Informative and interesting ...
blacksmithing work station
- Thread starter gofast
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Great stuff, John!
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #43
Built my first knife and I used a 3.5 inch section of 80 series coil!
The idea was to learn more skills with drawing out metal, adding twists, scrolling, hardening to hold an edge, and tempering. Everything in the pictures below was shaped with a hammer and file and only the final sharpening was done on a belt grinder. Its sharp enough to shave the hair on my hand and will hold and edge with - not bad for a bush craft knife!
Once I cut the coil it was shaped into a flat bar
Although it took me all day, the smith produced four of them while helping each student. At the end of it was shaped by hammer to the point of being ready to anneal it. Annealing softens high carbon steel so it can be worked with a file. We heated a steel bar to orange, buried it in ash, and then also pushed our orange knives into the ash and let them cool over night. Adding the extra bar created more heat to the ash so that cooling would be slow resulting in the annealed blade. The next day I finished shaping the blade. Its 3.5 inches long and the tang is 9 inches. Interesting to see how much volume was in that section of coil.
I've already filed the blade here and notched the spine for a bit of a design
Top view after finishing:
The twist was put in with an acetylene torch
And the finished piece - love that I can see my hammer marks - over time I'll want to do more sophisticated blades.
Hardening was done by heating canola oil to bath water temp and then quenching the bottom half of the knife. Heat treating was done in my oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.
The idea was to learn more skills with drawing out metal, adding twists, scrolling, hardening to hold an edge, and tempering. Everything in the pictures below was shaped with a hammer and file and only the final sharpening was done on a belt grinder. Its sharp enough to shave the hair on my hand and will hold and edge with - not bad for a bush craft knife!
Once I cut the coil it was shaped into a flat bar
Although it took me all day, the smith produced four of them while helping each student. At the end of it was shaped by hammer to the point of being ready to anneal it. Annealing softens high carbon steel so it can be worked with a file. We heated a steel bar to orange, buried it in ash, and then also pushed our orange knives into the ash and let them cool over night. Adding the extra bar created more heat to the ash so that cooling would be slow resulting in the annealed blade. The next day I finished shaping the blade. Its 3.5 inches long and the tang is 9 inches. Interesting to see how much volume was in that section of coil.
I've already filed the blade here and notched the spine for a bit of a design
Top view after finishing:
The twist was put in with an acetylene torch
And the finished piece - love that I can see my hammer marks - over time I'll want to do more sophisticated blades.
Hardening was done by heating canola oil to bath water temp and then quenching the bottom half of the knife. Heat treating was done in my oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Nice work John!
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2007
- Threads
- 507
- Messages
- 4,652
- Location
- Fraser Valley, British Columbia
- Website
- www.ajae.ca
Very nice!
Great work!
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #47
So today I played around learning how to use the various parts the anvil and correct and repeatable hammer placement. I also learned how an oxidizing heat will scour and crack metal. Less air in the burn equals stronger steel also, when forming the steel you are actually aligning its grains so the inherent strength stays. Different than welding.
End result just happened to be a crane. Work is still rough but will improve in time. This was all done with hammer, anvil, punches and drifts.
End result just happened to be a crane. Work is still rough but will improve in time. This was all done with hammer, anvil, punches and drifts.
A guy in Mackenzie would build knifes oout of old chipper blades.
Rob
Rob
Saw this vid on FB today, thought you might find it interesting.
Damn, who needs a pneumatic or mechanical planishing hammer with that guy around!
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #51
Very cool vid! Thanks Jeff.
Making a belt axe this coming weekend. Going to forge weld a high carbon bit into regular steel for the cutting portion of the axe. We'll see how that goes -forge welding is my new learn.
Need just the right amount of heat but not too hot or the high carbon crumbles. As you strike the heat actually increases. I keep wrecking tongs as I try to modify them into a diff shape for other work. The work surface crumbles away to nothing.
Arrrrggh
Making a belt axe this coming weekend. Going to forge weld a high carbon bit into regular steel for the cutting portion of the axe. We'll see how that goes -forge welding is my new learn.
Need just the right amount of heat but not too hot or the high carbon crumbles. As you strike the heat actually increases. I keep wrecking tongs as I try to modify them into a diff shape for other work. The work surface crumbles away to nothing.
Arrrrggh
Next time your in town I'll grab you some rail spikes
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #53
Finished my axe and really - its more like a tomahawk.
I started with a piece of mild steel stock 1/2 inches thick, one inch wide and four inches long.
This was heated and drifted where I wanted to make the hole for the handle. Interesting for me was the shape left behind after drifting as you go from both the top and bottom of the piece - the hole in the steel forms an hour glass shape. This means the handle is compressed about the center in the hole in the steel and after you drive your wedge, the wood is driven into the top of the hour glass and is forced into place. Very difficult to dislodge and modern heads of hammers and axes are machined so this function is no longer done in manufacturing.
As I drifted, one side of the hole expanded more than the other - it was not evenly heated so I had to cool the bulging side in water, which causes the steel to stay put while I drove the drift and the hot side eventually bulged to match.
The bit is made out of a farrier rasp. To weld it into place I split the mild steel on the end and forged the piece of rasp into a wedge and fit it into the split.
Forge welding is done at a temperature that is close to the point where the steel starts burning, bright yellow but not white hot which is when the steel actually combusts and sparks off.
The problem with steel is that under temperature it will create oxide immediately when it is taken from the fire. You can't weld if there's an oxide barrier between the pieces of steel you wish to weld. I used borax as flux which melted into the cracks between the mild steel and the higher carbon farrier rasp. Once melted, I got the bit hot enough to weld the steel together. Its a gentle tap tap tap to weld, not the big sparks you see in movies. The tapping compresses the metal just enough and creates a momentary molten condition as the heat is concentrated during the compression. Magic, both pieces of steel welded together.
The tomahawk is now 5.5 inches long with a 2 inch blade and carbon steel extends back into the handle about 1.5 inches. Essentially its laminated in place - the center is tool steel and the outside is mild steel
Handle is ash treated with linseed.
Bit was hardened and heat treated
I started with a piece of mild steel stock 1/2 inches thick, one inch wide and four inches long.
This was heated and drifted where I wanted to make the hole for the handle. Interesting for me was the shape left behind after drifting as you go from both the top and bottom of the piece - the hole in the steel forms an hour glass shape. This means the handle is compressed about the center in the hole in the steel and after you drive your wedge, the wood is driven into the top of the hour glass and is forced into place. Very difficult to dislodge and modern heads of hammers and axes are machined so this function is no longer done in manufacturing.
As I drifted, one side of the hole expanded more than the other - it was not evenly heated so I had to cool the bulging side in water, which causes the steel to stay put while I drove the drift and the hot side eventually bulged to match.
The bit is made out of a farrier rasp. To weld it into place I split the mild steel on the end and forged the piece of rasp into a wedge and fit it into the split.
Forge welding is done at a temperature that is close to the point where the steel starts burning, bright yellow but not white hot which is when the steel actually combusts and sparks off.
The problem with steel is that under temperature it will create oxide immediately when it is taken from the fire. You can't weld if there's an oxide barrier between the pieces of steel you wish to weld. I used borax as flux which melted into the cracks between the mild steel and the higher carbon farrier rasp. Once melted, I got the bit hot enough to weld the steel together. Its a gentle tap tap tap to weld, not the big sparks you see in movies. The tapping compresses the metal just enough and creates a momentary molten condition as the heat is concentrated during the compression. Magic, both pieces of steel welded together.
The tomahawk is now 5.5 inches long with a 2 inch blade and carbon steel extends back into the handle about 1.5 inches. Essentially its laminated in place - the center is tool steel and the outside is mild steel
Handle is ash treated with linseed.
Bit was hardened and heat treated
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So roughly what time is spent getting something like this together, looks like great maker project!
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #55
Smithing from start to finish was about 8 hours and I was helping another guy make the same thing so about four hours for a head. Handle took about 2hours. Waiting for linseed oil to dry takes forever. But linseed is great for handles - it has a slight tack when dry and you hand sticks to it a little - ends up with better grip
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gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #56
So its been a while since I updated this thread. At Cruiser Days last year I ended up with "worst of show" which was fun. My grab bag came with a 28 oz ball peen hammer and I have many hammers.
So I decided to give the ball peen back to the club for the next Cruiser Days Raffle. I turned it into a tomahawk based on the old Hudson's bay trade axe pattern.
Here it is finished before hardening
After Hardening and heat blueing
So I decided to give the ball peen back to the club for the next Cruiser Days Raffle. I turned it into a tomahawk based on the old Hudson's bay trade axe pattern.
Here it is finished before hardening
After Hardening and heat blueing
gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #58
I've been working on fun projects rather than the truck this winter although I have a list to knock off before the next Utah trip in May. I've been working on a coffee table that I'll put in our covered deck area. Its built out of an old cable reel.
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gofast
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #60
Made my own hammer too from the pin that connects a bulldozer's tracks together. After forging and hardening it, I used a torch to anneal the face's edges so that they are softer and won't mark my work. The pins are chromium steel.
My hammer is the one at the top right. Took a class with a smith to learn and the result was the hammer. It was made with two people - one holding the stock and directing blows and the other striking with a 12lb sledge/peen. Material that thick can be worked but it requires a very heavy hammer.
My hammer is the one at the top right. Took a class with a smith to learn and the result was the hammer. It was made with two people - one holding the stock and directing blows and the other striking with a 12lb sledge/peen. Material that thick can be worked but it requires a very heavy hammer.
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