Alan Longmire 2,713 Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Looking great, John! Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 5 minutes ago, Alan Longmire said: Looking great, John! Thanks Alan, hopefully I will start making acceptable hammers and axes in a few weeks. I suspect I might be better at making tooling than 'stuff' though! I am looking forward to getting a grip on the making. I suspect I am too impetus sometimes still. Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) I spent a good portion of today in my shop practicing laying down arc welded beads in preparation for making lost of jigs and fixtures in my shop. A fuller is one of those projects that's on my list, John. But never having welded before, I sure want to get it down to where I can at least lay a functional if not nice looking weld. I'm getting better with the beads, but I want to try a couple of different rods. Right now all I have is a stack of 25 year old 6013 rods. I'd like to get some 6011 and 7014. But right now we (are under house arrest by our Mayor) are being asked not to leave our homes as our county has the second highest count in the State of those infected with the Chinese Virus. So I'm not going anywhere soon! Edited March 28, 2020 by Chris Christenberry Link to post Share on other sites
dragoncutlery 48 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 11 hours ago, Chris Christenberry said: I spent a good portion of today in my shop practicing laying down arc welded beads in preparation for making lost of jigs and fixtures in my shop. A fuller is one of those projects that's on my list, John. But never having welded before, I sure want to get it down to where I can at least lay a functional if not nice looking weld. I'm getting better with the beads, but I want to try a couple of different rods. Right now all I have is a stack of 25 year old 6013 rods. I'd like to get some 6011 and 7014. But right now we (are under house arrest by our Mayor) are being asked not to leave our homes as our county has the second highest count in the State of those infected with the Chinese Virus. So I'm not going anywhere soon! you spelt covid-19 wrong Link to post Share on other sites
Gerald Boggs 209 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 No, it's long been traditional to name a virus after its point of origin. So Chinese Virus is correct, as is Wuhan Virus. Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 780 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 ... And here's where it could go south. Maybe try to keep it diplomatic fellas? Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 .....................................any way, I'm hoping to see this sequestering cancelled so I can go get some 6011 and 7014 rods. Gotta learn how to run this new (to me) welder. I tried to weld a piece of rebar to a 3/4 square bar the other day and it kept falling off inside the forge. So I obviously wasn't getting a good weld. Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,713 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Zeb Camper said: ... And here's where it could go south. Maybe try to keep it diplomatic fellas? Yes, let's. No quibbles about naming conventions, that gets political. Some like it, some don't, leave it alone and move on. 3 minutes ago, Chris Christenberry said: .....................................any way, I'm hoping to see this sequestering cancelled so I can go get some 6011 and 7014 rods. Gotta learn how to run this new (to me) welder. I tried to weld a piece of rebar to a 3/4 square bar the other day and it kept falling off inside the forge. So I obviously wasn't getting a good weld. Try turning up the amps and preheating the rebar. Rebar has enough carbon to harden when welded cold, which leads to cracked welds. Edit: can you order some 6013? That's my go-to rod for my poor welding skills. Edited March 28, 2020 by Alan Longmire Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Alan, 6013 is all I have and what I tried welding the rebar to the spring steel bar with. I was using 3/32" (I believe) at 120 amps. But I didn't think to heat the rebar. Whatever it was I did incorrectly...........................well, I did incorrectly! Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 16 hours ago, Chris Christenberry said: I spent a good portion of today in my shop practicing laying down arc welded beads in preparation for making lost of jigs and fixtures in my shop. A fuller is one of those projects that's on my list, John. But never having welded before, I sure want to get it down to where I can at least lay a functional if not nice looking weld. I'm getting better with the beads, but I want to try a couple of different rods. Right now all I have is a stack of 25 year old 6013 rods. I'd like to get some 6011 and 7014. But right now we (are under house arrest by our Mayor) are being asked not to leave our homes as our county has the second highest count in the State of those infected with the Chinese Virus. So I'm not going anywhere soon! I use 6013's - you can dry them out a bit if they are splutery! Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,713 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Ah, the 3/4" is spring steel too? Yeah, heat that to at least 400 F along with the rebar. I use 3/32 6013 too, and it seems (the few times I've welded on a handle, I prefer tongs) that if you preheat and run a deep-penetrating bead followed by a pile (technical term) of lower-amp passes to build up a wad (another technical term) of weld bead the handle will stay attached a little longer. They'll usually break eventually, forging is not kind to stick welds. At least not mine. Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Why is it smiths making Damascus typically use a welded on rebar instead of tongs if the weld doesn't hold up? Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,713 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Well, you only need the bar to hold for a little while. And as I said, I'm not good at it. The guys who are good at it, at least the ones I know personally, tend to have to re-attach the handle a few times during the process of going from a pile of bars to a completed billet. MIG (gas shield, not flux core wire welding) and TIG welds seem to hold better too. Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Oh, you mean the "footage" they never show in the videos? Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Mig is just a glorified glue gun. Tig way to much finesse required. A decent stab with a 6013 with the amps wound up is my method of choice ! I dont bother with pre-heating, by the time Ive shoved the rod in, the whole weld area is red hot. deep penetration from MMA is the boss for this application! Let it cool slowly, A couple of tricks ive found help, - Maximise the weld area, for example instead of welding a re-bar cut at 90 deg, to a piece of spring cut at 90 deg, cut them both at 45 deg. - I try and scarf the 2 materials (like the 45 deg thing above) so the first thing I do when out of the fire is forge weld them together! - The main separator of welded handle on material is overloading the weld joint through poor forging practice (technique). On a power hammer I can keep a grip stub attached for many heats, by ensuring the work piece is kept flat to the dies, so its not flexing the weld joint. Same on the anvil with a hand hammer. Ive prepped billets for other people when teaching / showing how to do something (and worked an identical billet myself), and my welded handle lasts the duration of the project, Theirs is flapping about after a couple of heats. Practice! Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 1 hour ago, Chris Christenberry said: Why is it smiths making Damascus typically use a welded on rebar instead of tongs if the weld doesn't hold up? If a starting billet is 6" long x 1.5" high x 1.5" wide, you would need a pair of box jaws to securely hold 1.5" square. A pair of 1.5 sq tongs will also suck heat out of the bit they are gripping. Not desirable. You would not then be able to weld the full billet in one pass, as the tongs are gripping one end of it, so you would need to take a 2nd welding heat, grip the already welded end (possibly with a different pair of tongs, as the section has changed) and forge weld the other end. Much easier to weld a stub on the end, say 3/4 - 1" dia, and grab that with a simple pair of tongs ! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 But does it stay on through out the forging cycle? Surely it doesn't fall off like mine was doing. Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Whist I am rambling on about this, in my feverish, sore throat, and dry cough stupor.... I have a lot more success with welded on handles if I can lay down the weld in a straight line (not welding round a diameter. This also maximises the weld area and penetration. So, in your example, you are welding, say, 1/2" rebar to 3/4" sq. Forge the end of the rebar down so its, say, 3/4" x 1/4" thick flat, grind the end square, then weld the handle to the work with 2 x 3/4" long fillets. You can then orientate the workpiece to the anvil so the stick welds are vertical, ie, you are not flapping the weld joint like a hinge. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
John N 265 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 2 minutes ago, Chris Christenberry said: But does it stay on through out the forging cycle? Surely it doesn't fall off like mine was doing. When I do it, yes, it stays on. I generally have a very high success rate and the stub stays on until it ends up effectively forge welded into the long flat billet. I am very aggressive forging damascus on larger power hammers, you just need to be mindful to not stress the weld, IE, keep everything square. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Christenberry 344 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Okay, thanks, John. Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,713 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 See, I told you I wasn't good at that! Thanks, John. Link to post Share on other sites
J.Arthur Loose 102 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 I'm working on adding enameling to my repertoire. This is a drinking horn called Hvetr-rafn, or the Winter Raven. It should be fun. 5 Link to post Share on other sites
Garry Keown 935 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 (edited) I have changed horses and got back to a rifle stock I am doing so this morning I started with the action inlet I did a couple of weeks back Having done the preliminary channel with straight chisels cutting across the grain it is then time to start the long process of scraping the fit in so at that stage this is what I see when smoking the barrel and transfering the soot to the channel These are the two main scrapers for the work till I get down to sanding rather than scraping. They are just old files I have bent and re-shaped for the purpose then re heat treated to harden the edge. I got a little video of the process Edited March 29, 2020 by Garry Keown 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Gerald Boggs 209 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Couple of the things I did in the forge yesterday. Beginnings of a twisted basket for the handle of a fire poker and now soaking overnight in vinegar, and a simple way to forge an axe. Should finish both today. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
billyO 220 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Hello all. Here's what I just finished (minus final edge and sharpening). This is my second integral bolster and I was more focused on the damascus pattern than the blade shape, so this is what I ended up after forging. After grinding, I learned I had enough material that I could have turned this into a decent chef's knife. It looks like I need more practice forging to keep my billet centered. The last stack was 5 pieces (3 of 78 layer 1084/15N20 separated by pieces of 0.140" 15N20) and I was looking for bulls-eyes of layered steel on a background of 15N20 with a layered steel core/edge. I'm not sure what to do with this one, may turn it into an EDC for me and abuse it for some edge/HT testing. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
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