Cooking & Smashing Steel….. ah such a rewarding feeling!!!

[civilsmoker]

Been watching thread but keeping my 2¢ to myself.
Ran the remelt aluminum and copper alloy (brass/bronze mix) lab at college for a semester. My face was very sunburned. Fun, but decided that molten metal was not my passion to pursue as a hobby.

Really?
I used to call on an ALCOA rolling mill 40 years ago. The same stock rolled for the cans and lids also went to the tab. The only thing that would make it better is no paint.
The reason charities collect tabs is to count cans. The supporting companies pay by the can.

The college days were for learning one way or another for sure! That would have been a fun lab!

Maybe I should have said cleaner (as you noted) vs better, I have heard that it’s all the same roll as well. Ah you can share your 2 cents worth would love to hear how you mix alloys, as a kid we did lots of melting of metals but not with a purpose like this….. as an fyi people that auction for these love a back story of the build…..it’s often as valuable as the knife it’s self for getting bids.

 

[civilsmoker]

With that Memphis nameplate, better make sure none of your neighbors try to smoke their chicken dinner in that thing at 1500 degrees!

Lol no kidding right! That would be barboQ for sure….maybe putting a fillet in it…..

 

[adieblum]

The college days were for learning one way or another for sure! That would have been a fun lab!

Maybe I should have said cleaner (as you noted) vs better, I have heard that it’s all the same roll as well. Ah you can share your 2 cents worth would love to hear how you mix alloys, as a kid we did lots of melting of metals but not with a purpose like this….. as an fyi people that auction for these love a back story of the build…..it’s often as valuable as the knife it’s self for getting bids.

Lmao, this is funny.

 

[adieblum]

The college days were for learning one way or another for sure! That would have been a fun lab!

Maybe I should have said cleaner (as you noted) vs better, I have heard that it’s all the same roll as well. Ah you can share your 2 cents worth would love to hear how you mix alloys, as a kid we did lots of melting of metals but not with a purpose like this….. as an fyi people that auction for these love a back story of the build…..it’s often as valuable as the knife it’s self for getting bids.

Lmao, this is funny. I agree with you, I remember in college actually besides cooking we were doing research on something like that source, this was really an interesting and interesting piece of information I would say, because childhood obesity seems to me an interesting piece of information that every cook should know.

I remember this with great pleasure.

 

[civilsmoker]

I am still making progress on this build..... Here was the last weeks work...…

First up was to clean up the billet to make sure it welded up and was solid..... aaah, I'm happy now it looks nice and solid....Its about 3/8 thick and 1 1/4 inch and the narrowest....

The next task was to fabricate some "fullering" dies so I can "widen" out the billet to get it near 2 inches so I can get a nice size blade out of it. Bingo this was the golden ticket..... These custom dies have been on my to do list for a while now but man they sure solve issues!

Bingo, this was the weekend work...The one on the right is the widened and streach out 3/8 billet, its now 1 3/4" at the narrowest (the pinch point at the top is the transition from the billet to the mild steel end cap) and is 3/16 thick. The billet next to it is my Boys, along with his san mai fantasy build, next in line is a san mai kitchen and the little on will be a hunter mono steel....

Just laying over the template....Note you always want to grind the edges down because they can get little cracks and such while working the billet and you want to be sure they are all gone...

I will actually be able to get 2 knifes out of this billet, which is sweet because welding a canister is time and propane intensive.

Provided the blank grinds up nicely......This is the concept for the build (I hope I don't hex it reveling early)

This years conference is a "Western Cowboy" theme, so I thought a classic Bowie would be a nice piece to fit in for the auction.

 

[indaswamp]

Awesome! You do beautiful work my friend! Watching......

 

[civilsmoker]

Awesome! You do beautiful work my friend! Watching......

Thanks swamp! This will be a slow burn, but I have to be honest, I'm anxious to see what pattern will be in this thing.......

 

[Fueling Around]

Sorry got busy and missed a reply.

The college days were for learning one way or another for sure! That would have been a fun lab!

Maybe I should have said cleaner (as you noted) vs better, I have heard that it’s all the same roll as well. Ah you can share your 2 cents worth would love to hear how you mix alloys, as a kid we did lots of melting of metals but not with a purpose like this….. as an fyi people that auction for these love a back story of the build…..it’s often as valuable as the knife it’s self for getting bids.

The lab cast aluminum was book ends from sand cast molds pounded by the students.
Students got to do the aluminum ladle pour themselves.
The copper alloy was primarily discarded keys from plant service. They had 5 gallon buckets of keys every month. (I don't know how they source metal in the key less days.)
We cast a University seal from student made resin shell molds.
For some reason staff had to do that pour. That little crucible was actually very heavy and really hot.
The machining side of the lab was fun too.

 

[civilsmoker]

Sorry got busy and missed a reply.

The lab cast aluminum was book ends from sand cast molds pounded by the students.
Students got to do the aluminum ladle pour themselves.
The copper alloy was primarily discarded keys from plant service. They had 5 gallon buckets of keys every month. (I don't know how they source metal in the key less days.)
We cast a University seal from student made resin shell molds.
For some reason staff had to do that pour. That little crucible was actually very heavy and really hot.
The machining side of the lab was fun too.

No worries FA, that would have been a nice distraction from engineering classes for sure. fyi, I LOVE my new mini mill! It's like were on earth has it been all my shop life! I'm looking forward to milling the guard....ie no file work!

 

[civilsmoker]

I started working on the billet and discovered that it was rather hard so I did a rough cut and then did a nice temper (heat to 1550, soak it for 30 min and then ramp down to 900 deg over 4 hours then air cool it) to make more workable………the inspection of the billet edge after brings a smile….

If you look close you can see the 1084 core with the 15n20 on each side then spots of the 52100…..just sweet….

The next task was to clean up the scale and do the rough profile grind…..if you look close you can see the different layers of steel……

I couldn’t stand it so I dropped in a quick vinegar bath to see what the can made…..

Man I’m really excited now!!!!

Now a shot of the blade edge & of the San mai core…..

Many I’m really happy with the centered core as the San Mai is going to border the blade edge bearing/hook bevels nicely!!!! I can’t wait to see it!!!! More grinding this weekend!!!!!

 

[Brokenhandle]

Looking really good! Can't wait to see the finish!

Ryan

 

[crazymoon]

CS, Unbelievable craftsmanship! Your knives and all the components you made to produce them are just phenomenal!

 

[civilsmoker]

Looking really good! Can't wait to see the finish!

Ryan

Thanks Ryan and you and me both……you never know how it will turn out till the grinding is done……it’s all depends I. How the layers mix……

CS, Unbelievable craftsmanship! Your knives and all the components you made to produce them are just phenomenal!

Many thanks CM! Since I don’t do much hands on engineering I need an outlet for my mind!!!

 

[civilsmoker]

Todays tasks were to get the blank all cleaned up, ie a near perfect uniform thickness and finished up to 200 grit to be ready to do the detailed work…… the detail work started by milling in the guard shoulders…..

The knife clamp above is a money maker…..it’s made for hand filing the guard shoulders but it also serves as a perfect vice for the mini mill vice…. Just love the mini mill!!!!! Turns a 90 to 120 min job into 5 mins!!!!

Bingo it’s already for the layout of the false edge and bevels….finished to 200…..you can really see the pattern starting to come through…..

Next up is to get the rough grind on the bevels and false edge and get it ready for quenching…..

 

[civilsmoker]

Today was magic day……getting to ready for the quench……

Since this blade is going to have nice clean lines and a false edge I marked it up with some dimensioning lines in the blue dye……

Bingo used the 1 inch grinder with a flexible belt (no platen - this gives an apple seed shape) for the false edge, and the 2 x 72 for the bevels…..

This is just a “rough in” grind, I leave the edges thick so things can be fine tuned after the quenching…….

Next up is to finish my heated quench tank…….

 

[civilsmoker]

Oh had to show this pic, I cleaned up the dye and soaked it in some vinegar for a looksy.…..if you look close to the edge, you can see a different dark tone which is the center 1084 core…..oh all smiles about this……it is always an adventure seeing the patterns relieve themselves…….

 

[Brokenhandle]

That's beautiful!

Ryan

 

[civilsmoker]

That's beautiful!

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, I'm thinking its going to be a "looker" as long as I don't mess up....... I'm going very slow and methodical though...... However, it only takes a split second while free hand grinding to make things look different.......I do think I am going to do a bit more hand sanding on this one to keep things super clean....

 

[civilsmoker]

So work has been beyond crazy for the past while, but finally hit some huge milestones so finally found time to be in the shop to work on the heated quench tank.

Oh some of you may ask, what or why? Well to get a proper quench the oil should be at a specific temp, ie for the AAA oil that I use (medium fast oil) because most of the steels I use do best with a medium oil, it should be pre-warmed to 130 degrees. Parks 50 a fast oil likes a different pre-warm temp. In the past I have just used a piece of mild steel I heat up and stir around in the oil till it’s the right temp…..effective but a pain….

So bingo borrowing from the food side of things I made a pan heater…..

I like to horizontal quenching, so this is a deep food service pan inset in a sealed tank just like a food service unit.

The bottom of the heat chamber has a piece of pipe welded in so an old style block heater can be installed….. the heater will be controlled by this little ink bird temp controller (it will pass through up to 10 amps) and I have a water tight thermocouple to monitor the temp…..

So in theory, I should be able to just set it for the desired pre-heat temp and bingo it will hold it there for me……. I have some old G05 antifreeze that I am going to use for the heating liquid to minimize evaporation or boiling around the heater…..

So why not just add the oil in the tank…well this allows me to change out my oil type by just swapping a food service pan….no more draining oil and risk getting the new oil contaminated by the old…..

Once I fire this up the blade will be heat treated so I can finish it up. The conference is 2 months out….it’s go time!!!

 

[Fueling Around]

Great concept.
Not a metal pounder so no idea how much a quenching raises the temp of the bath.