blade forging

[T.J.watts]

im going to see if i can send the membership fee in this week. ive met one other member he has a farrier supply in north norman where i get my coal.

[Dodge]

Thank you for all the input i really appreciate it. Patients isnt one of my strong suits, but im extremely stubborn so ill keep trying until i get it right. ill post a pic of the next one i try.

 

If you meant patients, you should probably avoid the medical field, but if you meant patience, then, nevermind. -_-

 

 

sorry, I just couldn't resist :ph34r:

[T.J.watts]

i was pretty sure i spelt that wrong lol :P

[Charles R. Stevens]

If your free the 18'th,or if your going to the state fair, they will be glad to sighn you up on the spot. Even if your not a member you'll be welcome to attend any meeting.

[Nobody Special]

Good luck with blademaking.

 

First diclaimer, I am NOT anywhere in the league of Rich, Steve Sells, or a real, professional type, nor can I say things better than they already have a hundred times. Strictly a hobbiest.....

 

That said, old spring leads to heartbreak. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And when it doesn't, it's inevitably after you've got entirely too much time and emotional investment in it. 

 

The cracks are already there. During normal use and abuse? Takes a long time to find 'em or for complete failure. Heat, cooling, whacking it with a hammer? It might be softer if annealed or normalized, but they'll still come out to play. And it sucks....Think of a cracked porcelein piece. It's still cohesive, still hard, but when it takes a whack or a drop a new one would survive....

 

Short version, have some fun, stay safe, "new" springs are less likely to put a crimp in your day, and don't be afraid to make a pile of knife shaped objects. (stop looking at mine, those early letter openener type things are embarrasing!) For hobby guys, failure is an option and a learning opportunity. Read up, in the knife making lessons on here and elsewhere.

[ThomasPowers]

When you are just starting out you need as much as possible going your way; with experience you learn where you can "cheat" and get away with it.  As mentioned steel is quite cheap compared to the time that goes into working it.

 

I had a student who worked at a place that turned large trucks into EMT vehicles; one of the first things they would do was to pull off the springs that came with the brand new trucks and replace them with heavier duty sets and toss the old ones in a scrap bin---with under 50 miles of city driving from the dealer to the shop on them!

 

He wanted to give me a ton or two of them; but I pointed out that one set would last a long time as stock for a hobby smith doing it all by hand.

 

Many people pick up broken pieces of spring along the roadside.  Unfortunately the failure mode of an old spring is that many micro cracks form until one "propagates catastrophically" resulting in the piece breaking off.  The others lurk in wait for you *after* you have spend many hours working on a piece. (If you listen really really hard you may hear them cackling!)  As mentioned in another thread forgewelding spring to itself is difficult and so trying to just do a weling pass over a piece before forging it may not help and may cause more problems.

 

At many conferences there will be folks selling small amounts of know alloy good steel---I try to pick up a piece of two every time I attend one.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Thommas, as you probably remember, Lindsay is snake dab in the middle of the oil industry here in Oklahoma. I didn't even think about E1 over in Chickasha, they are the regional fire truck service center, as well as drops from Chickasha manufacturing.

[T.J.watts]

i didnt really think about the microfractures, and ive never tried to weld spring steel. i think ill just stay away from the springs unless i run across new ones, and stick with practicing on mild steel. i work for cudd energy over the weld shop so i have access to plenty of scrap.

[T.J.watts]

charles,

do you come around lindsay much cause you look familiar

[T.J.watts]

one of my guy said he knows you charles. john bennedict

[Charles R. Stevens]

I bet you work with more than A36 in the shop.

[T.J.watts]

yes but thats the majority of what we use. also 50k 4140 4130 304 316 1018

[Charles R. Stevens]

4140 might work for knives. It's relitivly forgiving of forging tempts, and is relitivly easy to heat treat.
I'd love to have acces to your scrap pile.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I live in Bradley and shoe horses around their. I bet my truck even looks familiar.

[J. McKraut]

That's why I enjoy reading through all the posts. The part about micro fractures throughout the steel and not easily knowing they are there. I'm a mechanic for a trucking company and have access to a large supply of leaf springs, broken ones. I will heed the warning and likey only use them for practice.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I'm bad with names, dose John live over on Garvin Paint Rd?

[Geoff Keyes]

4140 is good for hammers and axes and things like that, it doesn't harden enough to make a really good knife, about mid-50's is as hard as it will get.  Simple carbon steel are what you want.  5160, 10xx, L6, W1, W2.  That is mostly what I work in.

 

Geoff

[T.J.watts]

Yes that's johns and he has a horse named big sexy lmao

[T.J.watts]

I have some 4140 .75 square stock if you need some

[Charles R. Stevens]

Oh, I'd love some, never turn down good steel.
As to Big Sexy, his wife may disagree as to who's horse he is. (Big Sexy has a different opinion as to who ownes who)

[T.J.watts]

if your not busy this weekend i can come by 3' piece work.

[Charles R. Stevens]

That would be great, I'm building fence and training horses this weekend so I'll be home.

[T.J.watts]

cool send me an email with directions and ill come by saturday morning.