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I Forge Iron

Chainsaw - San Mai - Knife


HEAP of JEEP

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I got a commission job and was asked to do something that I had never tried before.  Its going to be a gift from a woman I work with to her husband for their anniversary.  I was walking the scrap yard the other day, and two old chainsaw chains followed me home, so since I had never tried any chain damascus, I decided to give that a shot.  I also found a few old files, and since I have no idea what the steel is in the chains, I decided to do a san mai style with a file for the cutting edge.

I swore I would never work with bamboo again, but when the money was dangled in front of my face she said she really wanted the bamboo handles, my convictions went right out the window.

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Yet again I must remark upon how swiftly the quality of your work has improved.

Couple comments:
Your handle grain is running the wrong direction, it's a little distracting for me. Continue sanding the rest of the spine up to the tip, it draws my eye too.

Well done buddy

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3 minutes ago, TheoRockNazz said:

Yet again I must remark upon how swiftly the quality of your work has improved.

Couple comments:
Your handle grain is running the wrong direction, it's a little distracting for me. Continue sanding the rest of the spine up to the tip, it draws my eye too.

Well done buddy

That really means a lot to me.  Thank you, very much. 

I see what you're saying about sanding all the way up.  I was also thinking, I may just take a q-tip and run some ferric chloride down around the handle.  Is one more preferred than the other?

I don't like the direction of the grain either, but the bamboo came from a  Lowes flooring sample, and it just wasn't long enough to run the correct direction.  I had to do it on the other knife I used bamboo on, and that's what she saw and fell in love with, so no worries on that end, and since, I swear I will NEVER work with bamboo again, and this time I really mean it, I don't think I'll be running in to that problem again.

I found a wood shop by my work that let's me go through their cut offs and I've found quite a lot of nice hard wood scraps that I plan on using for future projects.

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7 hours ago, HEAP of JEEP said:

I swear I will NEVER work with bamboo again, and this time I really mean it,

When you change your mind later send me a message and I'll send you some bigger pieces. ;) 

That's a good lookin knife. What did you do with your chain to get it to stick? I tried some a while back and all I did was ruin a chain and make a mess.

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3 hours ago, Michael Cochran said:

When you change your mind later send me a message and I'll send you some bigger pieces. ;) 

That's a good lookin knife. What did you do with your chain to get it to stick? I tried some a while back and all I did was ruin a chain and make a mess.

I cut the chain in to lengths about 5 inches long, then stacked those up the best I could and tack welded them together, and welded a handle on the end at the same time.  Heated them up real slowly, and used a lot of flux (borax).  At an orange heat, I taped them together as light as I could so the tack welds wouldn't come apart, but it closed up a lot of the spaces within the billets. Brushed and fluxed again, and then went to welding heat.

First heat, I just set the welds on the side, and back in the fire.

Second heat, started on the side, then turned the billet and gave it a few light hits on the top, to close up some more voids.

Third heat, I started on the top, and treated that as an initial weld, just lightly setting the weld, then back in the fire.

After that, I would just rotate the billet with each heat.  One working the sides, then one working the top and bottom.

For the normal damascus that I do, I like about 4 welding heats, but with the chain, it really didn't feel set 100% after four... I think I wound up with closer to ten.  Lots of brushing and lots of flux. 

There might be an easier way, but it worked pretty well for me.

I did do a video about how I did it, but once again, I'm not sure of the rules for posting links because I have it up on my Jeep channel that I do make money on.  So, not gonna post the link, but if you want it, you can send me a PM and I'll get it to you.

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Canister welding chain saw chain is a good technique, at least initially.

Nice contrast in the blade it carries off the chainsaw look really well. Customers really like to be able to see the transition from a salvaged item into your finished product, that's why RR spikes make such good marketable products.

Frosty The Lucky.

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