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Shawn's forging shed

Blade-meister said:
For a first pattern weld, I find nothing bad about it at all. Great job! Forged in Fire has ruined people's perceptions of knives in the sense that they think that an knife should survive being plunged into a wood chipper and still have an edge / look like a million dollars. The problems you pointed out won't hurt that knife being used for a lifetime of use that knives are intended for. I can't wait to see it completely done.

When I apply aquafortis to my curly maple tomahawk handles it too shows any sanding mistakes I made. I have to polish in between coats. I wonder if that would work with the acid etch? Aquafortis is acid that brings out the tiger striping in curly maple and is what the old long gun makers used to use.
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I think I know what my problem was on the voids. I think they are cold shuts. Being such a small billet I didn't have a lot of mass to hold heat. I'm thinking that was the side that went down on the cold anvil for the first weld set. The outer layers were also thinner, so the heat probably got sucked out not letting me get a full weld.

As far as the sanding, that is a bit of laziness on my part. I'm used to doing the satin finish leaving the small scratch pattern so anything you do using it is so obvious like with a mirror finish. That also hides a bit of negligence in completely removing the previous pattern.
I should have cross sanded to ensure the previous grit was completely removed before progressing.
 
ShawnF said:
I'm thinking that was the side that went down on the cold anvil for the first weld set. The outer layers were also thinner, so the heat probably got sucked out not letting me get a full weld.
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That makes complete sense Shawn. I read that the old-time blacksmiths used to heat up a bar of steel and set it on the anvil face before attempting welding so it was warmed up. With your set-up, your anvil is whatever temperature the outside air is so it makes it tough. I'm blessed to have mine inside where the temp is a constant 48-50 degrees all winter. Some modern guys even get a heat blanket and warm their anvil up before working on it in the colder months. I noticed a huge difference when my anvil was outside vs. being inside with temperature control.

Still a dang nice looking knife.
 
Shawn...is that a Damascus Pattern? And that might be the best looking knife you have shown us. Really good looking!
 
A little spare time at work and I got a couple new wheels made for my new grinder.
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Ok, well I didn't make the entire wheel, but I took a caster wheel and turned it on the lathe so it was flat and faced it down to be 2 inches wide. Then I gutted the cheap needle bearings out and bored a pocket to press some good ones in. Made a shaft for it to keep the right spacing from the arm. Then drilled a few holes in a piece of box tube to make its own arm for quicker changes.

That one is 5 and 3/4 inches and I made one 3 and 3/4 also. Started at 6 and 4, but by the time I turned the crown out of them and got them flat they were a little smaller.

Did get out to the shop for a bit yesterday and took a piece of O1 round stock and got a decent starter shape from it.
Think I'm going to put it back in the fire so I can turn the tail down a bit. Not sure I like it being upturned like that.

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Just realized the perspective in the last photo makes that thing look huge in comparison to the Fili by the anvil. It is actually pretty much the same size as that was what I was using for my reference.
And before I catch hell for having a Fili as my shop razor, I was unfortunate enough to get this RSO in a trade some time ago. Found out too late it was one of the last gen Fili's that were hit and miss as to whether they were any good or not. This one was a miss...
 
ShawnF said:
Just realized the perspective in the last photo makes that thing look huge in comparison to the Fili by the anvil. It is actually pretty much the same size as that was what I was using for my reference.
And before I catch hell for having a Fili as my shop razor, I was unfortunate enough to get this RSO in a trade some time ago. Found out too late it was one of the last gen Fili's that were hit and miss as to whether they were any good or not. This one was a miss...
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Won't hold an edge? Re-heat treat?
 
TobyC said:
Won't hold an edge? Re-heat treat?
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Won't really even take an edge to hold. Problem with re-heat treating is it warping. I did a razor a while ago and got my rough grind a little too thin (meaning the edge was still about a dime's thickness) and the whole razor took a frown from the spine being thicker. Seeing as this one is already finish ground, it would move in all kinds of weird ways.

Plus I am not sure what steel it is to know the temps for quench and temper. The steel itself may be the issue. Low carbon or bad quality, and it won't harden properly to begin with.
 
ShawnF said:
Won't really even take an edge to hold. Problem with re-heat treating is it warping. I did a razor a while ago and got my rough grind a little too thin (meaning the edge was still about a dime's thickness) and the whole razor took a frown from the spine being thicker. Seeing as this one is already finish ground, it would move in all kinds of weird ways.

Plus I am not sure what steel it is to know the temps for quench and temper. The steel itself may be the issue. Low carbon or bad quality, and it won't harden properly to begin with.
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I didn't even think about the warping part, oh well.
 
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