June 21, 201016 yr Here's the 15N20 and C20 steel cut to size Here's the billet approaching welding temperature in the forge A couple of videos of the billet being forged under the Blacker powerhammer
June 21, 201016 yr Author The billet was twisted Then split down the middle Then the 2 halves were forged together so that what was once the centre of the billet was now on the outside. The steel was then thicknessed under the surface belt grinder
June 21, 201016 yr Author Here's a photo of the billet once ground to thickness (an allowance was made for further thickness loss due to heat treating and polishing) The pick was then cut from the billet And filed to shape A bit more sanding and it'll be ready for HT
June 21, 201016 yr Author To test the temp of my tempering furnace (my oven!) I first used various Tempilstiks on a piece of steel The steel going into the oven We can see that the temerature indicating crayons suggest a temperature between 266 and 274 Celsius After removing the forge scale again the pick was polished and etched in ferric chloride
June 21, 201016 yr Author The pick was fitted to the axe along with a new hammer head The new parts will be cleaned in a mild alkali and varnished ready for the winter climbing season Me after a day in the forge
June 21, 201016 yr All the pictures are great (well the last one is a bit scary, but the others are all great!)
June 22, 201016 yr I've wanted to try a project like that for sometime, nice job. The real test will be how they hold up leading some runout mixed pitch. Sorry to say that the only action my ice tools have seen lately is doing pullups on the beam in my shop while I'm waiting for a heat.
June 22, 201016 yr very nice stuff....... toothbrush in the first photo... lol where abouts are you from ? alec
June 23, 201016 yr Have you thought about how strong it will be in extreme cold? I know steel gets brittle in subzero conditions, and I noticed the laminations being 90 degrees to the head-possible weak point? Looks good, but I would want to know this before putting myself in a possibly life or death situation. Wish I had better video viewing. Looks like you modified a horizontal milling machine into a belt surface grinder. What speed do you run the spindle?
June 23, 201016 yr Great work on the ice axe it looks fantastic all put back together thanks for the pictures . do the temps sticks melt at the correct temp on the steel or do they just change colour ? sorry for the dumb question :unsure:
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