Alex Zandonella

Thats a good idea,thank you very much!

I'm sorry you are totally right, thank you, I totally forgot to mention it!

Hello to everyone! On March this year I'll be on a year long visa in Canada. Nearly a year ago I started blacksmithing and later on bladesmithing. I was really thinking about a apprenticeship on one of the two. And on my time in Canada most of my time I'll be in Alberta or BC. I would take anything from a day or two up to a few weeks/months. So I was wondering, if any of you know someone in Canada who might take an apprentice, I'd do anything, even if it's just cleaning the workshop or handsanding, as long as I get a chance to take a look at your work and learn something just by watching. Greetings from Italy, Alex

Okay thank you!. I'll keep it in mind. So I guess most of my knifes have been on the thiner side. Next few I make I'll definitely try it out!

Thank you both for the quick reply. About jigs, I saw them beeing used, what I thought about it is, it's better beeing able to do it freehanded for if you have to grind bevels on a sword or a curvy blade you've got to learn it anyway. So better now then when I should know it already. Alan, about the higher bevel you mentioned. How thick should the blade be when grounded flat for such a high bevel? Because I tried it with about 1-2mm thick and failed. But if it is thicker it feels so clumsy and heavy. As I'm a newbie it's anyway a question I've been wondering, how thick approximately a kitchen knife should be and what you recommend for a survival knife.

Hello to everyone! Recently the biggest thing bothering me on my last knifes is the primary bevel. I saw a lot of people grinding the two bevels, so I wanted to try it myself. I've got a 2x72 belt grinder but no adjustable table to help me grinding bevels. So my goal was learning to grind them freehanded. After watching a few videos on YouTube it seemed like not that a hard thing to do. So after grinding the blade flat, I ground slowly those bevels and as suggested on some videos, rotating my body rather then moving my hands. So attempt after attempt and it just kept beeing the same result. In the front close to the tip the bevels seem decent. But where it should be straight and parallel to the edge going towards the heel, I just keep messing it up. Always where I stop I make the bevel go up way higher and a few inches before aswell. Everytime. It feels impossible to get this line perfectly straight freehanded. A thing that would help make the bolster better is s file guide(I'm waiting for one already) Does anyone of you have any recommendations? Maybe some tips?

So to finish I tried again with Brass. It worked a lot better. But still it wasn't easy to work with, I was not able to make a bracelet I wanted. After a few attempts I was able to make a simple bracelet and a leaf key fob. Then I thought I'll just try it with copper and boy was that a pleasure working with copper, after my first try I got it down as I wanted it. I'm satisfied with the result I'll add a photo of my finished attempts.

I'll try the heat-quench-hammer routine tomorrow and let you know how it worked. In case it shouldn't I found on my suppliers website another type of brass, the alloy index in Italy is CW617N. So basically he just offers those to types of bronze alloys. I'm not sure about the index internationally, but a datasheet from Germany explains that this type of brass should actually work good for forging and similar stuff. Description says, 58% copper, 2,5% lead, 0,3% Nickel and 0,3% of iron, 0,05% aluminium, 0,3% tin and the rest should be zink. So what would you guys say? Shouldn't there be a little more steel and aluminium? There's more to Bronze that hits the eyes first. I thought as a soft material there should be no problems, bronze definitely proved me wrong. But hey we learn from our mistakes, don't we?

Thanks for everyone replying! About the quenching. When you anneal it doesn't it loose those properties again when you heat it up again? I mean I can try it, those pieces that crumbled of can still be used for casting sometime in the future. If seen the video where Alec Steele was forging a bronze plate, when he worked it, it just seemed to work perfectly, didn't crumble at all, but then again he probably used bronze that's better for forging. Thank you for warning about the lead gas, I didn't even think about it! I'm sorry for the stupid question but if it melts on such a low temperature shouldn't it just melt of from the allow when heating it up to forging temperature? One thing I noticed aswell was where it crumbled sometimes there were yellow like stained spots that disappeared when it cooled down. But nevertheless shouldn't it be possible after annealing it to forge it cold?

Hello everyone! In a few weeks my girlfriend has her birthday and as a present I wanted to make her a bracelet made out of bronze so I went to my steel supplier and got a round bronze rod (25mm). Today I wanted to try forging it, after a few attempts it just kept cracking and breaking it apart. I looked up what might be causing it. Apparently it should be how the allow is made up. If there's to much zink and lead it makes it brittle. My Bronze is called here in Italy RG7 and the datasheet says about a 1,5 to 11% tin and 1 to 9% zink and some traces of nickel and lead. So technically it should work for forging. The right temperature should be on a dull orange. I tried it a few times with no success. I tried forging it cold, it worked a little better but still opened little cracks. I tried heating it up more but obviously it just started melting on the outside. Some even say that you should hit it gentle so after failing with my 4 pound hammer I tried it with my 2 pound hammer, no difference really... So I'm a bit frustrated now, not knowing what I really do wrong. Attached you can see some pieces that broke of. My guess might still be that the bronze is not suitable for forging, but as I'm not sure I wanted to ask you guys for your opinion. If it all doesn't work I might switch to copper even though I preferred bronze for the bracelet. Greetings Alex

Okay so I tried it again but it still didn't work, I got the oil at about 50°C, the steel was at orange and I quenched it until it was cold, steering it around in the oil. It don't get it. And as a beginner I'm not even sure if its really hardened, I tried the file test and it sounds like it's hardened, but still I feel like it's not. Is there any other way to check if it's hardened apart hammering it in the vice until it breaks or bends?

Okay I'll try to quench it again with the cleaned surface, but should the oil be hot or is it okay if it's room temperature? Okay thank you, I'll keep that in mind. And thank you for the compliment!

Hello to everyone! My last project was the steel for a flint and steel tool. The steel used for it was coil spring that I got from my mechanic. The design was the same as the one my sister has. After forging it out I quenched it at a non-magnetic dull red in canola oil. After sanding of the oxides I tried it out... couldn't get any sparks. While sanding it sparked a lot, maybe the hardening process didn't work? Because when I used the flint on it, after a few tries, there where some scratches. Has any one of you got any hints? Greetings from Italy Alex

Thank you all again for you responses, I couldn't get hold of the Steel vendor till now. But you might be right that it is just mild steel. I made today some J-Hooks and some bottle openers. Next week I will try myself making some tongues. And as you said, if mild steel is okay for tongues I'll use it for that. I tried to make a slot and a center punch of mild steel but it's just to soft after a few blows it starts deforming. But I ordered some C45 (1045) online and that should be good for a Hammer. Good note on the ferro, because it's quite confusing, I mean even for the price I bought it, it couldn't have been iron. So thank you again for all your help, wish you all a good start into the week! Alex

Thank you all for your quick responses! There's a reason I asked about the iron, when I went to the local steel supplier and I asked him for some material that is good for forging, he gave me iron, that's what the recipe also says, not wrought iron or cast iron, just iron. That's why I asked, now that I bought it I noticed I should have looked closer before buying it and think about it... Now I'm stuck with quite some bars I can't really use for forging tools(what I would really need now) I mean I can make leaves and other decorations out of it, but it's a looooot material just for decorations. So the hardening process for pure iron, is it any different? Does it even work to harden it? Is it a lot softer than mild steel or could I compare it to that? I'm sorry for my dump questions, I'm house painter and I just got no clue at all when it comes to metals. Thank you all again for your help!