boisdarc Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 My first posting of work. It is a recycled lawn mower blade-J.D. specifically. Forged on my coal burning forge for a friend. The first heat, was just forging the mower blade flat. Second heat was to shape, although the handle was cut with a cut off wheel, so-cheating a little bit. I just finished a hot cut hardy tool recently, and it wasn't done in time to work on this. The bevels were forged in mostly although cleaned up with a sanding disk. I do not have a 2x72 belt sander although I recently received a 4x36 for fathers day, and I honestly didn't feel like hand sanding every scratch out. It is meant to be a user, and perfection wasn't really an obstacle I was expecting to get in my way at this point in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boisdarc Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 Ok, so I guess I'll be doing this in increments. The forge process was, final shape to how I wanted it and flat. Blade thickness thicker than a quarter. Taken to non-magnetic and held there for a bit, I wouldn't say heat soak or anything resembling technical knowledge. I tried to keep the blade in the coal in between the actual fire ball and the outside air, I don't know what to call it, so I call it the buffer zone. The quench was salt water and dishwashing soap mix, I didn't float an egg in the brine or anything-however there was a lot of salt in there. Before I put the blade in to heat, I put some LEGALLY obtained RR spikes in my heat to get warm and use them to warm the brine mix. Quench was either make or brake, no ping no fumbling around, just in, sea saw, and out much cooler. Afterward I cleaned the blade and sent it into the oven. The oven wasn't preheated, so in at normal temp-my oven takes about 8 minutes to get to 400 degrees. At 400 I let it stay in for an hour, and then off and cool on its own, for 2 cycles. I should probably input here "IF you are like a 15 or whatever year old kid and reading this--this is not the example you should be following, if you want to make swords or choppers, learn how to do it right--I probably had idiot luck and it didn't break(yet)". After taking out of the oven, it wasn't a perfect honey color, a little funky color but definitely not honey. A file could skate over the edge. The actual edge was obtained with a lot of time and a chinese made wet stone, some filing, and some sand paper. I want to interject here that although I do find some chinese made tools to be less than great, this wet stone probably made in the fifties is really pretty good, rough on one side and finer on the other, I have two of them about 3 inches wide and maybe 8 inches long by an inch and a half thick. You can see some seriously ugly scratch marks here. I don't know how long I can claim rookie status but remember -first submission here. The handle lanyard hole has a little bit of occlusion around it, I honestly should of just peened it out a little bit to take up that space. Lesson learned. Handle wood is an unknown wood. A friend gave it to me. It was originally going to be used in making duck calls, but didn't pass the muster for that and was forwarded to me. It turned out ok, and has a pretty cool stripe action going on. It could be bass wood, or not, it doesn't have the action on the cross grain that you sometimes see with bass wood though. Any way, beat it up if you want. No tears here. Why the brine solution with dish washing soap you ask, Not A CLUE, I actually saw it on youtube, and another place on line.. Now I know that is a terrible answer, but the truth. The other online place kind of had a simple break down on the reasoning, and I'm a pretty simple guy. Heck, I may of seen in an OLD post from this site too. I'll have to search more. But thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boisdarc Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 Holy cow, I don't know if you can see grain size in this pic, but that was the intent. This is from a similar attempt that was dropped immediately after quenching. Needless to say, I was as mad as a hornet for about ten minutes. But, I learned not to drop freshly quenched stuff on my concrete from 4 foot up. The grain is more suger than salt if that makes any sense. Not super fine like you have to look with and electron microscope or anything, but not big giant crystals like rock salt either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matto Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 I think it turned out great. Would be a fun shape to use Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boisdarc Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Nice chopper, and a good learning experience. I think you got lucky on the quench and temper on this one, because modern mower blades are made to bend rather than shatter, and are low to mid carbon steels. The salt water/dish soap/jet dry quench (Robb Gunter's SuperQuench) is meant to be used to toughen mild steels, usually without a tempering cycle afterwards. OK for RR spikes and other known low carbon steels, but will certainly shatter high carbon like old files. May also cause edge cracks in mid carbon steels like vehicle leaf spring blades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 IME most mower blades have been more high carbon than mid or low carbon. I generally treat them about like 1090 or 1095. They do often have alloying elements that give good abrasion resistance... tend to make good blades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boisdarc Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 Thanks. I appreciate your input. J.M. do you think I should do a oil quench from now on, or just keep experimenting with the brine/soap quench? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 When dealing with unknown steels from the scrap stream, you have to become your own R&D department. If you don't, you will waste precious time and energy on worthless junk. Learn to do a spark test and a break test on EVERY new chunk that comes in your door. Break testing explained http://www.bamsite.org/tips/heat.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 5 hours ago, John McPherson said: When dealing with unknown steels from the scrap stream, you have to become your own R&D department. If you don't, you will waste precious time and energy on worthless junk. Learn to do a spark test and a break test on EVERY new chunk that comes in your door. Break testing explained http://www.bamsite.org/tips/heat.pdf Very nice article...thanks for posting the link! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boisdarc Posted August 20, 2016 Author Share Posted August 20, 2016 J.M. I've read that article twice now. Thanks for that information. I have read about and watched ytube videos on spark testing. Although I haven't sacrificed any of my files for testing. I self diagnosed as a file-ophile, and the condition will not allow me to beat those files up. This new(to me) info on break test is going to have to become part of my arsenal. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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