SinDoc

Grinder has been picked up wired up and installed. Was messing with it a little bit ago and it works wonders. Really hogs off metal.

Got it. This was only my second serious attempt and forging a knife, so I figured it was happening to hammer technique and not fully understanding what was happening. Ill try again tomorrow and see what happen! I just picked up the grinder, so I am excited to get it home and hooked up!

Thomas, My anvil is at the height where if my arm is extended at rest and I grab a hammer it sits on the anvil without me moving my arm. I guess technically its knuckle height. Also, Adlai has some knife making classes that I want to take but the opportunity has not presented itself to sadly. JHCC, I agree. I like the way he presents his videos and walks through every step in making something. I thoroughly enjoyed one of his more recent videos where he acquired an induction forge. Looked like a kid in a candy store lol.

You are probably correct. I more than likely was not getting a nice square hit, and changing hammers was most certainly not helping that. I can't watch the vid right this moment, but will as soon as I get home! FYI I like to watch Black Bear Forge for a lot of my "learning how to do something" videos. I was told he (John?) was a very good person to watch.

Frosty, I am simply trying to forge the tang out from the rest of the 2" flat stock. So I tried hammering down with the end off the anvil to "pinch" it (I think the correct term is fullering, pardon the bad terminology), but rather than the stock getting, less wide? Thinner doesn't seem like the correct word, it mostly just rolls over. I had it at a nice medium/bright orange color when trying to forge. Altogether I was trying to reduce the 2" to say an inch for the tang, but boy was it not working. JHCC, my first thought was too much/lack of force. I would try a hammer at varying degrees of force, then move to a different hammer to see if I could get any improvement. No matter the hammer really, if I tried hitting it harder, the entire piece would try to fold over instead of just the edges. This is 100% me simply not knowing what I am doing and guessing at it while doing it.

I will have to grab one when I get back home. I unfortunately did not have my phone on me last night (daughter wanted to watch Coco Melon ). I had the same problem last time I tried making one, let me see if I can find a photo of that one. Not the same project, but you can see where I kept having issues with the sides rolling over.

During my little escapade last night, I found a roughly 6" long piece of 1084 and decided that since my initial project of trying to make damascus out of a chain saw chain failed, I would try to see if I had gotten better at forging to attempt a knife again. It started out fairly well. I got the tip, curve and some more general profiling done but when I started to make the tang, I kept having a problem with the edges rolling. I tried a couple different hammers thinking maybe I was using one that was too rough, but the problem persisted. I was trying to follow the instructions in the book I purchased from Mr. Sells but kept having problems. I tried sticking the section off the anvil and hammering it into the edge of the anvil which would result in rolling and the whole piece trying to fold in half. I then tried to do it the opposite, where only the section I was trying to isolate for the tang was on the anvil. This helped keep the piece from trying to fold in half, but made the rolling worse. All in all, I would say I tried for get the tang isolated and forged for over an hour and did not accomplish much. The tang is MAYBE an eighth of an inch less wide than the rest of the piece, most of which was the result of it rolling over onto itself. I should have taken some pictures to show what was happening, but I did not have my phone on me at the time. I went back and re-read the book from Mr. Sells, read around on here and other sites more as well as watched a couple more videos on it but can't seem to figure out where I am failing or what I am doing wrong. This is more than likely more evidence that I am simply not yet ready to try forging a blade and need to go back to making other various items until I improve. This is mostly me ranting and venting my thoughts on it. I am not defeated but, what's the word? Emboldened? to figure this darn thing out.

I tend to not lay in one for very long. I honestly just prefer to throw a pillow on the ol wooden swing, give it a good shove to start swinging then take a nice nap. The swing is one of my most cherished possessions. It was made by my late grandfather who finished it a few scant weeks before his death. That and he made house piggy banks for my daughters a few days before passing. Man worked quite literally up until the day he died. Was a fantastic carpenter.

I did try to forge weld a chain saw chain last night. Used a inch and a half plate for a backer then welding everything together. It was actually going really well at first. Everything was compressing how I wanted and the chains were fusing/welding together. Just as I thought I was actually going to succeed, the bottom plate sheared off and it fell apart

Youngs Dairy. I was just there a few weeks ago. Its my wifes favorite place and the girls love going there.

Finally got out to forge a little. Didnt do much, but I did take one of my knife like objects and tried a heat treat. I successfully hardened it, at least I assume so since it snapped like a twig with minimal force. Ill have to take a picture or two of the cross section so I can have some of you experts explain what I am looking at lol. Was 1084 quenced in water that was roughly 100 degrees. Didnt have any pings or concerning sounds when I quenched it. I assume if i had gone and done a tempering cycle, while a badly shaped one, it could have been called a knife.

Aw come on JHCC, fine wood dust is only SLIGHLTY flammable. What could possibly go wrong if you do separate the two sides?

Both my neighbors work on cars all the time, so my little bit of tinking is probably the quietest thing in our neighborhood lol.

I want to try using a power hammer. I need to go to one of Adlai's open shops and see if I can convince him to give me a crash course on it lol.

That sounds like a fun event and an amazing spell lol. Our campaign started out somewhat modest at level 10 or so with dragons. How to Train Your Dragon had just come out and our DM really liked it so it with the backdrop of the start of the campaign. I did not want to play a dragon since all you would start with was the base race, so I picked Kobold and became a super stacked wizard right off the bat . Near the end he was effectively immortal with all the raw magic power he had. If he hadn't ripped reality apart, I don't think he could have been actually killed. Also in regards to destroying reality, chronomancy is a heck of a magic to screw up on.

I still have that character in a notebook in the drawer with all my old D&D books. I will have to try and find him and see what his final level ended up being before he killed reality lol.

While I don't remember by first D&D characters name, my favorite was Kree Sharptooth, a very gangly and unimpressive looking Kobold in a party consisting of various chromatic dragons. Everyone always looked at the dragons to whom they should be worried about unbeknownst to them that the little Kobold with them was in fact a level 40 Wizard (first campaign where we continued into epic levels). Game towards the end consisted of large scale battle between massive armies (hundreds of thousands) between gods and us self proclaimed gods. Each person in the party was an effective level close to 80 or something. Things get nutty when you are that super powered. That game ended when he tried to cast some universe altering magic and caused the material and astral plane to be ripped apart down to the molecular level . Made a note to myself that when dealing with insane magic like that, make sure you can't fail the spell craft check required to cast said spell This was all in 3.5E.

Could you also refer to a hammock as a tool rest? Once I get done with the honey do list and lay in the hammock, it is a tool rest for the wife's primary tool

I am being told that minus some cleaning up and such, it is now complete! Currently in the picture it is still attached to the 1/3 HP motor but he found a 2HP motor in his pile that he just needs to modify slightly to get the assembly to mount to it then add in his variable switch to it. He did say the new motor is reversible if I would ever need to run it that way (not sure why I ever would. Maybe if I flipped what side it was hanging off the bench?). Should be picking it up Friday then I can get it home and get it all wired up and installed then report back on how it works! I know several of you had design concerns, so I am curious to see how it all works out.

Work deck is done. It is fully adjustable and can be set to different angles to the belt.

Frosty, want to know my projected retirement date? 2055! Although I am one of those people who would probably keep working even during retirement otherwise I would go nuts.

I was looking at those but couldn't justify the cost for a first time user.

Sadly, another weekend of no forging. Went outside yesterday with the intention to but found myself doing yardwork instead. When I got all that done, realized I was sweating my butt off and went back inside.

I ended up buying a set of King sharpening stones over the weekend. Should be here by the end of the week then maybe I can try to get my dull, junky kitchen knifes back in shape.