KPeacock

I don't see anyone talking about them on here, but I like to use the blowers out of dryers. Folks are always throwing away driers when they fail, or when the wife wants a newer fancy set of washer and dryer. Anyways, on Craigslist, you can get all sorts of driers for free. In them are 120V squirrel cage style blowers that move plenty of air for forge welding. That the route I've gone.

Don, Thanks for shipping the steel so quickly. I assume it has made it to my house. My wife called and asked, "What the heck did you buy from some place called Success? It's a tiny package but it feel like it's full of concrete." I can;t wait to back off of the 80-100 hour work weeks so I can make something sharp and "choppy" out of it :-) Thanks again, Kris

It seems like it COULD work, but I'd bet there will be problems with the PCC adhering to the tang. I've been forced to shelf this idea for the time being. 80 hour work weeks are really cutting my forge time down.

Well, if you can do it on accident, I would thik I could do it on purpose :-)

I saw it a few nights ago and Fuad had three or four showings in the episode. It was neat to see the process of how steel is created. Living in Minnesota has has given me opportinities to see those very barges, mines, and taconite. If nothing else, seeing familiar names and familiar places made it seem more personal than the other "how stuff works" episodes I've seen.

you would be well served to search this forum and elsewhere online for this information. There are many, many different version out there. Some are made of wash tubs, some of old car parts, some of old grills. Depending on what you want to do with it, you can make one to suit your needs quite inexpensively.

Fuad, Amazing work on keeping the lines straight. It looks custom enough to tell it's hand made, but straight enough to pass for mass production. BTW, I saw you on Discovery Channel last night on "How Stuff Works." My wife doesn't believe you're one of the guys from the "silly knife club. It was neat to see a name I recognized.

Thanks for the input gents. I'm a civil engineer with plenty of experience in reinforced concrete and concrete mix designs. I know all too well, the properties of this material. Many of these properties are not exactly ideal for making a knife handle. It sure seemed interesting. Joe, Good thought on the terrazzo. I hadn't even considered that. I'll have to do a bit of research on it and see what I can come up with.

I typically weld a 3-4' piece of 1/2" rebar to whatever I'm working on while I'm forge welding and working the steel into a rough blade shape. The, I cut off the re-bar and grind off any filler material and go to tongs. The first thing I did with a forge was make a pair of tongs. the first set it difficult becasue you have nothing to hold onto the hot metal with (I used channel-locks) but you can make any number of tongs after you ge the first set made.

I know it's a bit of an oddball idea, but has anyone seen or attempted a handle made of concrete? It seems that if you chose "pretty" aggregates for it, the polished concrete would reveal some interesting shapes/colors in a handle. I'm not sure how well this would work as a thin slab would be somewhat prone to cracking, but if epoxied and pinned, I think this might work. Any thoughts or comments?

Asi is usually the case, seeing pics of your knives makes me want to quit work and go home so I can play with the forge. Quite an interesting pattern on this one.

I'm glad you had a good time. I sure don't know everything there is to know about this stuff, but I know what has worked for me so far. I'm also happy to hear that you enjoyed the buffalo. All I've eaten since my wife headed out of state is buffalo, venison, and some small game. She's not particularly fond of eating game. The buffalo is fine with her, but the rest is hit or miss. Outstanding work on tyour homebrew beer. Your results are much, much better than mine.

Mick, I"m not even sure what to say about that. I simply can't wrap my head around how this is possible. I'm impressed, to say the least.

The micarta can be easily made. I've made a few batches of it and it's quite easy. Ariel has done some tutorials on how to make it. Essentially it' just whatever fabric you choose with a polyester resin saturating it. I made mine with canvas and denim (old gym bag and an old pair of jeans) with fiberglass resin as the binder agent. Once it's cured it can be cut and sanded to shape. Upon polishing, it shows whatever pattern you have molded into it. Both fiberglass resin and cloth are relatively cheap. the finished product is relatively inert as well. I haven;t been doing this long enough to make any claims as to how the handles survive the "test of time," but I have built a few fiberglass boats and they are doing just fine after a good number of years.

I don't mind the fluid flushes so much. that I can do myself. What botehrs me is when they numb your eye and start picking at it with dental picks until they have the foreign object out. It's always embarrasing. It feel like what could surely be the peak of a mointain jambed in there, yet it ends up being very small bit of burnt steel. Friday will work just fine. I'm working on shuffling some equipment around to make a bit more space and provide easier access to more forges. I can be home anytime after 1730. Just let me know what works for you.

I can't say I'd be willing to try this with my anvil, but it sure does look like some good old fashioned country fun. I wonder how many beers were consumed before someone said, "Hey Chuck, let's drag that old anvil out back and see how high we can blast it!"

I forgot to mention, you may want to bring along ear plugs/ear muffs and eye protection. I've got a few pairs of safety goggles floating around, but many of them are past their prime and quite hard to see through. I'm not a safety freak, but I'm pretty careful with my eyes. I've been to the ER to have bits of molten steel pried out of the cornea. It's never a pelasant experience....then again, if you feel like its high time we develop a nictitating membrane, then by all means feel free to skip the glasses. I don't have a power hammer or anything like that, but it can get noisy running grinders and air compressors...etc.

I started in the same style forge with the same style charcoal, and after burning uop nearly a bag of it to make a pair of tongs, I began making my own charcoal. its quite easy to do and didn't cost me anything. I was able to get 16 gallon drums and 55 gallon drums for free off of Craigslist. The 16 gallon drums can be found at a lot of quicklube shops. they are used for the gear lube they use. I would go into detail on the process, but there is plenty of info and tutorial type stuff on the web already.

Feel free to bring someone along. My shop isn't very large, but I don't mind being crowded. Usually I have to work jumping around/over random snowmobiles, engines, tractors...etc. I've gotten quite comfortable using tools at oddball positions and angles. With any luck I'll have a bit more space cleared out by the weekend. A few projects of mine will be either finished or abandoned by the time the weekend rolls around. I don't need much advance warning on what times will work for you. If I know by midnight on Friday, I can have my schedule adjusted for 0700 Saturday.

Craig, Thanks for suggesting that thread. The contrast isn't quite as bold as the 420MV provides, but it is most definately stainless damascus. I've forewarded the information on to the interested party. Thanks again, Kris

I don;t want to discourage you, but I've found it much harder to weld in a charcoal forge than in a propane forge. What sort of propane forge do you have? it may be easier to modify it just a little bit to achieve welding temps. Don't get me wrong, folks can and do weld over charcoal, but I found it difficult to do. In addition to this, the charcoal forge creates a lot of dust and what not. I've foud the propane a lot clealer and easier. Granted, I have to pay for propane, but the price is quite reasonable if filling at a local propane supplier. The 20# tanks (only filled to 17# due to OPD valves) cost 22 bucks to swap out. my 100# propane tank is filled for $58. I got my big tank off of Craigslist for $40. the cost of teh tank and a fill was cheaper than swapping out my small tanks 5 times. It's something to consider.

I forgot to comment on the steel itself. As long as it is not galvanized, it's okay to use. some stel cable has a rope/cord center and that should be avoided as well. What gives you the contrast in cable damascus is the decarburisation of the individual strands. The silver borders of the grains is where the carbon has been burnt off. I think it was Don Fogg that mentioned this only happens when borax is used as the flux. So, perhaps it is not strictly based on carbon. Either way, it appears that your cable is perfectly fine to use.

I've been "hired" to produce a steel billet, from which a good friend will be making his wedding band. He has decided on a bold pattern thanks to pictures of Ariel's spoon project. Since my part of this project is relatively small, and quite easy, I'm not worried about failures. I am however having a hard time finding 420MV stainless steel. Do any of you know of a place to aquire this steel, or an alternative that has similar results? I know there aren't too many folks that play with stainless, but I figure someone here will have the answer. Thanks, Kris

Though I'm not an expert, I have dealt with cable a bit. I do believe your solution is a bit weak. To get by this you might be able to get better results by heating up the solution. A warm solution willwork faster than a cold solution.

Randy, If you're not busy this weekend, I'll end up hammering on something at somepoint. My wife will be out of town for the weekend, so I get to do what I please. This will consist of going in to work, chores....etc, but I'm felxible in when I do this. If you're free Friday night, or either day of the weekend, let me know. I can arrange my schedule as necessary to accomodate yours. As I said before, None of my equipment is fancy, but it may give you some ideas for your stuff. Keep me posted, Kris