Malice9610 Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 By sorta, what I mean is that I have been lurking reading posts and following links and looking at pictures of other peoples work for a couple months now. First, I must say there are some VERY talented people on this site, who make some VERY VERY gorgeous work, and I hope to one day reach that level of skill in both Knife making and general blacksmithing. My name is Robert, and I am from Salt Lake City Utah.I built my first forge in January of this year, something I have been planning to do for many years with the intent to make knives and eventually move into swords and other weapons, along with making fun things that are not designed to hurt people. I did start with such items as Rail road spikes and A36 mild steel, as I have an abundance of this material to work with, my Grandfather worked for the railroad his entire life, and my father built all sorts of " rod iron " projects as a side business pretty much my entire life up till about 2-3 years ago, so all of their materials and scraps are pretty much fair game for my projects and practicing. As I said before, I have been lurking on the site for some time reading and learning, I by no means consider myself even beyond " beginner " status, but felt it time for me to become more social with the people that unknowingly provided answers to questions that are asked by all newbs. Here are pictures of my so far first three projects. The first three, are of my very first attempts at blacksmithing and knifemaking. Considering most of my past experience and enjoyment of metal working comes from my dad. I decided to make a hunting knife for him as my first project. Yes its a rail spike, I do plan to make up a batch of " Super Quench " to make it as durable as possible, however even he knows this is more of a " minor use / children's work hang on the fridge " type knife, It still needs some minor file work and cleanup as the end of the handle isnt perfectly straight, still needs a handle roughed out and pin holes drilled before it can be " finished " Second set of three, Is a double edged knife I have made for myself, It is very much still a work in process as it still needs grinding and edging, and I am contemplating a center fuller along most of the blade length, the handle needs to be smoothed out and drilled as well. The third set of three, is of a Kukri I plan to give to my girlfriends younger brother, who likes that type of knife. As you can see there are actually 2 instances of this project, the first one I made the tang way too narrow, and as a result the tang split off the blade while doing some minor spine adjustments. So I heated another spike up, and made the tang MUCH stronger on the second try so it should not have the same issue. I recently purchased some O1 tool steel, I plan to spend quite a bit of time practicing forge welding a36 1/8th inch rod onto itself to practice the forge weld process, but then plan to attempt to forge weld O1 into the blade section of rail road spikes till I run out of them. I do plan on selling these ones but locally and for a very fair price. I just wanted to share what I have done so far, Introduce myself and thank everyone for providing information to newbs like myself, Without ever asking a single question I have already learned so much just reading what others have asked from all of the great responses on this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice9610 Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 And yes, my hammer control and hammer striking is dreadful, which is why I plan to work on forge welding as my next skill set project, I only have a 6 inch grinder, and files to work with, so I VERY much need to improve my hammer skills before I can produce anything I would ever consider selling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Flatter, lol. Have you dressed your hammers? Acquire a smothe faced "anvil" to use as a "bottom tool"under the flatter. Try Glenn's 1/2 plywood trick to adjust your anvil hight and stance.Might want to start with something thicker than 1/8" for forge welding. It doesn't store heat long, so you only have a second or two to strike it and if one of those is spent on the anvil (heat sink) you are SOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 you know those sort of "&" or "3" shaped rail clips are a decent steel; about double the carbon content of a spike. Coil and leaf springs are generally a bit higher still. Practicing on mild steel---which is what the HC spikes are in reality is like practicing your ice skating on roller skates: better than nothing; but some of the stuff you learn will not apply to what you want to end up doing. Since hardenable steel can be found free I don't advise practicing on mild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice9610 Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 well for the moment the 1/8th stock is all I have aside from the spikes. plan was to try to essentially fold it over and over on itself to make a larger diameter piece of stock, basically try and forge weld a 1/8th piece on itself to about 1/2 inch. It might be an exercise in futility but its worth a shot. Once the weekend gets here ( im a full time dad and full time oncall computer geek for hospitals during the week ) ill be going to help my dad clean out his scrap pile of items such as coil springs and leaf springs and other more suitable steel, but considering the costs of it all im wanting to retain those materials for when i do better at other things such as my hammer skills. I figure if I can make it work on 1/8th mild steel and rail road spikes, I can waste less good steel making mistakes I should have made on the crap steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Forge weld the spike to make a battle axe blank. Low carbon welds at a higher temp than high carbon ( all other things being equal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitch4ging Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 welcome, Malice. I do like what you developed with the top knife, no doubt your dad will love it! Keep going, as you will only get beter as you practice, improve your tools and your stock! And as you know, this site has an endless supply of information and great folks for advice. look forward to your future projects! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Welcome aboard Robert, glad to have you. I like your picture posting trait, we LOVE pics.Spike knives only seem like a good place to start, a lot of what you learn doesn't apply well to blades. If you have piles of RR Salvage there are spring clips and those make fine blades for heavier use. Think hatchets, hawks, brush knives, etc. RR spikes don't have enough carbon to be hardened superquench won't make a difference, there just isn't enough carbon. The spring clips on the other hand do have enough carbon to take heat treating without becoming brittle unless serious mistakes are made.Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice9610 Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 well this weekend I should have access to some leaf and coil springs to build up my stock of better steel, I just have to wait since my dad who has it, and myself both work very demanding weekday jobs so the only time he has to help, and my only time to work on improving my skills is on the weekends. I will likely continue to practice hammering and such with the spikes just to improve my hammer skills as that practice should translate over to any kind of steel I work. I also need a better mount for my Anvil, i suspect the anvil height is at least part of my issue, the face is only about 18 inches off the ground, and I am nearly 6 feet tall. So there is a bit of bending and such involved when I work. But I plan to change the mount this weekend as well, so we will see if that does not have some positive effect on my hammering. I will also be dressing the face of my hammer this weekend while getting the steel as I currently lack a grinder of any kind beyond a cheap Harbor Freight 6 inch bench grinder which im reluctant to use on my only smithing hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Mounting your anvil at the right height is important, really important when you're starting out. For a departure point the face should be between knuckle and wrist height, closer to your wrist is probably going to be better. Now lay a piece of wood, ply wood is fine, on your anvil and using your favorite hammer give it a smack. The dent it leaves in the wood will indicate how close to correct it's height is for YOU. If it's a uniform print(dent) of the hammer face, round, square, etc. the anvil's where it needs to be, if the print is a crescent it's position is the indicator. At 6 oclock the anvil is too high, at 12 oclock it's too low, if it's left or right it's your grip that needs adjusting.Your hammers should have rounded edges so they don't mark the work, this is referred to as "dressing the hammer".Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo7 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Mate instead of bending over the anvil try bending your knees, a lot better for your back, better for your hammer control and better for your legs, until you can get your anvil set at the right height. Just re-read your post, at 18" to the face and being 6' tall you may want to try kneeling. Try it and see what you reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.