I took a piece of steel( not sure of grade ) that was for lack of measurements, shaped like your hand , it was a fish gig, and 1/4" thick. I heated it red over a propane burner outside and then dipped it in vegetable oil. If anything what did this do to it? I could still file the points fairly easy. Just playing with this till, I get an oven and the right oil.I was curious to see if it would change it alot. Thanx, Cooter

P.S. It will ring for over 15 seconds if you strike it, sorta like a tuning fork.

cooter any kind of vegetable oil would work for a quench; instead of going by color with quenching steel, go by what a magnet tells you. When you think you have it about the right heat, touch it to a magnet. If it just barely doesn't stick then it is at nonmagnetic and is ready for the oil quench.

After a veggie oil quench a good tool/blade high carbon quality steel should get a file to skate off it, maybe with a fishing gig you would want a little softer than that though. You can use your kitchen oven for the tempering (put the blade or gig in your case into the oven for 1 hour at 450F) or also a toaster oven. That is if the wife lets you

It doesn't sound like the stuff you have is high carbon steel, or maybe you did not quench it hot enough. If you have a grinder of any kind, grind on the peice a little to see how it sparks. There are pictures of spark tests on the gallery, but the search does not seem to be working right now. A high carbon steel (The kind you want) should get really bright intense sparks, but a mild carbon steel has simple straight duller sparks.


Hope some of that rant helps :)

Yep, I get pieces of info from folks like you,and it makes me want to look into more of this stuff. I am just playing around right now till I get some serious steel and an oven of some sort. Thanx for the info, that does tell me something else to try. Later, Cooter

cooter
why not make yourself a forge?
you can use charcoal - coal- gas.
Easy to make & would make things eaiser for you
you can do everthing you want to do .
I think there is a few BP,s on making a forges

What is a BP? Where can I find it,them? Thanx

I was told I could use a ceramic kiln. I was trying to pick up one locally. Is electric heat any different than coal or gas? Isn't heat, heat? No matter the source? Thanx, Cooter- Dennis

Cooter go to the home page http://www.iforgeiron.com/
the tabs at the top click on Blue Prints (BP)
Ceramic kiln i would think lots of $
you can make yourself a forge from found scrap

cooter
I looked and did not see a BP on a forge ( not sayin theres not one may have over looked or its not online yet) Look here there is a few forges gas & coal
http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/503
Really not much to a coal forge need something for the coal to burn on with an air supply under the coal.

Your probably right, but when I told the wife she might want to play with some ceramic molds if I could find a kiln, she kinda looked interested.He-He, Thanx, I will go check out the BP's . Later Cooter

The blueprints are being moved to the new system at the rate of several per day. All should be back on line shortly.

Cooter:

If you quenched it from a red heat in oil and can still cut it easily with a file, you have mild steel. You can't harden it very much. To get it harder, you could quench in iced salt water from the point where it goes non magnetic, about a dull red. If you used super quench, you could get even more hardness, but with mild steel you would be hard pressed to get much above a Rockwell C 40.

Woody

As for tempering it, if it's mild steel I would just leave it as quenched.

Woody

cooter
just looking for info. thought you might like to look
Fish Gigging
eBay: Fish Gigs Spear or Fishing Gig Hand Forged by Don Baker (item 160084280381 end time Feb-20-07 17:17:34 PST)
I may try to make one myself

definitely look at the blueprints or how-to's on this website cooter. Don't worry about being too old to start blacksmithing, I've only been tinkering around with hot metal for 3 years and have half decent work coming out of my shop. If I can do it I'm sure you could

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the metal heating bar things on the inside of ceramic kilns are electrified when turned on. Those kilns *might* get to forging temperature, but it would sorta be like trying to dissolve a block of salt by spitting on it as opposed to throwing it in a pool. What you want is a relatively small concentrated source of heat; in this case a forge would work. All a forge really is is a fire with air blowing through it. My first forge was a firepit in the ground with a vacuum cleaner blowing on it, and it got steel to a dull orange. Building them isn't too hard, you could probably get one welded up in a weekend. Again I'll refer to the blueprints on this website, look for the 55 forge.

I would also recommend getting in contact with a local blacksmithing association. From there you can purchase tools, gather information, and learn how-to's and how-not-to's .

Heck, I might try the salt water. The ice wouldn't thaw to quick, we were suppose to have gotten down to 21 last night.Brrrrrrrrrrrr.Thanx for the tip. Later Cooter

Before going to the water quench, you may want to try raising the temperature of the steel before quenching. I have some auto coil spring, I'm not sure what kind of steel it is. It's not 5160 or 1095, but it will not harden right at non-magnetic it will not harden. In heat treating, time and temperature have everything to do with microstructure.

Also, warming the oil up to 120 f. + or - will actually make it quench faster than ambient temperature oil.

Cooter
If it were me I would rig up a little forge out some junk
and play with it - sure would make things easier
Use some charcoal for fuel, play with it a little
even if you don't forge with it use it fro the heat treating
just trying to help:)

Also, warming the oil up to 120 f. + or - will actually make it quench faster than ambient temperature oil.

Very true. Warming the oil thins it out and lets it circulate easier so that convection currents can transfer heat faster.

Thanx, never too much food for thought.Anybody know how hot just a bed of charcoal gets by itself? Thanx, Cooter

I use charcoal, and I don't think it would get hot enough for heat treating without forced air.

This is my heat treating set up. Flattened steel pipe and two inches of kaowool on top for insulation, fuel conservation, and regulating temp. Works quite well. Allows you to observe the steel more easily while heating.

By the way, it looks hotter in the picture than it really is.

Is the can lined with something also? I just need to read up on making a forge to play around with. Thats a neat picture. Thanx, Cooter

Lined with clay soil and ashes. You can do either - or, or a mixture of both.

If you use propane for the heat source, do you need anything in the bed of the forge? I have about a 30 gal. old propane tank, and I have a stainless steel beer keg, wouldn't either work for a forge? I also have some 12-14 gauge square steel pipe about 16" square.I have alot of stuff that I could probably build one from, as long as I get the jest of it all. I've been reading up on some and will soon or later get it (understand ). I understand you need forced air coming in from the bottom of the forge,right? can it blow straight in from the bottom, or do you need to have a deflector to spread the air out?I will keep researching and asking questions till it sinks in. Thanx for all ya'lls input. Cooter

The air supply comes from a pipe that is at the bottom and comes in at a 90 deg. angle, horizontal to the ground. You need about a 2" dia pipe. Leave it wide open, no grate or anything.