matt trout

thanks Alan I will check them out I did find this on Bud Nealy's website Physical Properties 1. Average Hardness X50CrMoV15 steel has a hardness range of 52 to 56HRC, but most knives have a standard hardness of 56HRC. The hardness is average and barely affects the toughness of this steel. The following are the recommended heat treatment parameters: Forging: 1100-800 °C Rolling: 1100-800 °C Annealing: 750-850 °C Quenching: 980-1030 °C Tempering: 100-200 °C I was hoping someone had the time and temp formula for maximum hardness but it appears mid 50's is normal. I will keep searching. Need to use it or get rid of it

Anyone have heat treating information for Wustof x50crmov15 steel? I know it is only 0.5% carbon and has 15% chromium but Wustof states their proprietary heat treating process yeilds rockwell 58 hardness. I contacted their technical help line and of course any information on their steel past what is on their website is considered a trade secret. I have a 60 pound box of blade blanks from the old Parker Edwards knife manufacturing plant in Alabama that I took on trade for damascus back in the 1990's. Evidently Wustof made the blanks for Parker Edwards and Case. Some are unground blade shapes, some are rectangular bar stock but all have the Ed Wustof Dreizwerk trident Solingen Germany INOX and the alloy on them. I have tried heating past critical and air cooling, oil quench, and even a brine quench. All harden the material but only to approximately rockwell 50. Parker Edwards knew how to heat treat the material as a few of the blanks are ground, stamped and heat treated to 56-58. Just trying to make use of any material laying around the shop. Any information appreciated. Thanks Matt

I have had similar things happen with polymer idler wheels on large drive belts on farm equipment .Get sticky and then disintegrate. I think it is some hydrocarbons are not bound in the polymer chain correctly and they separate or seep out. Once that happens the remaining material is brittle. Similar thing happens on my grinder belt cleaning block. It gets gooey , gums up my belts, won't clean and crumbles up. So my rule is any gummy polymer gets ripped out before the explosion.

I don't think the skin on the handle will wear well. Could be encased in clear epoxy. Sheath inlay is great suggestion could carve or burn :scales: into handle. Just kicking out ideas

I have dealt with quite a bit of snake and eel skin on bows. If gluing to wood you need a dried skin not a "soft" tanned skin. The soft pliable ones are soaked in glycerin and the glue will not hold. I usually flake the scales off the dried skin after gluing. Some will stay most will not and then overcoat with lacquer or spray poly.

After a long hiatus of moving and trying to get the new farm up and running, I finally got the new shop partially set up and started making some knives. Took three years but hopefully will be steady now. Thought I would post a few of my favorites from this set. I kept a log of hours on this set of 15 knives and was amazed how long it takes me to make the Damascus, make the mokume, make the pins, stabilize the wood and then make the blades. Now its on to sheaths. Apologies for the poor photography, all of the knives are coated with gun grease so sometimes looks like scratches on bolsters etc. The copper in the mokume should darken over time and make the pattern much more obvious. The woods used are ebony, bocote, buckeye, mesquite, laurel, wenge and mahogany. All of the Damascus is 1095 and 15N20. I have been making some long Damascus billits (up to 6 feet). If anyone interested in seeing those let me know. I resized images and hopefully have them attached correctly. Not sure if its better to insert into post or leave as attachments Thanks Matt

Bob Found the manual for that hammer on line last night. It had the dimensions and required footer for the hammer. After much measuring and figuring in the shop this morning I do not think I can get it in there. An upright hammer (Bradley compact, little giant, ...) will fit but the rectangular footprint is an issue for me. As much as I hate it, I need to pass on this one. Thanks for response very cool hammer. Not sure how far apart we are but have to get together sometime. Matt

Bob, I may have a place in my shop for the hammer. Just getting set up in Hayesville NC. Been a five year move nut here full time now. Let me know if still available. Thanks Matt

Excellent job, amazing how we all seem to gravitate to Damascus, ebony and silver (plus) when making a knife for a special lady.

Nickle silver is mostly copper (about 60% if I remember) the rest being nickel and zinc equally split. The high copper content makes it an easy "sweat" to copper in mokume. The zinc makes it tricky to forge or shape hot. I have converted 1' round bar to 1/4 inch flat bar using a press. Only heated to the point of being slippery or wet. Any hotter resulted in cracks and crumbles.

Thanks Bob for the complement and sorry for the phone photo of the Trenton. all I had in shop today and can't seem to resize down so looks good. But you get the idea NewFace plate all of welding rod Matt

Herman, Both the buildup rods and hard facing rods are still available from Stoody. Here in the states Airgas often have them in stock but I am sure you can find them on the net. If you have exposed cast iron you can face over it with a stainless welding rod if you preheat. Much more economical than pure nickel rods. I have used both and seem to work fine. For the corners I lay the anvil on its side and run a bead on and off the side building out toward the face. I peened the 2110 build up rod after each pass to relieve stress and work harden. Those rods respond well and you can feel a difference when hammering. Since you are limited on number of passes with the 1105 I found it helpful to keep the rod very perpendicular to the face and maintain a very large puddle to get the slag on top. I only have an old AC normal polarity cracker box welder but it worked fine. Here is a photo of the 175lb trenton after restoring and 4 years of use. It is the same one shown in my previous post with a busted off face plate . I essentially rebuilt the face off the cast iron. It took about $100 in rods, 6 seven and a half inch grinding wheels, a 60 grit and 120 grit flap wheel. Total time was about 2.5 days. So a 50 dollar piece of yard art is now my main anvil. So far it is holding up well and has super clean sharp straight corners. Hope this helps Matt

If you are going to resell the anvil don't touch it - If you are going to use it I would fix it. I have restored seven anvils, many in much worse shape with great results. No expensive machine shop time just lots of personal time. The basic technique was written up by Robb Gunther and Karl Schuler The Forgery School of Blacksmithing published in ANVIL Magazine, April 1998. It is still out on there in several places. The grinding and then marking with a straight edge and grinding can take a huge amount of time but all have came back with great rebound, clean edges, etc.. I am attaching a before and after on an anvil I restored for my Dad. It has been in the family since before the Civil war and deemed worthless 75 years ago when the face plate delaminated. Working hard again now. I finished filling the pits on the face but did not get a final photo. The third photo is my anvil before restoring. Face plate broken off. I have been using it for 4 years and can get a photo if anyone wants it. Just my thoughts but have had very good success with this process Matt

Micarta comes in many forms and types. Paper, linen, canvas, carbon fiber..... Each has a different look. I sand micarta thru 400 grit then buff on cotton wheel with 600 grit. No finish oil or wax required, I don't use a lot of it as most of my blades are Damascus and I prefer a more natural looking handle. It definitely has a place on some blades, esp. when combined with kydex sheath

As promised, similar piece I just finished sheath for. My Damascus, 304 stainless bolsters on this one and gabon ebony scales. I tried four different sheath styles for these small knives (pouch, Scandinavian single loop, sort of a double loop angle carry, and this wrapped horizontal). Thought this one was the best match. The two folks who saw this one in shop both thought I was using micarta. I had to explain to them that ebony was what micarta and plastic was made to look like. Thanks, Matt