What did you do in your shop today?

[Aiden CC]

I had a hearth steel blade (based on that sax from Sweden with the carved handle) fall apart in the quench. It was more of a “pop” than a “ping.” I was taking a video of the quench and you can very clearly hear it . I was hoping to get in contact with the archaeologist who first documented it, but haven’t heard back yet. Maybe this is a sign I should call her tomorrow morning to see if they’re are any further publications/reports and try a second blade. I’ve been cold calling Danes and Swedes for months while looking for a job, I might as well add one more! Also shown are a light broadsax and a blade to recreate that Viking age knife with the curly cue tang. In the “after” photo, you can see a cut I made to arrest the crack. It will take a thorough inspection to see if the rest can be anything. 

 

The silver lining is that the sliver of hearth steel that broke off (after grinding parallel, but no temper) was quite hard! Over 65 HRC, harder than I expected. I may have underestimated the carbon content of the edge bar…

[Bjorn Gylfason]

I feel like I might just have performed a miracle today 

 

Was messing around this week with a blade profile I haven't tried out before and thought hey why not hollow grind the entire thing?

 

 

Now while the grinding went alright I might have gotten a bit carried away as once I block sanded the bevels smooth the edges were down to less than 0.3 mm... Pre heat treat...

 

So I ran the edges over the grinder shaving a bit off them to bring the edges up to about 0.5mm and put on a heavy coat of anti scale paint.

Still, edges this thin with a strong center ridge and a full thickness spine going two thirds of the blade length down would still be pretty susceptible to massive sabering and corkscrewing

 

Now I fully expected this to come out of the oil in some weird bacon pretzel shape and wasn't too worried about it either as this whole blade is just a bit of messing around. But still set everything up to maximize the chances of getting something usable out of it

 

 

Pre heated the oil and got an extra helping hand to clamp it straight out of the quench to at least combat edge baconing and twisting

 

 

And much to my surprise I just got the slightest amount of sabering to it that I'm not even sure I want to grind out of it.

 

Quenching gods looked down on me today but now I have a blade that I havemt even given any proper thought about how to hilt 

[Alan Longmire]

2 hours ago, Bjorn Gylfason said:

Quenching gods looked down on me today but now I have a blade that I havemt even given any proper thought about how to hilt 

 

Is that a single-edged blade with a fullered spine, double edge at the tip? A backsword, so to speak?

 

If so, first of all, bravo for pulling that off, and secondly, basket hilt!  

[Joshua States]

It's freaking awesome, whatever it is.

Maybe a sail? Some sort of elaborate hand-guard.......

[Carlos Lara]

That is super cool. I second basket hilt!

[Gerhard Gerber]

No refractory cement is sight, but at least the forge stand got wheels and shelves, started with the new chassis for my new 32cm platten that's patiently been waiting for 2+ years

Edited August 7 by Gerhard Gerber

[Jaron Martindale]

Been working through work OT and car issues lately, but I found some time in the last month or so to forge out and grind a few knives.   Now on to heat treat!

 

[Alan Longmire]

I spent the weekend finally making metal patterns for the three different folders I make.  Got tired of using paper.

[Joshua States]

I took 3 blades to 400 grit and etched them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric Estlund]

Futzing with some complex guard ideas. Nothing to finish, just playing around with process.

[Jaro Petrina]

Not much for a while, but a buddy of mine filmed my homemade powerhammer.

[Eric Estlund]

Tappatappatap

[Tim Cook]

Started a new project of making some simple table and paring knife sets (4 knives per set).  Make them from an old large SUV spring I bought for 25 bucks.  Should be able to make about 4 sets.  At about 50 bucks for a set, they should give me a nice profit to buy some more belts.

[Eric Estlund]

4 knives for $50? I don't think I'd make enough to cover my consumables, let alone profit. Maybe I'm misunderstanding. 

[Jaro Petrina]

450X60 mm damach sandwich (O1 inside). Forged with my pupil in about 3,5 hours.

[Tim Cook]

They are small simple knives and the paring knives are even smaller.  Usually make several at a time.  Doesn't really take long.  The walnut wood for the handles comes from leftover wood for my mantle.  Have quite a bit left over from when I built my house back in 96.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Finally got the refractory cement, good thing I got two bags, bad thing is the price doubled. 

For better or worse its done, end plate tacked in place, will monitor and likely fully weld in place Wednesday, then burn out the cardboard over a few beers. 

Platten is a bit further along, need to mock up along with the work rest then figure out where to trim the grinder chassis 

[Eric Estlund]

3 hours ago, Tim Cook said:

They are small simple knives and the paring knives are even smaller.  Usually make several at a time.  Doesn't really take long.  The walnut wood for the handles comes from leftover wood for my mantle.  Have quite a bit left over from when I built my house back in 96.

 

Thats still $12.50 per handmade knife. Assuming you have all reclaimed/ free materials and you have only say $2.50 in belt(s?) wear, glue, gass and electricity etc, thats $10. This is probably the wrong forum for unsolicited comments . 

 

Maybe its just a reflection on me. At $10 or less I don't think I could do the volume to make that work. 

 

Edited August 13 by Eric Estlund

[Eric Estlund]

Taptaptaping

[Carlos Lara]

Selling inexpensive knives and selling expensive knives can both work, but I think it's a different product and a different market. When you can get a knife made by a machine for a dollar at Walmart, $12.50 for a handmade knife is a pretty good deal. It's not a heirloom piece though, something you study or pass on to your children. Hand polishing, pattern welding, hand carving, unique handle finishes, you're not going to get on a $12.50 knife. Maybe some people don't need that though! For me, if I'm going to get a hand-made knife, I want something that inspires me. Can't do that for $12.50! It's a different knife, and a different market. If you're going for volume, you need to make and sell a lot of knives to make it profitable!

[Gerhard Gerber]

One US$ is today worth 19.83 of my dollars, other way around my $ is worth 0.067 US cents.

 

$12.50 is just short of $250 in my money, I will not make a knife for that price, this would be about what I'd ask for a slab of micarta if I was selling.

Even if the steel is a piece of ball bearing I got for free, even if the wood for the handle fell off a tree, my time is not free.

 

250 of my dollars buys you one bag of groceries and maybe a very bad kitchen knife from the same shop

[Eric Estlund]

There is a buisness thread, so I won't muck this one up past this post. But there is something to be said for valuing your time. 

 

Anywho, today In addition to more leather I'm going to try to get some decent phoros for a couple piece drop tomorrow.

 

 

Edited August 15 by Eric Estlund

[Alan Longmire]

4 hours ago, Eric Estlund said:

Anywho, today In addition to more leather I'm going to try to get some decent phoros for a couple piece drop tomorrow.

 

Really nice results from all that tappity-tap tapping.  I never can keep the stamp aligned right for basketweave. 

 

4 hours ago, Eric Estlund said:

There is a business thread

 

Indeed.  If you want an honest evaluation of pricing, ask there.  I won't be posting much in this thread for a while, as I'm going to be cleaning up storm damage from my acre of woodland for the next week or so.  Last night a micro-tornado came though and topped all my larger trees and split my old apple.  All useful wood, poplar walnut and apple, but I'd rather have the unbroken trees.  And shop time instead of chainsaw time.  I hate chainsaw time... 

[Joshua States]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:26 AM, Gerhard Gerber said:

Finally got the refractory cement, good thing I got two bags, bad thing is the price doubled. 

For better or worse its done, end plate tacked in place, will monitor and likely fully weld in place Wednesday, then burn out the cardboard over a few beers. 

Platten is a bit further along, need to mock up along with the work rest then figure out where to trim the grinder chassis 

You are almost there man. Looking good too!

 

On 8/15/2023 at 8:14 AM, Eric Estlund said:

Anywho, today In addition to more leather I'm going to try to get some decent phoros for a couple piece drop tomorrow.

That is a bodacious basket weave pattern! If you don't mind me asking, where did you get that stamp tool?

 

On 8/15/2023 at 1:18 PM, Alan Longmire said:

I'm going to be cleaning up storm damage from my acre of woodland for the next week or so.

Bummer Alan. What a loss.

[Joshua States]

I used a carbide burr in the mini-mill to square the end on a PW bar so I can get it ready for the lathe.