Greetings from New Hampshire Photo heavy

[Nathaniel.Granger]

Hi there folks, my name's Nathaniel Granger. 25 yrs old. I'm from MA and now living in NH. A glassblower for the last 9 years and metal smacker on occasion for about 2 years. 
I started using some of my grandfather's old tongs, hammers and my glass torch to start forging. I eventually made a semi decent forge with my small backup torch aimed into a little firebrick oven. Right now I'm looking around for a coal forge on craigslist or, making one from scratch.

I mostly have made knives, a couple straight razors and a couple bottle openers. Just about a dozen projects under my belt in the last couple years. 
I'm really taking to knife making. Heat treating is something I understand well and appreciate more and more as I learn. Coming from a glass background, hardening and tempering just click with me. Though relieving the stresses in glass is somewhat different in process, I immediately realized the similar nature between glass and carbon steel when I had one knife crack while hardening. 

The last couple pictures are of a copper knife melted from powerline cable. The bevels were cold forged, the edge still gets dull immediately on contact with a wood cutting board. It was a fun project that sits on the shelf. 

I'm looking into the New England Blacksmiths Acc. at the moment and hoping to connect with other smiths in the area. I'm in Sutton NH. I'm always looking for good friends and brains to pick.

Cheers!
Nate

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Nate, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance. Just telling us in one post isn't going to stick in our memories after we open a different post. 

Do you use a multi orifice burner in your glory hole? If so they're turning out to be superior forge burners. You'll want to add a high alumina, water set, hard refractory inner liner for a flame face. Hard to withstand mechanical damage from the stock you're heating, high alumina to resist welding fluxes. Then lastly a good kiln wash as an IR re-radiator and another level of chemical resistance. 

The sooner you can get away from forging with torches the better. Torches are good things for some operations where you want to closely control what gets heated but they're not so good for heating large stock and yes a knife billet is large stock where using a torch is concerned. The steel wants even and reasonably quick heat for forging operations to control carbon loss and grain (crystal) growth. It's the crystal boundaries that are the weak points where failures initiate so keeping them as small and uniform is important.

I like the copper knife I don't think I'd use it for a whittling knife though. Maybe bring it out for special occasions, cake and pie cutting maybe? Copper forge welds quite easily and is a common element in Mokume Gane.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I don't think crystal boundaries are weaker but they take more energy for a crack to cross and so the more the better. (If it's travelling along a atomic plain then at the boundary the atoms are aligned differently and it has to make the jog to continue---as I understand it. But I've had a TBI since materials science class, time to break out Ruoff again)

[Frosty]

Isn't enlarged grain (crystal) a bad thing in high carbon steels? I don't recall the wording in the articles I read I don't know how long ago, I'd love to be able to cite my memory but it's been out of sight for a long time, they were really clear and easy to understand WITH tests and pics. I'll try though. Wow, that was a seriously run on sentence! My bad.

Anyway, the wording in essence said crystals themselves  are strong but not where they attach to another crystal, each crystal boundary is literally a stress riser. Many of the metals alloyed are there to control crystal growth. It wasn't until economical casting of monocrystaline  products developed that Jet turbines became as powerful as they are today, the JUMO engines couldn't spin up fast enough to keep from compressor stalling in tight turns. 

Then there's the latest economical developments in super strength alloys amorphos castings with NO crystal structure at all and are significantly stronger than monocrystaline products.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I meant the more crystals the better so smaller==better.