HondoWalker

Since I finally got a pretty good anvil and my step son finally moved his car I managed to forge a knife and a couple coat hooks. I've had trouble heat treating knives in the past because the forge isn't long enough to heat the whole knife at once. I had a good piece of wrought iron given to me by a nice member of this group. I used that to beat out a knife. I am out of practice and as a stroke survivor practice is critical to keeping up any learned skill. I'm not too ashamed of this latest blade. Much. I split a piece of 3/4 inch copper pipe to go between the steel and wood. I turned the copper down on top of the handle to hide the wood and make a fake guard. It's number 20 since I started forging.

I've sat out for this year because my piece of junk soft steel "anvil" was working me more than I could handle. I'd gone down far enough to seriously consider cutting an old unused and mostly buried rail road rail. I hadn't done anything toward actually cutting an old rail beyond find some rails not used in over 50 years. I had asked around and gotten nowhere. I found out used steel costs $1 a pound at the local scrapyard so that was off the list forever. I had just about given up. Then my mother was driving by a group of rail road workers a couple weeks ago and she stopped and asked them about it. And they gave her 2 pieces!!!! One was for me. I've spent the last 2 weeks working on the new anvil. Glad I never tried to cut one. Had no idea they were that tough. Took me over a week to cut a small "horn". I gave up after so long. It's not perfect by any means and I've seen far better online, but I am a 7 stroke survivor so everything I do is much harder than it is for a normal person. Here's a picture. I've got it mounted where my old anvil was and it is much more solid and stable the other one was.

I finished the latest one. Got it all shiny and sharp. Well I'm sick of messing with it so I can call it done.

My latest knife so far. Didn't forge it this time. Got a few curved plow/rake thingys and noticed there's a straight part to it. So I cut it off and made a knife from it. The hole is from where it bolted on to the tractor. The wood is cedar guard is aluminum.

Finished the pizza cutter. It'll take a finger too if it gets under it. Can't wait to try it out.

I got to try out my rebuilt forge today. Lit on the first try. Heated the steel just fine. But found it to be a little smaller than it was before. I made the pizza knife I had been wanting to make. I knew there would be no way I could get any holes drilled so I Punched a hole on each end. And again I had a heck of a time getting the punches out of the steel. Is there some kind of trick to poking holes in steel and getting the punch back out? I'm going to be in some serious pain tomorrow. My elbow is already throbbing and it's only been about 5 hours. Here's a picture just straight from the forge. It's going to be a couple weeks before it's usable on food.

Good idea. I think I can make the modifications needed.

So the grate I made wasn't great. I had been using one that just had one hole a little over an inch wide. All those 1/4 inch holes add up to much more than just one inch. There's 25 of them. My logic had it working better. But then...7 strokes. Logic is no longer my forte. It's welded on and everything else is welded onto it.

So I rebuilt my forge using steel. I had no choice but to use the steel I had lying around. I had not read that you need thick steel. I reckon it won't last long. I have been trying to get to the local scrapyard for a year and a half now. Starting to think if I ever get to go I'll have to drive my lawnmower to it. They quit taking cans and are blaming it on covid. Yet I can't for the life of me figure why. Makes about as much sense as any of this covid nonsense they've been pushing. I'm beginning to think it's not worth fighting reality for any more. Been begging the wife to give me just $20 a month to spend and it's falling on deaf ears. I just don't have the funds to do any of this right. Physically it's torture using a hammer lately. I spent a week scraping up skid plates and the like for the forge and 2 days welding only to learn the only part thick enough to use is the grate. I'm not used to being defeated. I don't like it. And it's not helping my Christmas at all. I'd go back to turning bowls if only I could get the wood I need. It's getting to be too much for this stroke survivor. Who would have thought that only 7 strokes would beat me?

I attempted to do some forging yesterday. Spent the better part of 2 hours trying to get the fire going. Wasn't going to start so I gave up. Later I went to clean the forge up and it sorta fell apart. The cement and cinderblocks just couldn't take it any more and now they're gone. Would be a tragedy except this year I not only know how to weld but have a flux welder. I can now make it according to my initial design. My step son likes to leave car parts out by the forge so a couple skid plates have now been cut to shape. I even have a 1/4 inch thick plate I cut 2 inches of 1/4 inch holes into for a grate. Much softer than the piece of truck bumper I had been using. Therefore instead of a single 1 inch hole in the middle of my forge I'll have a decent grate that lets air through without allowing the pipe to fill up with cinders and coal. The vacuum cleaner I have been trying to use as a blower is dying quickly. My step son gave me a car jumper/power outlet/tire pump thing because it quit working. The battery is beyond charging. I took the thing apart and it has a nice little squirrel cage fan. Puts out the same amount of air as the vacuum used to. And since it's 12 volt DC I can simply add a rheostat and control the amount of air instead of the poorly working blocks I put in to keep from burning all my coal up in 10 minutes. Unfortunately tennis elbow has now affected both of my arms. So it's looking like it's time to find a way to construct a power hammer and a hydraulic press. Got a 12 pound short handle sledge hammer, a 5 hp tiller engine and some plywood. So something seems possible.

That's a great idea and I will look into it.

Haven't ran the forge lately. Tennis elbow struck my left arm so that makes both arms that become useless with little effort. Been wanting to get me a propane forge going. I had an old air compressor tank that is 10 gallon. I cut the end off it thinking that was going to be my new forge and I saw how big it was. I'll never afford to run one that size. So I welded the end back on and turned it into a bbq grill. Yesterday I burned a bunch of scrap wood in it to burn off the paint. Today I eventually got hinges on it and got some tabs welded in so it holds the grill. At first I tried old cabinet hinges I had. They sorta worked until I had to manhandle it some and they broke off. I went to Lowe's and bought some good steel hinges and they were in in less than 20 minutes. Tomorrow I have to get the vent cover on it so I can adjust how much air it's getting. My wife says I need to put legs on it since it's so low to the ground. I don't have any steel that would work as legs though so it's gonna be short for a while. At least I don't have to worry about a cheap flimsy falling apart grill anymore. Now if only I had some charcoal and some meat.

I use oak, cherry, cedar and maple for knife handles. I give them a soak in linseed oil after they're made and once it has sunk in I cover the handle with epoxy.

I saw a video of a guy who had a stencil for his knives and it seemed easy enough to do. I have no talent for drawing. But after a dozen tries I finally got a stencil that was usable. I tested it out on one of my practice knives and here's the result.

A home made type. When I first decided I needed one I looked them up and saw where they were way beyond any kind of reason price wise. So when I got my El cheapo flux welder I got some angle iron and a 2 inch wide wheel from my sister. When my stimulus came in I bought 2, 2 inch wheels from Harbor Freight. I found a piece of 2x12 and lathed me a drive wheel for the 2 hp treadmill motor I had. I'm amazed it works. It is litterally the first thing I ever made with a welder. It has eaten a few belts so far but it works good enough for me. And it didn't cost any $2,000 either.

I screwed up and ordered 150 grit for my belt sander. It does not really remove much steel at that grit. I spent almost 2 hours grinding on it. Next time I get to order some belts I will get 80 so I don't have to spend so long grinding. I have my hammers pretty well dressed. At this point it's more using an arm deadened and disobedient to strike the steel. My strokes took away most of my fine motor control. I still do it anyway because I've had to let my disabilities destroy enough of my life. If I stop doing challenging things I will have lost.

It's a bit further along now. Bunch of sanding and polishing left to do.

The steel was a coil spring. It was given to me so I don't know anything more about it. I quenched in used synthetic blend motor oil. My stepson fixes cars so I got a bunch of used motor oil. I probably did over heat it. I started using my rebuilt hair dryer but it was barely keeping the coal alight. I switched to the vacuum cleaner blower and even though the bleeder hole was open and it was barely blowing into the pipe it still got so hot I just sat the steel on top of the coal instead of down in it. Had to cover the forge because of the heat with an old grill lid. I was trying not to burn it but I sorta fade out during heats sometimes and the steel can get too hot. No deep marks this time. I got near to the shape I wanted and switched to my lighter hammer. No pics yet except for a before Pic.

Last week a very kind and generous member here sent me some good steel. I forged a piece into a blade. I quenched it and tempered it into some very very hard steel. I tried not to quench the tang but it got hard anyway. Had to use a torch and heat it up enough to where I could drill a hole in it. It's still being worked on. But I noticed something and it's got me curious. On this blade it has cracks on the surface where I had to spread out the steel to make blade, This has happened several times before on other blades I made that got hard. Why does good steel do this? How do I prevent it?

Here's the latest practice knife. Used a wider/thicker guard. Think it makes for a better knife. The wood is oak.

I know there are better places to get steel. It just happens that the Dollar store and Tractor Supply are right next to each other and my wife had needed to go there. I had saved up enough money to be able to buy a cheap piece of steel and took the opportunity. I can't just go anywhere I want or need to. I don't have any money either. I don't get any disability money. She draws too much for me to get anything. That puts me at her mercy both financially and transportation. I'm lucky to get what little I get. It was nice when I was younger and made a fat wad of cash every week. I could play as hard as I worked and I didn't worry about much of anything. That was 7 strokes and 3 stents ago. I figured the steel wouldn't be good when I bought it. It was either buy it or do without. I'll go ahead and glue it up and polish it a little and chalk it up as another practice knife.

So I bought a bar of 1/8 x 1.5 in x 48 in just to play with. Last time at the forge I put a point on a piece and later sawed out a tang. It's at the point where it needs quenched and tempered. I don't want to waste coal on a useless temper. The price tag had nothing but size information on it. What I'd like to know is this steel going to harden after a quench? I've already made 10 knives that aren't hard. I don't want to make any more soft knives. 4 hard out of 14 is a pretty poor record.

Fired up the forge today in an attempt to make another knife. I could not get it done today. I spent 4 hours on it. My arm would not lift the hammer anymore. I was in much better shape last year when I started. I'm going downhill fast. I don't have the stamina I had then. Today was the third time I had attempted to forge something and just could not physically keep hitting the steel with the hammer. I intend on building a power hammer and a hydraulic press but metal is xxxx near impossible for me to get. Due to my strokes I can't drive and it seems no amount of begging or pleading will convince my wife I need to go to the scrap yard. It's the same with my wood turning with her. I see a piece of wood I'd like to stop and get and tell her so and we pass it for literally months until it's gone. The frustration is getting beyond my limits to forebear. I'll end up finding someone to drive me where I want to go. But that's going to cause it's own set of problems for me. I'm so tired of asking. I'm starting to feel like wanting to do things is not worth the aggravation required to get anything done. I can't see any way to get past this point. If I hammer with my left hand soon it stops working. If I hammer with my right hand even a little I get 2 months of tennis elbow pain that is maddening. I see the rich guys doing in 5 minutes what it takes me 3 hours to pound out. They can afford power hammers and presses. It's a giant victory for me to get a bag of coal or sandpaper. I mean it literally takes weeks of effort to get. I'm just sick and tired of asking for help from any of my family. I get let down more than helped anyway. It's sad, something I enjoyed and wasn't too bad at is leaving me again. Maybe someday I'll get some steel and I can weld up a press and hammer. I've been trying to get some materials to make them for months, since at least April. I have a 5 hp engine for the hammer and a 12 pound sledgehammer on a short handle. I have an old bottle jack for the press. May be a few years before I get to heat metal again. Who knows, I might find an anvil someday. Or at least a chunk of steel that won't jump up every time I hit it.

This is my latest knife. I sorta gave up on it when I discovered it was not hardenable and is in fact really soft. The buffing wheel caught the blade a couple times and ruined the edge. It was practice I guess.

Been awhile since I fired up the forge. And it showed. Got up early before it got hot. My coal just would not start. Took me 2 hours to get it started. My rebuilt hair dryer wasn't pushing enough air to get it going. And my vacuum cleaner was giving me too much air blowing it out. I finally got it going and tried to forge an old piece of file into a dagger. What little I got burning was barely enough to heat it. And then I had to quit. Couldn't catch my breath, was seeing spots (more than normal), and felt weak as a kitten. Got a tang on the file and that's about it. Took me an hour to quit breathing hard. But I wasn't sweating too much. It was a new experience. Unpleasant. I guess when it hit 90 with the humidity it was too much for me. It's really upsetting. I worked out in that heat for 25 years. Never got like that. And I did landscaping in the 90's back when it was stupid hot in NC. It has cooled off a lot since then. Who knows when I'll be able to finish that dagger.