2024 Scholarship Auction Build

[civilsmoker]

Work has been very crazy but I have been determined to make another blade to donate to the rural highway districts scholarship auction at their annual convention. This will be the 4th year I have done a build for it.

Last year was a San Mai ball bearing fishhook Damascus Bowie……

On a side note my son finally finished up his Bowie he was building with me on this one… I helped him with the guard and some final lines but over all he did and excellent job on this one!!!

This years build is going to be a Cu Mai Hunter blade with a 1084/15n20 San Mai core with 1084A fish hook and 1084 w/4% nickel powdered canister flats. The handle will be Desert Ironwood burl….. it should be a looker if I do my job…..

Making the fish hook canister…..

Since life happens I forgot to get more pics along the way of the cu mai weld…. But it’s not actually a forge weld but it’s brazed….. the temps have to be done just right …..@ about 1850-1860 degrees. So the build is made up of the san mai core then a layer of copper on each side then the final layer of fish hook, then it is welded all around…..now because the temps have to be just right rather than using the gas forge I use the PID Oven…. Bingo exact temp control!

The heat treat oven was also used for the heat treat as well as my controlled quench tank, ie has an antifreeze bath just like food service to hold the oil right at 130 degrees….works crazy good.

The resulting blade is pretty striking….. here is the rough grind…..

I also developed a slack belt grid setup and an adjustable motor mount for reverse grinding tracking and added horizontal as well

These added functions are amazing!!!!

More to come and I’ll try to do better with pics!

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I'm in...

 

[Winterrider]

Yep watching !

 

[gmc2003]

Looking forward to seeing your amazing work Civil

Chris

 

[civilsmoker]

I finished up the grinding and hand sanding late last night and was able to get some good pics this morning. The desert ironwood burl handle block is here as is the guard. I think the cu mai came out really nice. I'm really excited to see the damascus patterns when it goes in the acid to etch

As an FYI, the waves are caused by using a round drawing out die in the press, it pushes the layers around as it "pinches" the billet to draw it out. It takes some restraint at the press because if you do too much then you can push the coper into the cutting edge and basically ruin the blade. Then because you are using the heat treat oven, the scale build up is a lot more than the forge because it has full oxygen, so you have remove a portion of the flat to get to the good steel as well. It's not an exact science but more of a gut feel.......

The pic below shows the san mai core then the copper and fishhook canister flats and how the copper "bounces" around as it was "pressed"

Next up is milling and fitting the guard and etching......

 

[Hijack73]

You are not speaking a language I understand, with all the metallurgy stuff, but damn that's beyond cool.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

Amazing!

 

[Winterrider]

Yea its kinda Greek to me ,but very interesting.

 

[JLinza]

Those are beautiful, awesome to hear your son is involved too. Such a rare and amazing skill to have. Excellent work

 

[pineywoods]

Looks like a great start and I really like the way that blade is looking. Look forward to seeing more as it progresses

 

[sawhorseray]

WOW, A FEW STEPS UP FROM THE DAYS OF A BLACKSMITH HAVING NOT MUCH MORE THAN A FORGE AND ANVIL, THE END RESULT WILL BE A WORK OF ART. RAY

 

[civilsmoker]

Thanks all!

Yes, there is some very fascinating things that happen at the molecular level to develop the steel structure to make a "stable" and "solid" blade. Also, it may not seem like it but 85% of the effort of this blade is making the billet, ie the San Mai billet, Canister billet, and then "connecting" them together with the copper layer, followed by normalizing or improving the molecular structure of the billet by heating it to various temperatures after it "pressed together" and "flattened".

This process includes a series of heating cycles to refine the steel micro structure: The first cycle is heat to 1650 degrees hold it there for 15 mins then cool it to below 900 degrees, then re-heat to 1500 and hold for another 15 mins, then out and cool to below 900 and then the final cycle of re-heat to 1350 and hold for 15 mins then out and let air cool to room temp. This process helps get all the molecules all aligned in a way that the bond between steels is the strongest and thereby minimizing weak bonds to places a crack can occur.

I will also note that when using copper you "shouldn't" forge the shape like a normal billet because it can cause the copper to shear apart due to the reduced strength at working temp, and furthermore its best to keep it at the working temp till the billet is at is final thickness in order to prevent potential copper hardening

I have about 17 -18 hours of time into making the "composite" billet for the blade and only about 3-4 hours of effort to finish it out from here.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

Will this be a public auction?

 

[civilsmoker]

Will this be a public auction?

Jim it will be an in person auction for conference attendees and guests, so it is open to the public. The auction is a for an Idaho classified charity so the pledged funds are detectable.

 

[Nodak21]

What are the fish hooks used for? Do you cut them and melt them? Very cool skill you have and the blade looks awesome!

 

[civilsmoker]

What are the fish hooks used for? Do you cut them and melt them? Very cool skill you have and the blade looks awesome!

The fishhooks get forge welded inside the can in a random pattern. They will etch dark almost black while the powdered steel will etch a speckled silver. The small specks below are fishhooks. The larger dark patterns are bearings which the billet I made above doesn’t have.

So above the copper will be the fishhook specked silver and below will have a dark/black edge with a gray layer above that next to the copper. See below

 

[civilsmoker]

The guard is fit and the face polished……not the little hack to keep it from getting scratched after it’s been polished…..Ie clear nail polish, it adds a nice protective layer that comes off with a little acetone once it all done…..

Etching (electro chemical stencil) in my new makers mark…..it will only slightly show once etched but it won’t conflict with the Damascus patterns….

Ok it’s time now…….into a vat of ferric chloride acid (4 parts distilled water 1 part FC). This vat is just for cu mai blades because the copper gives a copper tint to non-oh mai blades…..

It got 3 - 10 minute soaks with with a neutralizer then a 2000g sanding between coats, then washed and acetoned and back in….This give it a heavy soak with a deep etch. It will now spend 3-4 days dosed with WD-40 to “set” or cure the oxides from the etch.

Next up is to install the guard and then the handle….. it’s getting exciting now!

 

[forktender]

It Will KEEEEL!!!!

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

Excellent work!!!

There is a guy who lives about 20 miles from me that is a Forged In Fire champion.
I always wanted to forge knives, but since the heart surgery, I have to stay away from heat.
):

 

[civilsmoker]

View attachment 703948
It Will KEEEEL!!!!

lol major props on the keel!

Excellent work!!!

There is a guy who lives about 20 miles from me that is a Forged In Fire champion.
I always wanted to forge knives, but since the heart surgery, I have to stay away from heat.
):

My son and me studied under a contestant and let’s just say I’m (he as well) hooked! As an fyi forging can be done via an electric oven vs a forge….ie just like I did with the copper, the billets have to be smaller but it’s a way to not have a lot of heat…….however the biggest/best forging tool is having the coal iron press!!! It’s a magic wand for creating Damascus!!!