Josh Fikentscher

I'll be there as well. Sent from the mobile client - Forum Talker

Some thoughts for the record. Your oven is going to have an internal temperature swing, on the order of +/- 30 deg F or more. This is due to how they work. It's gonna heat up, sense that it is above the set temperature (by some amount set forth by the oven manufacturer) it is the gonna turn off until it falls below the set temperature by the same amount, turn on and then rinse and repeat. Secondarily, you have the issues with how accurately the oven senses the set temperature. 450 deg F may really be 420 or it could be 480. Add these all together and your oven may be up to 60 degrees off or so. Your spine, being thicker is gonna better deal with this temperature swing than the edge will. It has more thermal mass. I have a big cast iron skillet that I use as thermal mass. Others use pans filled with sand to help even out the thermal swings and to not overheat the blade. I can't stress enough though, get an oven thermometer.

Automotive use is usually grey cast iron.

Well, that sounds explosive. Save some thermite for this weekend.

Registration and payment sent! Can't wait.

Stick w/ the 1084 if you are a beginner, significantly easier to HT than the 1095, as 1095 is hyper-eutectic, and 1084 is barley hyper-eutectic. this means that there should be less to worry about...

When you run the forge for long enough that the tank is freezing, when you place it in the tum of water, you should notice ice build up on the outside of the tank. that being said, what sized orifice are you using to control the amount of propane entering the burner apparatus, or are you using a needle valve to regulate the flow? Do you have the hose running directly into a fitting, that has no orifice in it? I am wondering if you are getting so much flow through the system that you are triggering the over-flow protection internal to the tank? That may explain your sudden decrease in pressure after only a few minutes of operation... do you have pictures of your set-up?

Well, I have finally gotten around to getting my materials as shown below: 1) 4 way rasp/file 2) 3 chainsaw chains (individually welded) 3) Panga Panga for handle (local woodcraft store, which i think still counts as a boxed hardware store ) 4) copper pipe (for fittings, plan is mokume-gane, still need mild steel) I will follow up with a drawing of what i want to do, but my plan is to weld the chainsaw up as a billet for the back of the spine, and weld the rasp as the blade edge. My initial plan is to weld these together with a wolfs tooth pattern, mainly because 1) if it works, i hope it will look cool, 2) why the hell not, and 3) i seem to remember Alan posting a "history" of a blade that was a Sax that had been re-handled as a Bowie i believe with rounded pins, and it sparked the idea for this. we shall see how successful i am at any of this...

The link below may help, but yes, the Parkers look to be directional control valves, 2 position. 110 V with nitrile seals: http://www.parker.com/literature/Hydraulic%20Controls%20Europe/HY11-3500UK/PDF_2013/D1VW%20UK.pdf

Sweet!

Gabriel, they just don't make watches for us do they... i am lucky if i can get them to last more than a year, regardless of how expensive they are. My wife is still upset that the watch she got me for Christmas a few years ago is in the land of not working anymore. This will be my first Bowie. I tend not to like them stylistically, and they are not my cup of tea . But, i want to expand my abilities as a knife maker, and i will make the best knife that i can make (even if my tastes are different). just look at it as practice for when a customer wants a double guard on something else. Just in this case, the customer is paying with a knife, and it is one of us.

lets say that it has to be something that you can get at a hardware store. if you want to buy new, sure. If you have something old, that can work as well, so long as one can actually procure it at a lowes, HD, Ace hardware, etc. if they wanted to. cause "guidelines" Aye

1.Gabriel R. Paavola 2. Timothy Artymko 3. Gary Toulomelis 4. Caleb Harris 5. Scott Cruse 6. Tim Tracey 7: JJ Simon 8. Daniel J. Luevano 9. Dan Bourlotos 10. Pieter-Paul Derks 11. Joshua States 12. Kevin Hopkins 13. Robert Dowse 14. Brian Dougherty 15. Jeroen Zuiderwijk 16. Michael Cochran 17. Austin Lyles 18. James Fuller 19. Michael Seronde 20. George Ezell 21. Josh Fikentscher

so i have finally convinced my local blacksmiths' guild to diverge out of their comfort zone and run a crucible melt this friday. those of you who may be local to the northern VA area are encouraged to stop by. it really looks like it should happen. eventually my goal is to convince them to run a bloomery at the local spring fling, but safety concerns on the part of the ruling committee means that i need to operate on the baby step approach, and convince them that there are people locally who may be interested... anyway it is happening because i convinced them that guild members also may want to do aluminum and bronze casting. long story. since i habe never done a steel melt before, only seen it at 'fire and brimstone' last year, i am going by what i have read here and elsewhere on the internet, so bare with me and let me know your thoughts on my plan. first, i want to start small, and try a few different things to begin seeing what works for me, and hopefully do this again. second, i so not want to royally screw up. third, have some fun. i have 3 different size crucibles. two are A2 sized and one is A4 sized. the first crucible will be filled half way with about 720 grams of cut up nails. i will add carbon, in the form of activated charcoal, and shoot for a carbon content of about 1% keeping it simple. the second crucible will also be filled with about 700 or so grams of steel, shooting for a carbon content of 1%. however, to this i will add cut up ni-chrome wire to shoot for a nickel content of about 2% and the chrome along with this to add some other carbides. the third, larger crucible will be filled, again with old nails, and a carbon content of 1%, but i want to add some other carbide formers. my thought is to use a plain, uncoated HSS drill bit, and add this to the mix. questions: 1. if i use new, unused, crucibles will i run into issues. 2. if i need to season them, what should i do given i do not hqve the ability at home to do anything. 3. i plan on covering with glass for flux, but should i add anything else to prevent the carbon from leaving? 4. i have copious amounts of epk clay, should i mix this up and seal the top of the crucibles with it? i will have more, but caps game has started, and i am at the stadium. -josh

as a side note, a good way to know when your oil is dry is when the rag that you used to either apply it, or wipe it off, goes stiff (as it will only do that when the oil has cured). just leave it to hang dry with plenty of ventilation. raw linseed oil and pure tung oil take forever to dry...