ryanwrath

1. this is my "anvil" ........and my favorite beater next pic is my brick forge i was going to mortar it all together, but i like being able to reconfigure it easily , i have another burner i can use for longer stuff, the burners are not mine, they are from larry zoeller, the "z"burner. everything else i figured out, it was quite a journey in and of itself, but i didnt blow up the house and it works super well, i can just about smelt iron in it in about 5-10 mins, reheat time seems quick, but not sure what "quick" is for the more experienced smiths out there 2.

hi this is knife #2 i have ever made Nicholson file steel, kitchen cutter, distal taper, 1/8"thick, stailess rod will be peened into the handle, the slabs rite now are not what it will end up with i cracked em.... knife is 9 3/4" long Since i love saber fencing this fighting knife was inspired by that it started out as a half round file, blad is 11" long, handle 5.5" long . the hardware is 3o4L i cut out of some pipe flange at work and worked into what you see there........its just bolted up at this time to expidite working it...everything was done by hand except i knocked the scale off with a belt grind in a vise the holes will be filled with 5/16 stainless rod for no other reason than its whats lying around in my shop hehe......any way this has been an incredible learning experience, especially since my "anvil" is a 4x6x6 block of steel bolted to a stump and at the end of a few heats and hammering im on the other side of my shop.....but its fun and not forever thanks to all here for the help in getting started down this road....one thing to note, im not totally sold on the full guard, it mite get re worked into more bowie typ, although i have a fighting style that incorporates heavy guard work at times so its fitting......oh yes the slabs for the handle will be ebony i think, or a black micarta. thanks for looking any design critic/suggestions wanted. thanks. this knife BTW has not been HT'd, just hot worked, then onto the guard. i was actually more into the guard than the blade for some reason hehe. it seems the possiblities are endless. sory for bad pics

Hi was looking for reliability and cost for pyrometer, also im thinking 2300deg F as the upper end? any feedback is very much appreciated. thanks .

ehe sorry doug i wouldnt have repeated you , but i think you literally posted while i was being long winded lol.

ehe sorry doug i wouldnt have repeated you , but i think you literally posted while i was being long winded lol.

normal rebar you would buy to throw in a foundation or bridge deck is whatever they had on hand. literally. old drill bits, car parts old jackhammer bits, whatever. it cannot be welded and the weld certified (structural applications parking ramp, post tensioning, etc) however, if that is weldable rebar (note:: also much much more expensive) it will be the same steel all the way through, or at least much much closer to being uniform. i cannot give you the exact type metal or whatever but if its just normal rebar its junk for anything but tying up and burying in concrete. heres some food for thought copy and paste style:: This specification covers deformed and plain carbon-steel bars for concrete reinforcements in cut lengths and coils. Materials considered under this specification are available in Grades 40 [280], 60 [420], and 75 [520]. Steel samples shall be rolled from properly identified heats of mold cast or strand cast steel using electric-furnace, basic-oxygen, or open-hearth. Heat analysis shall be performed wherein steel materials shall conform to required compositions of carbon, manganese, phosphorus, and sulfur. Steel specimens shall also undergo tensile tests and shall conform to required values of tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation. Steel samples shall also undergo deformation test, tension test and bend tests. Final products shall be marked by a tag. but in the reality, the long and short of it is if you buy weldable rebar, its at least consistant. if its just normal rebar its junk.

wow.super nice. i love the middle one, but all 3 are just ridiculously nice. reall eye catchers.

I was wondering if any of you guys living in anchorage knew Wes Cannon an old bladesmith living in Homer alaska. He was an old friend of my family, often gave us knives to use on our trapline , etc. since i started smithing i wanted to get in touch, but understand hes not even in AK anymore. His knives were cable damascus, sawmill bandsaw blades etc very nice work. anyway just saw some of you were from there. my dad still lives in anchorage, but lost contact with Wes sometime ago. thanks

good info once again, thanks very much Doug and Mike. LoL geoff ...10-4.

If you dont have a rusty blade, just a polished one you want to etch will the phospheric etching rust remover from Home Depot work in that capacity. thanks.

very quick, i just finished HTing a kitchen style knifge, normalized, nonmag HT, in oil. i got the grey silk thing totally, w/o a doubt also, out of the HT the knife didnt feel brittle either. ok thanks again.

fabulous answer ! thanks Mr. Keyes.

i was wondering the pros (if any) and cons to simply quenching the edge plus however much of a margin and forego the clay wrap to get a differential heat treat? thanks muchly

HOT damn! i love the info you guys have and the fact you are willing to share.thanks again. great info. PS. OH and a funny aside, i dont know if anyone remembers the FAT BOY TANTO but i was SO damn proud i finally made an approximate decent copy all with a hammer no grind cept some filing ; kinda as somewhere to start, when it shattered im sure the look on my face was worth a thousand bucks. As it was like 60 heats and 40ty billions hammers later hehe. anyway gotta start some where.

thanks for the reply and info .

hi priddy thanks for the reply )

gah ok, first thanks for all the replies im an idiot, i didnt temper it. im still getting all the steps down..once again thanks much. also, while im on the subject anyone have any input on HT'ing a hammer head i pounded into a hawk? its a pretty big mass, should i just harden the cutting edges, whole thing what?

OK so i beat a file into submission............i did not have any stanite, figured i would just HT the entire blade, get my first one out of the way.......ok, so i HT;d to a high yellow, quenched in water, all was good. i had left a few mills on the edge so it would not crack...........after the quench i noticed a lil warpage..........no prob, a lil tap tap tap with hammer and ................CRACK CRACK CRACK and not what im smokin............. blad shattered.......HT was yellow, in water, steel was NFS anyone ableto tell me what i am doing wrong that i tap a blade after HT and i shaters? should i temper it b4 i tap?????????????? not sure anything helps ryan

hey guys quick question to the ring makers..........where is a good source for finding jewel setting technique? I wanted to play around with drilling a hole in a ring a few thou under the size of a gem, heat the ring so it swelled, place gem then let metal cool, shrinking around it and holding it................really rough idea, wondering if there is a better way to do it. thanks much

how do i get on your xmas list? >-

i was looking at different belt grinders and was very surprised at the moderate cost of the actual belts from this place: im sure theres somewhere more local for you, although the lady that answers the phone is INCREDIBLE font of knowledge on abrasives if you have any questions........anyway heres the link http://www.abrasiveresource.com/ good luck

i use a regular milwakee router with a carbide pencile grinder type tip in it to cut different grooves in metal with a router table usint the fence as a guide, works decent, gotta take small runs at it, no big removals at one pass. another thing i use is flapper disks, etc in the router works great for polishing, although a bit hi speed for some things you mite be tempted to put in it

WOW! thats some just incredible stuff i saw the pics of how you made the lizmascus never believing i was going to see it in a finished product. once again, that is just awesome.

i contacted my agent asking about my propane forge when i was planning on building it. after explaining it ( it behaves much like a propane bbq only hotter) they talked to the under writer and then wished me luck and said no problem.

my knowledge of steel and its fundamentals went up 100 fold when i read those 2 articles