JJ Simon Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Friends.Here is the beginning of my KITH knife.I chose to make the blade from hearth material.Today a melted and started consolidating.Here are the pics.I started with cut nails.I figure the carbon content in using just them will give me consistency and I know they are higher carbon than other nails. Here's their spark.I'm not great at reading carbon content of spark but I'd guess they are mid carbon.I will spark the billet after it is fully consolidated and see what the difference is. The hearth shell The hearth running A nail being transformed in the hearth The sponge The first break in consolidation.That is a 2.5 LBS hammer in relation to the material. Thanks for looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Ysselstein Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 JJ, That is a very clear demonstration of your process....thank you. Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 My pleasure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin_Lyles Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Awesome JJ. This kind of stuff fascinates me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Way to think outside the box! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dougherty Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Wow, you make that look simple. I know it isn't. Do the briquettes cause you any contamination issues? -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 Thanks guys.The briquettes are Stubbs and they are hardwood with a vegetable based bonding agent.I did some research to see what they were made of and learned from a barbecue forum the different ingredients of a lot of briquettes.So these are the only ones I'd use.I know that's long but I don't think they are adding sulfur, I'm not getting a lot of cracking.I could use hardwood charcoal, but then I'd have to chop it and the firefly's from it are terrible.Also the briquettes are a uniform size.So far I'm two folds and welds into this billet and its doing pretty good.I've over carbuerized material before and it just became unworkable.This looks like it should be very suitable for this project.Brian, this is the simplest method of creating steel as a homemade product.And with firebricks vs. making a bowl hearth it is easy to measure and do.Its just depth of the bowl, air, and distance from the tuyere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dougherty Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) Wow, you are tempting me big time. Making my own steel is in my future, but I have been fighting the urge to learn the smelting craft until the kids are out of the house and I have more time and money. This looks like a nice stepping stone. Can you recommend some reading to start? Edited January 9, 2016 by Brian Dougherty -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 How many pounds of cut nails is in that block? “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) Wow, you are tempting me big time. Making my own steel is in my future, but I have been fighting the urge to learn the smelting craft until the kids are out of the house and I have more time and money. This looks like a nice stepping stone. Can you recommend some reading to start? There are whole threads in the Bloomers and Buttons threads here on the forum. With very good info. Its pretty closed in so it being around kids would probably be a good way to introduce them to this kind of stuff. Hotter than a barbeque but not bigger. How many pounds of cut nails is in that block? I had 4 pounds in the box and didn't use them all. Maybe 3 pounds went into the hearth. I'm going to guess I will end up with 1 to 1.5 pounds of material as a bar to forge the blade from. This is certainly not the most efficient use of resource. It was suggested to me that I could just carborize them in a can in my forge with charcoal which is absolutely true. Then I would have to forge weld them together. Which I have to do with the sponge any way. Edited January 9, 2016 by JJ Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 JJ, This is just too cool not to try! I think I have to finally fire up that coal forge.............. 1 “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 Continued consolidation of the billet.And a final bar before I forged it into a knife blankI will attach those pics later tonightThe bar at the end after the ends were cut true measured 5.5X1.25X.5 inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Here's the photos from working the bar down to a knife blank.I tried to keep a pretty traditional shape.Unfortunately there is a delamination in the ricasso.Fortunately I planned for any issues in the material.This material can be very grumpy and I have found that working it at welding heat is pretty much the protocol.Tomorrow I will attempt to weld the ricasso and heel of the blade back together.As long as it works, it will be ground an ready for thermo cycling by Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Here's the blade ground before thermal cycle and final heat treat.I will be claying it for a hamon.In working to fix the couple of weld flaws I had to grind the blade to more of a modern fighter shape.I'm glad I left some meat to be able to make adjustments.In the close up pictures you can get a sense of some of the pattern in the steel.Kind of a loose random pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZebDeming Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Now that's how you get good high carbon steel from the hardware store! Great looking blade my friend. Zeb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Thanks Zeb,It sparks pretty star like, but a real tight pattern, like it doesn't radiate out very far.We'l see how well it hardens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 Thermal cycle, sneak peak of the pattern from the heat change.More to come 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Holy Smokes! I never would have imagined that. I am now rethinking my original blade steel idea. 1 “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 I'm pretty surprised myself.There is no pattern manipulation other than hammering.And the material was only folded 6 times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeroen Zuiderwijk Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Sweet! How much time did it take to create the bloom? Jeroen Zuiderwijk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/barbarianmetalworking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grpaavola Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Ye' gods! talk about raising the bar! -Gabriel 1 The fundamental cause of trouble is that the stupid are cocksure, while the intelligent are full of doubt. -Bertrand Russell, philosopherfollow me on Instagram @raggedravenforge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 Sweet! How much time did it take to create the bloom? Actually melting the material with setting up the hearth and getting it full of burning charcoal takes less than 2 hours. The actual process of feeding material in is a little over and hour of that. Ye' gods! talk about raising the bar! -Gabriel Thank you. I'm just trying to get better every year. This is ambitious and could die in the quench today. We never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeroen Zuiderwijk Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Actually melting the material with setting up the hearth and getting it full of burning charcoal takes less than 2 hours. The actual process of feeding material in is a little over and hour of that. That's just too impressive not to try some time myself, even if I would massively fail at it. Thanks for showing what can be done 1 Jeroen Zuiderwijk Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/barbarianmetalworking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Simon Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) That's just too impressive not to try some time myself, even if I would massively fail at it. Thanks for showing what can be done Its a blast, and the simplest "Homemade" steel there is. I have 20 pounds of wrought iron nails that will be the next material I feed to the monster. Edited January 13, 2016 by JJ Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 OK JJ, I'm making a grand assumption here, but what's the bloom process? lay down a bed of charcoal, pile the nails on it (randomly or organized stack? I assume randomly) Light it up and cover with more charcoal. turn the blower on and monitor, adding more charcoal as needed to get it to semi-consolidate Pull out the sponge and start forging Repeat as needed. Is that the crux of the biscuit? “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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