I forge welded six pieces of flat strap into one billet? (Is billet correct term) then forged the blade.  I honestly have no idea as to what I am doing in terms of education,  I was not able to get the blade to harden. Metal is still soft so will not be able to use as a real working knife

Was the strap high carbon steel before you welded it up into a billet?  Forge welding usually lowers the carbon content so if it wasn't high carbon to start, (or was borderline) then it won't harden after being welded into a billet.  Making sure to keep the forge atmosphere reducing helps as does keeping it hot as little time as possible.  Many people starting out take a lot longer to forge a blade than with experience and you are losing C with time at temp!

Not sure what the strap was, bought it at Home Depot, so probably very low content, I never even thought about carbon content at the time, just has to see if I could weld it with a forge.

i did time it. Right at an hour and half to forge the knife shape from the billet blank. So as I understand your message I need to become much more efficient with the amount of time I work the steel to shorten the amount of heats.

Thank you for the advice it will be heeded.

 

Wayne, where in NM are you?  I'm in Central---Socorro and southern just outside of El Paso.  I'd be happy to give you a Bandsaw Blade and Pallet Strapping stack to try for your next one.     Home Despot sells mild steel.  If you are near Albuquerque the New Mexico Artist Blacksmith Association is a great group to join.  If you are down near Las Cruces let me know and I can introduce you to some great bladesmiths down this way.

Also I will be in Roswell for Thanksgiving.

Thomas,

Pleasure to meet you sir.

I am in Albuquerque / Wagon Mound,  mostly in Albuquerque as I own a construction company, Pallet Strapping you say?  my next door neighbor here at the office is in the scaffolding business (rents the stuff)  he is always using pallet strapping to tie the legs and planks down to pallets, he throws that stuff away,  if I understand you correctly I need to be gathering all that stuff up big time?   I do appreciate your offer on the stacks.

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Looks a xxxxxx lot better than my first try!  Echoing what Mr. Powers said, most strap available at hardware stores won't make a decent blade--especially after you beat the carbon out of it, but it's sure fun to practice isn't it?  Anyway, not a bad first piece!

 

Are you sure about that? I am not aware of how beating removes carbon, and as stated so many other places, mild steel does not really have much carbon to begin with.

5 hours ago, lionheart said:

Looks a xxxxxx lot better than my first try!  Echoing what Mr. Powers said, most strap available at hardware stores won't make a decent blade--especially after you beat the carbon out of it, but it's sure fun to practice isn't it?  Anyway, not a bad first piece!

 

it's my (limited) understanding that you can lower the carbon of steel by overheating / heating to many times,  but i dont think the actual hammering will do that. i am not sure on that, though.

Have you attended any meetings of the New Mexico Artist Blacksmith Association, loosely based around Albuquerque though there have been meetings as far away as Rowe and Lemitar?

13 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Have you attended any meetings of the New Mexico Artist Blacksmith Association, loosely based around Albuquerque though there have been meetings as far away as Rowe and Lemitar?

Not yet, I did t know there was an association until you mentioned it. I will need to research contact info for the association and go from there 

I used to be President till I moved too far away; I hope they've forgiven me....Joke they are nice folks and some talented smiths in there!