Jesse Lange

I just picked up a bunch of wrought iron anchor chain, roughly 12 feet for 1 to 1.5 in diameter 9ish inch links. Should I clean the rust off before forging, or will it just come off while forging? I'd be happy to sell some of what I have, and am currently based in NH.

How long before cracking did you harden them, and had you tempered yet? You don’t want to wait too long before tempering, sometimes blades can crack just sitting over night after hardening but not being tempered.

Take my response w/ a grain of salt as I am relatively new to this (started last fall, took a 2 week ABS intro to Bladesmithing class about a month ago). I've been very happy with the IR thermometer. When I've used it to check temp for normalization and hardening, I've ended up with really tight silky grain structure. I've also used it to check temp in my forge and I've been able to get readings upwards of 2400 degrees. When I've soaked bar stock and checked temp of forge and then pulled out the stock and checked, the temp has been consistent, so I have decent confidence in the accuracy.

I have been very impressed by/ happy with this one, and the price isn't too bad either: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079HHSHLQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_eQtyqOb4AXk3C I've also seen it used by some of the pros in their videos (I forget who, but maybe Steve Schwarzer).

Placed my order. Can you post or email that document or any heat treating instructions that you have? Are you planning on carrying any other steels (because at your prices, the steel is a steal)?

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, so feel free to move it. Recently, I was looking into buying some Parks 50 and AAA quench oil. The stuff is relatively expensive, so I did some digging and found the manufacturer, and realized that you can buy direct from them for roughly half of what most places charge. Most places charge $250-300 for 5 gallons of Parks 50 shipped, and I was able to get 5 gallons of Parks 50 and 5 gallons of AAA for ~$230 shipped (total, for both). The manufacturer is Dubois Chemicals. Their web store is store.duboischemica

How do you know his location? I don't see it on his profile. Chris, if you are indeed based in the North East, I'd be happy to give you some advice. I started last fall and have learned some things to do/not do to buy/not buy. I also just completed a 2 week ABS Intro to Knifemaking course at the New England School of Metalwork. You don't have to do a 2 week course, but I can't recommend these guys highly enough. Fantastic school, fantastic teachers/ people. Feel free to reach out to me. Jesse

To follow-up on this topic, I took my 2 week ABS Intro course (highly recommend the NE School of Metalwork), and I got to play with quite a few different ginders. Even though they didn't have a Brodbeck, I made the decision to pull the trigger and ordered the Brodbeck Mega Package. They have been a pleasure to work with so far, have given me a ton of their time over the phone, and I can't wait to get the grinder. I'll update you guys once I have it up and running.

To amend my earlier post, I just spoke to Vince from Brodbeck, and after hearing more about their machine, the tolerances, manufacturing process, the reason certain decisions were made, etc I am definitely leaning that way. If you are curious about their products, drop a note via "Contact us" on their site. Vince called me about an hour or two after I did.

I'm in a similar boat. I started blacksmithing/knifemaking as a hobby in the fall, and am actually taking 2 weeks off for an ABS Into to Knifemaking course starting in a week. I too started w/ a budget grinder, a Norse 2x42 from Amazon which I've made a lot of modifications to, and I will likely upgrade to a big boy grinder after my course. From my research I narrowed things down to: 84 Engineering's Gibson 72 Deluxe sold by Alec Steele - leaning towards this one due to the carbide faced platen, cam-based tension system (supposedly even better than ratcheting),