What did you do in your shop today?

[Joshua States 2,459]

2 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Stuff is just soft and gummy,

A lot of folder makers do not do any rough grinding, and just put the nail nick in, leaving the bevels until post-HT.

[Gerald Boggs 299]

13 hours ago, Joshua States said:

I have made several hot tools from sucker rod. Some of the punches and drifts I never heat treated at all and they work fine. Chances are good it's 4140 ~ 4160. Whether you harden the whole piece or just the business end depends on whether you want to do the Mark Aspery method or you can temper the whole piece in a reliable oven. Check out his videos. He has a couple on forging and HTing your own tools.

 

According to Mark, sucker rod is 4130. 

[Taylor Hendrix 2]

The sucker rod I used is stamped 40, a Norris product. 

 

AISI A-4621-M Nickel-Chromium-Molybdenum 
Alloy Steel

 

I didnt find heat treatment info on Heat Treat app from ATS.

 

 

[Jerrod Miller 593]

41 minutes ago, Taylor Hendrix said:

The sucker rod I used is stamped 40, a Norris product. 

 

AISI A-4621-M Nickel-Chromium-Molybdenum 
Alloy Steel

 

I didnt find heat treatment info on Heat Treat app from ATS.

 

 

The ASM Heat Treaters' Guide doesn't have 4621, but it does have 4620.  I'd say it is safe to consider them the same thing.  This alloy is pretty much used only when it is going to be carburized, so keep in mind that the parts you have probably are.  

Normalizing: Heat to 1695F and still air cool

Annealing:  Heat to 1425F and rapidly cool to 1200F, hold for 6 hours.  

Hardening:  None listed explicitly, as this alloy is to generally only be hardened after case hardening, so the hardening step falls under that process.  In general, it looks like quenching right from the carburizing process at 1700F is typical, as is re-heating to 1475-1525.  All oil quenched.  

 

Without carburizing, the as-quenched hardness is likely to max out at 45 HRC.  

[Alan Longmire 3,673]

2 hours ago, Joshua States said:

A lot of folder makers do not do any rough grinding, and just put the nail nick in, leaving the bevels until post-HT.

 

If I were using 154CM or S30V that's what I'd do, but the tempering temps for AEB-L are closer to those of 1075 and I'd be afraid I'd blow the temper.   I think next shop time I have I'll start with a 120 grit belt instead of 60.  Or heck, these blades are so small I may just file 'em in.

 

Just as well I have to do a few more nail nicks, the milling attachment has decided it doesn't want to be separated from the lathe.  It does that from time to time, one of the little thingies that locks it to the tool post on the cross slide gets turned upside down and won't release when you loosen the set screw.  No biggie, I just have to take the set screw out and stick a little magnet in there to pull it back out.  

 

Thinking of that makes me regret not having the room for the small horizontal mill and benchtop shaper I had a chance at a few years back.  The shaper even had a tilting rotary table, I could cut bevels with that!  Oh, well.  I didn't have a need for them at the time.

[Brian Dougherty 1,373]

24 minutes ago, Alan Longmire said:

 

... but the tempering temps for AEB-L are closer to those of 1075 and I'd be afraid I'd blow the temper.   I think next shop time I have I'll start with a 120 grit belt instead of 60. 

 

I've been about 50/50 on the folders I have made about grinding bevels before or after heat treating.  However, I have gravitated towards grinding after heat treat, and haven't burned one up yet.  Fresh 120g ceramic belt.  I do have variable speed, and probably run about 30%.  I don't use a holder, and grind bare handed, so I get pretty quick feedback on how hot the balde is getting.  (I set the spine of the blade on my steady rest to keep it under control)

[Joshua States 2,459]

3 hours ago, Gerald Boggs said:

According to Mark, sucker rod is 4130. 

I contacted a manufacturer in Texas once, thinking it was the likely source of what I was getting in AZ and they told me it was a 41xx series, between 40-60 on the back end.

 

39 minutes ago, Brian Dougherty said:

I don't use a holder, and grind bare handed,

I use a holder and dip in water after each pass.

[Kreg Whitehead 67]

I wanted to log on from home Saturday and say thanks for all the well wishes...but forgot my password.

Was a pretty rough week last week. Got my 21 stitches out this morning.

I think I am gonna make a foot doc appt. My right ankle is black and blue 360*...but my left one hurts most.

I have a few blades ready for handles. Got some of my peruvian pepper burl on a cleaver I made out of some 52100.

 

 

[Taylor Hendrix 2]

Thanks Jerrod. I'm not sure if I'm excited about these tools now or not.

 

Of course I'm not sure they need hardening. HOWEVER, when I was upsetting the end for my square fuller, I did mushroom the tapered struck end. Hmm...

 

This stock was very easy to forge. Not what I was told to expect. I'm re working the hardy to fix a slight alignment problem so no picture. It will be my only blade-specific tool in this batch!

 

 

Slot punch, round punch, square fuller, and hot cut chisel are filed and wire brushed. I need to pay attention when I forge. I put an index where I didn't need it and missed an index where I needed it. Maybe three bars in the charcoal fire is a bit too much for a beginner?

 

T

 

[billyO 411]

7 hours ago, Taylor Hendrix said:

Maybe three bars in the charcoal fire is a bit too much for a beginner?

I don't know.  I'd say you did pretty good.  That's about max for me, though.  And I just found out the other day that if teaching someone at the same time (2 pieces were mine, one was his) then that's too much for me.  

Edited November 10, 2020 by billyO

[Alan Longmire 3,673]

And now you know the origin of the phrase "too many irons in the fire."  

[Alex Middleton 831]

 Finished stabilizing a couple pieces of curly maple and a beautiful piece of figured walnut.  I also rewired a different blower for my forge that I salvaged off of a discarded water heater.  The old one was just a touch too small to get my forge up to welding temps.

 

This one is probably quite a bit too big.  Has anybody ever tried running a blower like this on a rheostat?  I have a gate valve on my burner assembly, but it seems like I would have even better control if I controlled the fan speed instead.

[Garry Keown 1,398]

Got the pre grind done on the kukri and the dagger and everything including a few that are for later orders) heat treated yesterday afternoon but the dagger had a small bend and the kukri had a slightkly larger one so while they were back in the tempering oven to correct that, I did the finish grind on the other blades. 

 

First job is to clean up the tang

 

after the finish grind I give them a shot of wd40 which is why they may look less than perfect but it is only dust etc that has settled on a couple of the blades. A bit of handsanding to get them ready for handles.

[Garry Keown 1,398]

Finished the grind on the Templar knights dagger this afternoon and rather pleased how it turned out. 

 

[Don Abbott 332]

13 hours ago, Alex Middleton said:

This one is probably quite a bit too big.  Has anybody ever tried running a blower like this on a rheostat?  I have a gate valve on my burner assembly, but it seems like I would have even better control if I controlled the fan speed instead.

 

I have run an AC blower on an old Variac with good success. It simply lowers the voltage. I wouldn't try it with an expensive motor, but it worked well with a salvaged blower.

[Chris Christenberry 363]

Dang, Garry, that grind looks really nice on the dagger.

[Alex Middleton 831]

2 hours ago, Don Abbott said:

have run an AC blower on an old Variac with good success. It simply lowers the voltage. I wouldn't try it with an expensive motor, but it worked well with a salvaged blower.

Thanks Don.  I'll pick up a rheostat and see what happens.  I appreciate the help!

[Chris Christenberry 363]

I picked up a heavy Engineer's hammer head at a garage sale many months ago.  About a 4 to 5 pounder, I imagine.  Turned it into a double diagonal cross peen and put a handle on it.  Finished it up today.  Haven't blackened and treated the handle yet but thought I'd post a picture.  The handle beside it is one a good friend sent me for a template.  Thought I'd include it for size reference.  Sure do like that shape handle.    It's pretty square at this point, with heavily rounded corners.  I've found I like to radius the edges based on how the handle feels with a particular head.  So this one is more rectangular than yours.  I may end up doing a lot more work on the handle, but if I stop at this point, there's still enough meat on it to take off.  Hard to put wood back on if I take off too much.   The head now weighs 2 pounds and I think it's a good weight for the purpose.  Of course, I won't know until I use it.  Been so long since firing up my forge, I may have forgotten how!!!!!

 

[Taylor Hendrix 2]

Hardy with fuller shaped, ready for the heat treat. Fits in the 3/4 hardy hole on the baby anvil. Tooling up for finishing my charcoal chopper. 

 

 

Ball punch and slot punch shaped ready for the heat treat. Tooling up for making a bottle opener. Why you ask? Because I deserve a beer. That's why.

 

 

 

 

 

[Joshua States 2,459]

Today was another hot work day. I took a hunk off a 20 pound ingot of 1095.

 

Welded it onto a handle

 

Forged it out into a flat bar for stacking

 

Then I worked on a W-pattern bar for progress pics here.

[Alex Middleton 831]

I fired the forge up today for the first time in months.  I managed to weld up a small billet and get it forged to shape.  It really felt good to get back in the saddle again.  FWIW, a simple residential fan speed controller didnt work very well on the forge blower.  It didnt seem to hold a very consistent speed.  I may try to find a more purpose built rheostat, but for now the gate valve continues to do the trick.

[Joshua States 2,459]

I finished the HT on 4 new blades overnight. Three of them are O-1 and the other is a small 4-bar thing.

 

 

I did some more forge welding after work and even found enough time to pick up a project from 2.5 years ago.....

[Garry Keown 1,398]

good day in the shed with all the carbon steel blades handsanded and one 12C27 and some NitroV SS blades ground.

[John N 326]

mildly amusing one from the weekend. Got volunteered to  sharpen some bushcraft knives for the 'Forest School' my wife helps run, for kids from 5 years old.

 

There were 5 Mora's with points that were quite new, and quite sharp. Due to a gin infusion I did not compute the 'do not sharpen those orange ones' and put a scary edge on them. (my argument was they are either 'sharp, or blunt')

 

The 5 green ones were properly ruined. I did a nice job on them (5  to 10 mins a piece) and put the nice 'tanto' chisel point back on them. Lethal sharp, and I jabbed one of the chisel points into my finger and it made a right mess. First knife cut for ages, took a lump out  

 

I had a bit of a think, as my finger leaked, figuring a razor tanto might not be safe for 5 year olds. Googled it, and they are supposed to be 'round nosed'  - I dulled them all off. 

 

 

 

[Joshua States 2,459]

23 hours ago, Garry Keown said:

good day in the shed with all the carbon steel blades handsanded and one 12C27 and some NitroV SS blades ground.

Goodness. You are a machine.