MahLahChee

Thanks guys!

After some research digging through this forum, I decided to try and put some of the tips I picked up into practice. I welded up a stand for my RR track as well as some brackets to hold bricks to my forge. A buddy and I lit up the forge and jumped right into making a knife while I worked on some more leaves in between heats. I was able to make a successful leaf in that time as well as not form any cracks or other mishaps in the half-finished knife-blank. Thank you all for your helpful input! Here's some pics (minus the stale donuts)

I'll definately be building that RR anvil with the (I assume) hot cut wedge and horn built in with the stand and all. Seems perfect! I also know the guys at my local scrap yard pretty well now, so they're looking out for an anvil for me, so I might get lucky! From my experience, when you're really focused on a project, even the best of snacks goes stale.

Alright, I'll flip my track over to be hammering on the top part (the part the wheels ride on). When I oriented my track with the foot up, I figured that a larger, flatter surface area would be better. Will the rounded portion of the top not effect me negatively? Also, should I round the edges of my track where it was cut so it's not such a sharp edge? I've been reading that it's better to have a radius on the edges of your anvil, but it's not too clear why... Thanks for your guys' help and input -M

Thank you ALL for your numerous responses! After doing some research after posting, I beleieve it was my heat that was my issue. I brought the metal up to a deep orange (my cheap gas forge only gets up to a bright orange) and then stoppep hammering once the heat glow dissapreaed (once the steel was grey again and I saw no red) so thanks for the tip Glenn and Dickb! ThomasPowers: I bought some high carbon steel but I'm scared to work it and destroy my steel. Where might I get some old auto springs? Are they very expensive at pick n pulls? BillyBones: I took a look at the readfirst page, and I do apologize for not digging around before I posted this question. I know very little about balcksmithing as it is, so I'm sure some further research would do me good. I am not quenching, I know a little about the effects of heat treating steels and doing such would make my steel more brittle, right? I got some 1/2" round stock from home depot, but I just found my steel recycle plant sells scrap for much cheaper I have a small ball peen hammer and a 3 lb cross peen hammer (the latter from harbor freight which I rounded and tightened up the handle fit on) My anvil is a 18" section of railroad rail turned upsidedown and clamped into a vise on my welding table. The edges on that are reasonably crisp Overall I think that I'm not working with enough heat and I need to be careful not to actuate and make hinges that bend back and forth to form cracks in my peice. Also: would it be better to use the flat bottom of my rail or the rounded top as my anvil surface? Would you guys reccomend something different for an anvil (besides of course shelling out the cold hard cash for a real anvil)? One more thing: It seems you guys like to run a tight ship around here, should I make any alterations to my post formatting (as this IS a little messy)? Thank you all for the help, resources, and warm welcome!

Hello blacksmith community! I have just gotten into blacksmithing with a focus on making knives. To start out, I tried making a few leaves out of mild round stock (1/2"). I started by angling the front to a point on all sides and then creating shoulders a half inch away from the front on two sides. I then created two more shoulders on opposite sides about a half inch away from the first set. The issue I run into is at the first set of shoulders. I beleive when I am working my piece, I bend this point back and forth enough that it cracks and eventually breaks. Does anyone know what might be going on specifically (maybe cold shuts) and how I might prevent this? I am extremely inexperienced in blacksmithing, so it very well could be something as simple as me not holding my workpiece right. I had the same issue at the base of the tang of a small knife I attempted as well. (Both cases I tried to fix by welding once the crack was well formed, but that definately created cold shuts and looked terrible) Thank you! -MahLahChee