pkrankow

Stock removal in wood and rolled metal is a good place to start for knives and swords. You are learning basics that you will need later. With wood you can make several designs for a few dollars and if you like them, paint and keep. If you don't like, throw into the stove/fireplace and they are still useful! I have never made a knife out of metal, but have made a couple nice costume pieces out of wood. Wood examples are often made before custom work in metal is done. I am learning too and just starting in metalworking as a hobby. I have been through college and know from experience that if you don't buckle down and get your work done there will be no jobs for you on graduation. Your family, friends, and GF needs to understand that your job as a student is your studies. I'm less than US$300 into setting up my shop, and I'm not so good at scrounging (scrapyards do not sell to the public here). I spend less than $50 per month on it and have been setting it up for most of a year. I have all the parts for my forge either built, installed, or on order (arriving this week). I located a usable flea market anvil for $50. If the scrap yards in your area sell to the public then you are in excellent shape for setting up an inexpensive shop. A nice piece of steel, especially at scrap prices, makes an excellent anvil, even if it is not hardened/hardenable. An anvil is just a block with a flat face. There are people here who are using rocks because of cost. Basic hammers can be had for less than us$20 at hardware/big box stores. They are not "the best" but they are good hammers. Adjust the handles to suit your hand and redress the head as needed. Work space is a funny thing. If you live in a dorm you might be stuck. There are many knifemakers who started using the kitchen stove as a heat source. You can talk to family and friends who own some property and see about setting up in the back yard and working once a week, especially if they live in the "country". Since you are studying to be a machinist, this is a hobby and you will not be working at it every day. There is a blueprint here that has a list of free online books (Maybe Glenn will post the link, as I can't seem to find it again). Read up on all aspects of blacksmithing, even though you are into bladesmithing. Get metal hot and make something. Have an idea of where you want to go for your session. Most important: Have fun & be safe. Phil here is one list of books for free Craft publications

Heat is stored by the part, and wasted when no part is present. Idle circuits are nice for that reason. Firebrick for a floor is to prevent damage to the rest of the forge. The brick is durable, resistant to flux agents, resistant to impact and poking, and is relatively cheap to replace if it gets damaged. That it provides an energy sink is debatable about its purpose since you cannot get most of the energy back out of it for work. I take the stance of energy used to heat your forge is generally wasted energy. There are specific types of work contrary to this, annealing is one, and sometimes the thermal mass will help cycle small parts, but both require long operation time to get the benefit. If you are firing for 1-4 hours and it takes 30 min to heat the forge to working temp, you are on the loosing side of efficiency. If you work 8 hours a day this might be different. If the forge is running 24/7 energy loss in heating the walls and floor is not important as overall energy loss is the driving factor. This is my opinion based on having studied thermodynamics a number of years ago. You are encouraged to form your own opinion. Phil

De-carb is caused by a lean fuel/air rich fire. It is the removal of carbon from the part through diffusion. If the furnace is rich fuel/lean air then it is possible to ADD carbon, but this is typically slower due to concentrations of elements. Electric furnaces without a blanket gas are lean fuel. A blanket gas can be as simple as added carbon to "absorb" O2. Phil

Buy blades, it's a safety thing. The blades are designed to not fracture if you hit something. The pieces can come out like bullets and if it injures someone YOU are liable, and the mfg is harmless due to alteration of the equipment. Lawnmower blades are edge treated with different processes, they are not homogeneous steel, and cutting a strip off of another blade does not mean you get a treatable edge. If your "pro" overheats the edge, then the edge is softened and makes the blade wear faster. Learn to do a proper sharpening job yourself, it's easy and is best done with a bastard file and a vice. A hand held grinder is useful if you hit something and need to hog off some metal, but not best for dressing the edge. Shop around, I am sure you can carve $20 off that price tag for some high quality blades that are made properly for your equipment but bear a different logo than Sears. I am using Oregon blades on my 46" John Deere, and they set me back about $50 for 3 blades. They were "rebranded" as John Deere, and I bought them from the local dealer. I think Sears sells a rebranded MTD machine, but could be wrong. Many stores sell replacement blades so shop around before trying something so deadly. Us the old blades as practice mystery metal for something else. Phil

Not an inspector, but there is code for fireplace chimneys through wall or ceiling. You can probably look that up for your area, or use national code if local code is lacking. You can also contact a chimney sweep and ask them about the codes, but they may want a consultation fee. Welcome to The Wood Heat Organization Inc. has some information, but I don't remember where on the site. Phil

Can you put some tall shrubs between the fence and the smithy? Using fire resistant acoustical tile for the ceiling will help too. You can lay fiberglass bats or blow cellulose up top too if you have a closed ceiling. Your foam board insulated walls go a long way to quiet, but cellulose and fiberglass are more effective sound deadening. If you are still needing more sound control, you can build out another 2x4 wall and use these materials, but your expense and loss of space is significant. Cellulose is better, and some people have equipment that can blow it "moistened" against open studs ready for drywall. I guess you will make up some costs for it on winter heating savings though... Phil

Very nice looking. I hope Amy is pleased to get that. You got your flower anatomy correct, the stigma is the female part and the pistol is the male part. Flower Anatomy Printout - EnchantedLearning.com I think I'll add that to the list of things to do. Phil

There are 3 layer swords out there, with a high carbon core and forge welded low carbon sides. After stock removal, and heat treat you get a very hard cutting edge and a tough body. This works since there is no folding so carbon migration is limited. If you were doing different alloy layers for color, you might make something visually interesting after stock removal and etch. Not sure how it would work out though, I understand forge welding a billet is difficult enough using even sized, regular shaped stock. Phil

Heat treatment likes to crack things. Expect to loose half your work till you get the heat treat process down, then should be more like 10% or less fail in heat treat. I'm still at 50%, but I haven't done any heat treat in quite a while. Phil

Visit your hobby shop. That size is used for scale models, and if you are plating in a mason's jar, you can get reasonable quantities. Might not be as cheap for the area as you want though. Copper can peel off of stainless (relatively) easily and is used in certain refining processes for that reason. Copper will plate on itself indefinitely, also used in the refining process. Phil

Gosh, It's a Flemish coil! When I was learning to sail, the boat owner had a retentive problem with the appearance of the boat. All the rope on deck looked nice and tight like that when we left it. Phil

I think the confusion is on metal gauge in the first place. Thinner metal is a higher number of gauge. Phil

Heat treat ovens can also be used for powder coat ovens. Some care is needed for cleanliness if you still use it for heat treat. Phil

You know we love pictures! Phil

I got impatient and waved a plumbing torch over the sample. It show heat as quick as the uncoated kaowool, but I can't say much else. I have 5 samples 1x3 inches cut, and almost ready to send, lightly and unevenly fired. Phil

Well, I don't like my stabilizer. I have shrink checking all over it, and a section, about 1 in^2, fell off entirely from the kaowool. The hard fire brick I applied the stabilizer too lost almost all its coating, so I scraped the remainder off. The coating is leather hard currently. I know that someone will say I used too much water, but I added just enough to not have modeling clay. The clay kept taking up more and more water, and after a few minutes would want even more water! I decided to try some of my high zircon coating mix and apply it over the leather hard porcelain material after tapping/brushing loose any poorly adhered material. I also prepared a test swatch of kaowool by pealing a layer off some scrap. I also applied it to my brick. It applied very easily. The high zircon mix required very little water by subjective comparison to reach a thin milkshake consistency. I applied with a chip bristle brush to the leather hard coating and the uncoated swatch. This material applied easily to both materials, unlike the stabilizer mix. The fibers in the kaolin swatch are held down and the material was absorbed into the surface. I will cut the swatch after it has a chance to dry. The cracks in the leather hard porcelain filled in easily with the high zircon mix. I suspect that the high zircon mix is a better fiber stabilizer than the kaolin. After the swatch dries, I am willing to cut it up and mail some pieces to people to compare. The sample will be about 1x2 inches, 1/4 inch thick approx, coated on both sides. I think I can cut 5 samples out of my swatch to send unfired. I'll just put them in those cardboard envelopes after wrapping them in plastic and something to protect them. PM me if you are interested. I do expect your opinion after firing the sample to be posted. I just paid for the last of the parts I need for my forge, so I hope to have it running soon. Phil ps: separate observation, having the forge bolted down to the shelf makes it very difficult to apply coatings, and can cause ones back to get "jacked up":(

Nice weapon. I like the bottom of the handle with the close twists and the end welded back to itself. How is a throwing axe supposed to balance? Switch to a medium carbon handle to make it more springy. You can also heat treat the handle to improve toughness. Phil

That's a good video. Thanks for posting. Phil

I would like to see the finished knife when you get that far. I am picturing a fuller after the blade thickens behind the cutting edge, then fattening up a bit at the spine. It will probably be handsome and have specific utility since I do not picture a sharp tip. Phil

120 degree outside swage crossed my mind, so was opening one up and having a texture swage. They are not fun to cut though, I only have abrasive cutoff wheels. I don't have a welder right now, and lack a large number of tools. They have been boxed up so long I begin to feel it is wasting the metal. I would rather not use them as sculpture, but later using them to _make_ sculpture might be a welcome possibility. I have so much to learn and reading is not enough anymore. Phil

I've had these laying around for about 10 years, they are (were?) nuts from a pitman ram assembly on an Ajax 500C forging press. They were moving a frame at Ajax in Cleveland when I was on internship there, bumped another frame which fell off its blocking (about 6 inch fall) onto the nuts threaded onto their respective bolts. I got to cut these nuts off, and they let me keep them to present in class later that year. Let the jokes fly, I know you are thinking them. They are medium carbon, I think 1030, but might be wrong. I have no idea what to do with them since they are not clean paperweights. I'm open to suggestions. Phil

A safety tip emergency knife with a shape similar to that, the cutting edge started behind a blunted tip. They are meant to protect a rescue raft from accidental puncture. They also can tuck between flesh and rope then twist to cut the rope without cutting flesh. Here are some West Marine: Fixed Serrated Safety Knife Product Display West Marine: Floating Safety Knife Product Display West Marine: Gerber EZ Out Rescue Knife Product Display Phil

I looked at it more closely while doing a water pump on the mother-in-law's car. There is some paint left on it, the inside of the lid is still painted. There is a stack of very brittle paperwork under the rods that I left alone. The plugs are full of spider nest, the vents are full of spider web too. The rod looks clean, and some is in sealed paper boxes still. I still need to install a circuit for a welder to the garage. I am looking for something better. I may revisit this beast later, but not for a while. Thank you for all your help and opinions. Phil

Hydrochloric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia WikiAnswers - What is mercuric acid WikiAnswers - Is Mercuric nitrate an acid I'm confused too. I don't think I want mercuric acid around me to be honest. Muriatic acid, about 37% hydrochloric acid is less than $10 per gallon at most home improvement stores and many other places. Phil

I lined my forge and applied stabilizer to it. Info is here on pg 2 http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f86/my-gasses-its-way-13876/index2.html Phil