What did you do in your shop today?

[Gazz]

I have used a board sander or straight line sander with good results  It does seem to impart a slight apple seed type shape to the blade though but is considerably faster than polishing by hand.  I clamp it in a vise and ty-wrap the trigger so it runs continuously but it does keep the air compressor busy.  Somebody might make an electric version.

[Joshua States]

Not much time, but I managed to layout, drill and slot a guard and two spacers for that dagger commission.

 

[Bill Schmalhofer]

Just finished two small EDC's.

 

 

And then decided to try increase my skill base. Big shout out to @Maciek Tomaszczyk for his videos. I have watched all his spear videos about 4 times each. He makes it look so easy...

 

FIrst attempt:

 

Starting material (yes I "cheated" with DOM. but when you find a 36 inch tube of 1 inch diameter for $8.00 in the drops bin you go for it). The "decorative" stuff is two bars of cable damascus that I've had laying about for years. Didn't want to waste good stuff on an unknown success as this is the first time I've done a LOT of these procedures. But wanted something interesting if I got it to work. No access to wrought so I used 1018 as the core. The stacked material is 1084 for the edge. Had to weld up a billet to get the size of material I was going to need.

 

 

Progress pictures.

 

And what I ended up with 8 hours later.

 

There was more hand setting of welds than I have ever done. Not pretty, follows no historical pattern (was an attempt to see if I could do it), but all the welds are completely SOLID, and I have the spear bug bad right now...

 

 

Edited April 15 by Bill Schmalhofer
remove extra picture

[Alan Longmire]

Way to go, Bill!  Wait until you put it on a shaft...  

[Alan Longmire]

Did a little more filework and added checkering to the bone scales... hand checkering is not as easy as it looks in tight spaces on brittle materials. 

 

 

Those are temporary assembly pins for the pivot and spring.  The high-domed tack head is a rivet for decoration.

[Bill Schmalhofer]

Well, some of the welds were not quite as solid as I initially thought. Had to make some modifications to the profile - got rid of most of the issue. And then there was the tip ...

Also discovered I bent the core just a bit off center. And one of the pieces of cable damascus had a few deep weld flaws I couldn't grind out. Only done to a 60 grit hand sand and not heat treated yet, but had to see what I was working with. Other than all the issues I am pretty damn proud of this first attempt .

[Jaron Martindale]

I put together my vertical heat-treat forge/kiln/oven/swirling-vortex-of-slightly-controllable-hellfire! Wooh!

Its a 30gal drum (I think...) with 2 layers of 1" ceramic wool secured by wire, and I'm powering it with my black beauty burner.   no pics of it running yet, but on a quick 30min test run it heated up a test piece nice and evenly. 

 

Now to install the thermocouples and readers and see what kind of temp readings we have

 

I also discovered I am NOT welder,lol!

I picked up a cute lil' 120V MIG/Flux-core HF welder last week and for my third time touching a welder and no proper training I'm not too upset...ish...lol

[Jaro Petrina]

When you have one small block of damascus left......

[Alan Longmire]

Checkered the other scale, and took process pics this time.  First, cut your guide lines that all other cuts will be indexed off of.

 

You can do that with a saw, a file, or anything that will cut straight.  Then switch to the Dem-Bart 22 line per inch checkering cutters and add a few more lines.  The main cutter has a blank follower that rides in the guideline on the left and a sharp cutter like a little file on the right.  It's visible at the top of the previous pic.  

 

That's as far as I can go in that direction without getting into the tight spots, so let's go the other way...

 

 

There it is!  There's also an equaling cutter that's just a double cutter.  They make a three-line equaling cutter that really evens up the grooves, I just don't have one. Yet.  Modern checkering from around 1880 to the present tends to be at a 25 to 30 degree crossing angle.  That wouldn't look right on this 18th century style knife, so I used a much more open angle.  90 degrees is common, this looks like about 70 degrees or so.  I didn't measure.  Go all the way you can on that end...

 

 

Then do the other direction.

 

 

Fill in the little blind cuts on the ends, then drawfile the edges to remove the little scratches, and there you go.  A pair of checkered and fileworked bone scales on nickel silver liners.  You can definitely tell which one I did first. 

 

 

Next weekend, assembly!  Maybe.  

[Alan Longmire]

2 hours ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

Other than all the issues I am pretty damn proud of this first attempt .

 

Looks great for a first attempt, especially using leftovers!  The way to get the tip done without a gap is to forge the edge steel into an upset square corner, then forge that to the proper V-shape angle.  This will prevent that little gap in the corner.  Then when you add the core, grind the point of the core sharp and weld point-down into a V-block for the first weld.  Drive the core straight into the V.  Then you can start on the edges heading back down the blade. 

 

The other way is to bend the edge steel into a U shape and grind the core to match, and forge the point in after welding.  The upset corner gives you more edge meat at the point.  Or you could do a birds-mouth weld.  Lots of ways to get there.  

[Bill Schmalhofer]

2 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

 

Lots of ways to get there.  

I was trying the way Maciej does it in his videos. I think my issue was the point on the core was too obtuse and the weld in the edge material to sharp. I think the next one I will try welding point down. Thanks for your suggestions. I have to say, this was way too much fun,,,

[Gary LT]

@Alan Longmire, I really like the way you make these “vintage” folders, folders of yesterday, days gone by.

The domed tack head was a great add!

Gary LT

[AJ Chalifoux]

7 hours ago, Jaron Martindale said:

I put together my vertical heat-treat forge/kiln/oven/swirling-vortex-of-slightly-controllable-hellfire! Wooh!

Its a 30gal drum (I think...) with 2 layers of 1" ceramic wool secured by wire, and I'm powering it with my black beauty burner.   no pics of it running yet, but on a quick 30min test run it heated up a test piece nice and evenly. 

 

Now to install the thermocouples and readers and see what kind of temp readings we have

 

I also discovered I am NOT welder,lol!

I picked up a cute lil' 120V MIG/Flux-core HF welder last week and for my third time touching a welder and no proper training I'm not too upset...ish...lol

 

If it's a Hobart (like mine), I've been told to make sure to use both flux-cored wire and a tank of argon. Makes a world of difference. Also, if I remember correctly, I found mine was better with a high voltage & low feed setting. Helped control popping like what you have here.

 

Take all of this with 90% of the lethal dose of sodium, as I'm an atrocious welder, though I think that's mostly a practice thing 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Excellent work everybody! 

I got the body for my new forge on Friday, helped get me started early on Saturday.
Not what was planned for the day, but I sorted out all my steel, kept only the best bearings/races, same with the leafsprings, kept only the best parts from a set of Hilux springs that got a suspension upgrade out the box so they haven't worked yet.  Bar stock sorted and stored on two new shelves under the work bench.

First step of the forge build is the ribbon burner, very unsure about several points, but as a first step the bandsaw I bought in December was unboxed, will be necessary for making a mold for the burner.

 

Still have to tune in the blade guides, fortunately there's a very good youtube video to use as a guide.
Drill press moved to accommodate the saw, but now the polisher needs a new home.  

[Joël Mercier]

Been working on this Elforyn synthetic ivory handle. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this material is to work with. It's slightly chippy though. Still some fitting to do before the polish to darken the white and make the Schreger lines pop. I believe it's going to be a nice chef. 

Edited April 24 by Joël Mercier

[Joshua States]

Wow. A lot happens around here when you take a week off-grid!

 

[Alan Longmire]

 

Did a little filework.  

[AJ Chalifoux]

I finally got my big mill wired up. I never knew until a few weeks ago that they make VFDs with single-phase 120V input, three-phase 240V output. I got myself one of those, an enclosure, and a few switches and built it up. I even wired in the x-axis power feed in parallel with the drive.

[Gary LT]

I’ve been wanting a guillotine and realized what I could do with a piece of leftover 2x2. Picked up a cut-off of some 1018 1/2” thick from Metal Supermarkets (perfect fit inside) and cut a base from a left over saw blade. This small Fisher anvil has a well worn 5/8” hardy hole, so I am using a temporary square scrap which fit for now.

The plunger has a home made spring from banding strap to keep it in the up position. The mig welding sucks, I know, ……but holding for now…..!

Gary LT

[Joshua States]

I set myself up for some forge therapy. I believe that when you are making steel, you should make a lot of it.

So, I cut a bunch of strap and stacked it.

 

 

Then I MIG welded the ends

 

 

And got ready to light the forge

 

 

One 300+ layer billet ready to ladder pattern.

 

[Dan Hertzson]

Finally got around to rigging up a platten for my TW-90 small wheel attachment so I can finish up the integral bolster knife blanks that have been accumulating around the shop.  Pretty happy with the easy adjustability in multi-axsis.  Originally was going to weld the platten to the "top" of the 3/4" rod clamp section, but when drilling realized that the scrap stock I was using was some kind of ductile iron, so easy welding was out.  Assembling with fasteners made it all the easier for final adjustment.  I will likely further sharpen the front edge of the platten to get it even closer to the wheel, but first tests are promising.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Feeling a bit defeated, had 5 days away from work due to public holidays and I'd hoped to get more done.

 

Built the stand for my new forge, mostly, just missing a shelve that I can weld in when I know the final position of the fan.

Ribbon burner is basically holding everything back, and I'm very unsure about how to proceed.

Building the frame took longer than it should, but when you're working outside on the ground with an angle grinder and little DC welder it's not fun........not to mention the gut getting in the way 

 

By Saturday I realized I had to shift priorities, finished drilling the rock and made the stand with a helping hand from my buddy's new coal forge which we'd put some finishing touches on.
Not a bad result, but my imagination outclassed my abilities, much bigger hassle than I expected and not nearly as organic a result as I'd hoped for.
Sharped a knife so it was ready for next weekend's market, and realized I need to stop kidding myself, I don't have nearly enough space around the 3 grinders, will have to rethink the layout.

Edited May 8 by Gerhard Gerber

[Joshua States]

On 5/8/2023 at 1:17 AM, Gerhard Gerber said:

Feeling a bit defeated, had 5 days away from work due to public holidays and I'd hoped to get more done.

Here we get a lot of 3-day weekends with all the holidays. I will often remind people that a 3-day weekend means you will try to cram 4 days worth of stuff into 3 days rather than 3 days worth of stuff into 2 days. A 5-day weekend means you will ty and cram a week's worth of stuff into 5 days.......

 

Good progress mate!

Edited May 10 by Joshua States

[Ryan Hobbs]

No forging, but got a good, sturdy work bench built with my neighbor. The shop is almost complete!

[Jaron Martindale]

In preparation of this year's KITH I wanted to see how viable scissors might be....

This was an Experiment with all mild steel, and It had goods and bads...maybe after a few more pairs I'll feel comfortable giving them away, lol!  After a quick case hardening in water they cut Receipt and phone book paper fairly decent, so I 'm happy with that for a first try.   (they also close all the way, I just suck at pictures, lol)

Notes for self:

-Bow shape matters!  A Better heat source(not a hand-held propane torch) and possibly dies to shape around are needed.
-Don't make Left-Handed Scissors if you're not left-handed!!
-Geometry for the blades appears to be SO much more important than I thought(I thought the pivot would be the tricky part, silly me).