops up online, but it's never something I can justfy buying. Currently a rusted xxxxxx old anvil with a broken horn and pits like the moons crater is up for sale for 400 dollaridoos. A rusty and dinged up 18kg anvil got put up for sale and sold the same day for 200 dollaridoos. I'll keep looking for a bigger sledgehammer head i guess.

Also old vs current forge.

And a poorly lit photo of my workshop:

A colleague just asked me to make him a Patang knife. Sounds like a fun project, so it's time to start doing some research on it. I'll start forging his knife side by side with the rest of my projects. A spear, a sami knife, a couple of other knives... I might be trying too much at a time...

All these carving knives are preety small, but this one is resting on a spoon blank, so needless to say it's quite miniscule:

These are the first two knives I completed. They are wood carving knives with blades of O1 steel. The top knife handle is made of New Guinea rosewood with yellow wattle and apple wood accent and a dragon paua veneer inlay.

The bottom knife handle is mystery wood from a house from the 40's that was being renovated. It looks a lot like maple to me. Accents in an possible spotted gum (very uncertain though) and apple wood. The inlay is copper

The inlays are my sisters and my fathers initials in short stave younger futhark runes and I made these two knives as christmas presents in 2018. Since then, I still haven't kept much of what I've made myself.

I cut the rough shape of the blades out with a dremel and then shaped with files and stones from there.

G'day everyone. Not Aussie, but has lived in Australia for quite some time now. Decided to stop just lurking around and just signed up to the forums.

Currently forging away in Cairns which at this time of year is quite a challenge for someone born and bred as a nordic to say the least.

Cheers!

Thanks!

Read and profile edited. Haven't seen the oz roll call, so I'll take a look.

Hi everyone

I've been lurking around the forums and doing my best to learn the art of blacksmithing and blademaking for some time now. This forum has been of immense help, and thought I'd finally make myself a profile and an online log of the things i make. I am thoroughly enjoying this hobby and my goal is to keep improving and am hoping for critiques of the blades i manage to whack together.

I started making knives at the end of 2018 as a means to improve my collection of wood carving tools. I since found that it is knives that I really enjoy making, and the carving has taking a back seat to the knifemaking. Full time job and little kids means there's not that much time for making anything at all thoug, but I squeeze some smithing in where I can. I started doing stock removal of O1 (like I suspect so many do), then a makeshift charcoal forge out of bricks, a makeshift hole-in-the-ground charcoal forge and a coffe can forge, and have just recently aquired a two burner devil forge, which means i can squeeze in half an hour-hour of forging before I head to work in the morning. It's been great!  My first "anvil" was a steel rifle target. It was terrible. My current "anvil" is a sledge hammer head lodged in a tree stump. It's not so terrible. Like all my tools though, i am hoping to gradually improve it. The grinding I do with an angle grinder and files for the time being. I just splurged on a 350mm vallorbe double cut bastard file, and that has been a huge improvement over my old hand me downs (they're still nice though).

I live in tropical North Queensland, so the weather is often not that optimal forging, but what can you do?

Thanks for taking a look! Hoping to start putting up some photos of my old things soon!