Daniel Cauble

Thanks guys, np. This year my focus is going back to my orishigane and making japanese swords, so after the last chef knife with this puck I will put crucible steels on hold.

Oh yea. Plenty for that. Planned on it actually. It was a happy accident. Shortly after these were made, i was approached by a student at a lab in Canada who wanted to write up a report on the strength of interdendritic regions to the overall blade. I and 2 other people from different areas of the world sent samples of material to be looked at through an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), regular metallurgical optical scopes, and a mass spectrometer. I typically cut windows from each crucible puck, which was another happy coincidence because i was able to send one set pf samples that contained a chunk from the puck, a piece of the bar after spheroidizing, and a piece of a blade from that bar. Another bag contained a previous run where from my understanding of what was going on, crossed the 2% C threshold. I sent a sample of the puck and thr bar i forged following. I even sent folded samples of my orishigane. I felt it was relavent since that is what i use as feed material for my.crucibles to begin with. The really cool thing there will be finding out carbom content in a 4 fold and 9 fold sample. It will give me a good idea on how well i retain carbon on my process. It will also show me if my findings all this time are true or not in relation to removing Mn from steel in the hearth process. I suspect it does. All of my hearth steel and even this crucible steel reveal to me that despite the original steel to be melted at the very beginning (the hearth) having .8% Mn, that the hearth seperates it in the slag/silica. I have never made a deep hardening sample of orishigane to date. A full report will be written and submitted to me in January.

Ive made 2 blades. One broke while straightening. Different viewing angles... And the broken one... Not too bad, are they Alan? Ive got one more Gyuto to forge from this steel to go.

I use a thermocouple an keep everything exact.

I plan to have small amounts of orishigane for sale from time to time. As of right now, I do. http://caublestonecutlery.com/home/my-steel/availablesteel/

Not yet. A medical procedure this weekend stopped me from working further.

My most recent work. ~1.7% C

Mark has.

Jan. I have very similar results running an open hearth. Yield wise.

My original video is no longer up. I guess they took it down. Now it displays my fav list.

For the size dies you will need 4340 to keep your quenchant as oil, or step up to some of the air hardening steels like H13. You can somewhat water quench large sections of 4140, but it leaves the risk of cracking, which is why 4340 would be recommended on dies exceeding 3" thick in order to get an appreciable amount of hardness in oil.

Flats are great for general forging and toolong both. I use mostly flat dies. Stay away from combo dies. They arent really appropriate for these style hammers, as the offhitting tends to wear out a LG in the ways faster than larger or more robust machines. Your bottom die looks like the interchangeable die system, nice to have. Great new style LG you have there. Very clean.

I decided with the several i have made that a curve in the handle, along with the very weight.forward hammer head to feel very comfortable. I made a few for myself, and others liked them, and they have a place. I use them almost exclusively.

I only use the double bit axe because it gives extra meat to make unique handle to every hammer. I try to make them the same, but each starts out as a bigger lump of wood. Costs a lot more on my end that places like house of handles, but isnt a dime a dozen look.

To be honest, every hammer handle that i use for my cutler hammers started life as a double bit axe handle from the hardware store. I get two different styles of handles from one, and i get to pick and choose grain orientation. Plus its hickory.