Phil Patrick

Darn!! AP scooped me!! I was going to come back with a samurai sword/toyota joke!!!!!!!! TOO SLOW!!!!!!

I know that on the market is an orange oil base paint stripper. I have never used it so I cannot vouch for it's effectiveness.

I would use it a finish nail hammer.

That is pretty darn cool. nicely done!

LOL no not really. I like to stir the pot around here. It would make a pretty wacky Zombie chopper however!!!!

Drenched in Flame: Remember, you have to be VERY careful when you ask any question involving swords around here. Answers will run from legitimate to the absurd and everything in between. In this section, 99.99999% of my replies will be completely absurd. I believe that is is rather unfortunate that you must exercise care in asking question. You have fallen victim to a few that get pretty "agitated" when a new person might ask a question that is TAKEN as a stupid or pointless question. They tend to treat a person who might be asking a question in the purest of hearts with a lot of contempt. Point of fact, I have never made a sword, probably never will. No interest in doing so. My hat goes off to all those that do so on a regular basis with fine results. What everyone needs to remember is that just because someone asks a question does not mean that they are foolish. Be nice. EVERYONE was a newbie at one time. no one is an expert. Enough!!!! Off of my soapbox, back to the forge.

I generally blend all of my steel with calculus, that makes it pretty hard.

toothpicks for lions. I also forge weld 136 of them together to make ultra awesome super duper kick butt ninja/saxon/hand and a half dagger/broad swords. Which of course I use to combat Zombies. I live in a rough neighborhood in Ohio.

I am feeling pretty lucky today so I have to brag. I have just secured a rather large supply of the BIG torsion garage door springs. The material is about 3/8th in diameter, coil diameter of 6" (ish), 1 foot long. The father of a good friend of mine does garage door work and has a boatload of the things. Now all I have to do is figure out what to use them for! You all now may bow at my feet and turn green with jealousy.

I like it all quite a bit. Kudos for you!

Remember,, work smarter, not harder.

Ahh good idea!

Temp is not a problem. My problem (read me complaining) is that my stock of old files are like 12"+ by 1+" wide mill files. So, turning them into square profiles is frankly a little dull and tedious.

A froe. I still have it hanging on the wall of my shop.

I have been forging the piece to shape, then dressing the striking sirface on the rough stone of my bench grinder. Then, I harden the face (see earlier in this thread), then wire wheel the whole thing. After that, I rub the face of the striker (by hand) against a belt of rough sand paper. I think it is like 80 grit. In the end , the face has a smooth but scuffed up appearance.

Any of you fine folks ever heard of a brand of welder called Maxus? I have figured out that they are a division of Cambell Hausfield. Thanks!

Just wanted to give an update. Using old files for stock to make the strikers produces a pretty good quality striker. Very spark-o-riffic. (yes that is a real word). Now, breaking the material down into a desirable size is a bit tedious. It might be a suprise to some of you that files are pretty tough! I am going to try some spring stock tomorrow and see how well that works out.

Well, It is supposed to be a Bee.

Here is one of my christmoose gifts, version 1.0.

Fantastic! Thank you very much.

After all of the silly things I have made, I have never made a flint striker. I will be giving them away this year as gifts. So, Two questions. 1) What type of steel to use. Mild, higher carbon, low carbon, paperclips? 2) Should the finished piece be hardened or left soft? As usual, many thanks.

Remember kids, it is more of a pain to be blind than to wear safety glasses.

1) Case canoe pocket knife 1)money clip with bone scrimshaw mermaid picture plus 40$ 1)sharpie.

I should be there on Saturday. I have threatened work with bodily harm if they and try and send me out on a job over that weekend

Normalizing (to the best of my mind) is the basically a process in which by heating a piece of work to a non magnetic state, then letting it cool down to (about) room temp. Then repeating this a few times. The idea is that it will help relieve internal stresses built up in the work piece from forging, working etc. There are on here some folks that would probably explain it a bit better than myself. Do a search over in the knife/sword/pointy thing forums and I will bet you you will net some more complete info.