Joshua States

Laminating billets doesn't necessarily need you to smash it to weld. It just needs a solid hit repeatedly and straight on so the layers do not slide against one another. This is where welding the ends or tying the billet with wire helps keep everything in line. When I weld in my press, I get very little compression across a 6 inch long and 2 inch wide stack. It's not the compression depth that controls a good weld, it's the uniform pressure across the face. Don't worry about the wire welding to the billet either. I have used rebar tie wire and it usually pealed right out of the grooves it made in the stack. When it didn't, a little grinding removed what was left. If I read Cashen correctly, you can forge that billet back into usable stock, it just won't look great under a microscope, which none of us is going to do. I don't know how it will respond to a quench, but it shouldn't crumble. The crumbling happens during the over heating when the steel is so hot it starts to come apart. If you plan on using that billet as a jacket, just make sure the mating surfaces are very clean and smooth. You don't want any voids to trap air or flux and cause a delamination.

Maybe the sheath is one of those "behind the back jobs....."

Everything that could be said about the knife has already been said. The sheath is simple, and the carving is subtle, yet elegant. That's a very nice package Tim.

Nice! Thanks for the arrow.......

Another thing to put on my bucket list........

Peened and blued the pins today. Then I put an edge on that sucker. It's done.

That's a pretty serious quench tank Brian! Today I was going to work on part 2 of my WIP video series, but my wife took over the shop and was a forging maniac! She has the power hammer and the press going and with all that racket, the only thing left to do was finish up the pins in my KITH knife (Final pics in KITH 2016) and start the finish sanding on two other knives I'm working on. Then I blew the plunge cuts on one and accidentally gouged a bit out of the ricasso in the second one. Two more pieces of scrap O-1 for the bucket. By then Liz was done in the forge are, so I forged out another two knives.

White hot for high carbon steel is not a good idea. Chances are good that permanent and unrepairable damage has resulted. Most HC steel will weld in the bright orange to dull yellow range (+/- 2500*F). If I can quote Kevin Cashen: "Sparklers is definitely a dividing line, if you get that, you have permanently damaged the steel. Often the atmosphere in the gas forge will not give you the sparks and it is much worse when there is no sparks and the steel just crumbles without warning. In light of this I would say that it is never a good idea to take a high carbon steel to "white" hot. But then I don't know why that would be necessary. Even when making damascus a light yellow should be more than enough. The greater the carbon content, the lower the melting temperature of the steel and the easier it is to harm it with high temperatures. This is why steel has those recommended forging temperatures, heat properly matched to the rate of deformation keeps things balanced. But hand forging is going to result in all kinds of inhomogeneity anyhow since we can’t hammer as evenly as say a rolling mill could deform steel, and this is why normalizing is so useful; enlarged grain, uneven grain etc… it can all be fixed with a couple of controlled cycles… unless you burn it. A note on "burning". For years I have heard folks refer to it as "burning the carbon out" but this is not an accurate description at all, it is much more complex and serious than that. What burning actually is is very aggressive and destructive oxidation that eats its way into the steel at the grain boundaries, compromising them so that the integrity of the steel is also compromised. This is why the steel often crumbles or comes apart on the anvil, there is little left holding it together. You may be able to hammer the steel back to shape if you only had a little sparking but under the microscope it really looks cruddy and is not the same." There is still hope for your knife though. Treat that file carefully and you will still end up with a good piece of steel in the business area of the blade.

Congratulations J.D.! Although it may be more than you know........maybe Salem Straub will interview you for the biography series next? http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=9482&page=44 How cool would that be?

Gotta love that spark show! Welcome back.

That looks great R.W. I'm really curious about the pommel end and how you finished it.

That came out great Chad. Nicely done.

You are getting some pretty nice results for hand forging your PW steel. Keep the photos and stuff coming, I really like your work.

Is there anyway to avoid this with their steel?

Exceptional work and positively beautiful. I have two questions, if I may. Did you say there was a WIP somewhere? (as in a pictorial series of the build) Can we see a close up of the guard area?

You could always reweld another jacket over it and reharden/temper. You might get those cracks to weld back or at least weld a solid layer over them. Filing a hard blade is a bear and it usually costs you a file or two..........

Wait! Two important items: 1. Most bandsaw blades have a coating on the metal that acts as a lubricant. This could jack up your welds and cause major delamination. Remove all that before attempting to weld. 2. Reverse the blade teeth every other blade. Do not stack all the teeth on the same edge or you will increase the chance of voids in the welds. The teeth have a "kerf" that makes them wider than the blade backer metal. You need to alternate teeth from edge to edge to minimize the spaces between blades. Let the teeth hang over the edge of the blade backer next to it so the faces are tight against each other. Grind them off after the welding. As for the pattern, you can see what it will probably look like here: http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=32899

If you use the Rutland Furnace cement, do not let it dry before heating to critical for the hardening. Put that sucker in the forge or oven while the stuff is still wet. If you are hardening in a propane forge, I would suggest getting a square tube (3" x 3"x 1/8") to heat the blade in while the tube is in the forge.This keeps the heating of the blade more uniform and you can see the coloration of the blade much easier. Just drill a couple of holes in one wall and insert some round rods through the holes to keep the blade standing on the spine with the edge up in the tube. Tube inserted into forge Shown so you can see the rods in place

I have had that rainbow effect happen to simple carbon steels (1084 especially) after using them to cut red meat. I think it has to do with the fatty acids and the simple alloys. I have never had it happen on any chromium or nickel alloy.

It took me a few minutes to "see" the bird motif in the sheath, but once I did I really like it.

Way to go Matthew! Nice raindrop (?) pattern too. That is a seriously busy day. Hey Wes, there's another mobile post vice...........sorry, I don't mean any disrespect.

Yes, that is a beautiful painting. Sounds like a great project Sartore. Please keep us informed on the process as it unfolds. Buckler: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buckler or if you prefer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckler

That is exactly what my first set up was.......You just have to be careful with that anvil and only work hot on it. The face is kind of soft and will dent easily. At least that's the way mine was. @Jeroen: Yes forging the tang out is also what I do. I find that 1-2 inches of flat bar is usually sufficient to forge a tang from if you also account for the ricasso area, should you have one. I never forge mild cold. I heard you go to hell for forging cold steel!

Wes, you are going to love having that post vice. I can't believe you had it for two years before setting it up! I also hope you like where you put it, because no, you aint moving it any time soon. I made mine mobile (sort of) it takes a bit of dragging to move it, but it can be moved.

Ah, OK, I got it now. Looks like a good design. Go for it!