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

[civilsmoker]

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

I’ve done 6 blades together and not really raised the temp a huge amount…. It was colder in the garage though…. J Nielsen uses a large turkey roaster in his shop. I would have done that but quench oil isn’t really cheep so didn’t want 5 gallons of it in a tank…..my pan holds just shy of 2 gallons

 

[Fueling Around]

What do you use for quenching?
Light and Heavy machine oils used to be reasonable

 

[civilsmoker]

I use Parks AAA ($35/gal) and Parks 50 ($45/gal). Both are specific to heat treating. There really isn’t a single oil that does it all.

If you google knife nerds “Larrin” is a PHd on knife steal. He has done a TON of research about the properties of steel, I am currently reading his book and it reminds me of engineering school all over again. I find it fascinating and I believe it has really improved my builds.

Then as soon as I get my AL plates ( my collection of cans is growing). 1” plates with compressed air followed by denatured alcohol and dry ice for my AEB-L stainless….

 

[Fueling Around]

I use Parks AAA ($35/gal) and Parks 50 ($45/gal). Both are specific to heat treating. There really isn’t a single oil that does it all.
...

That actually reads as light and heavy machine oil with a fancy label.

...
Then as soon as I get my AL plates ( my collection of cans is growing).
...

Message me you mailing info. I have about 5# of tabs

 

[civilsmoker]

That actually reads as light and heavy machine oil with a fancy label.


Message me you mailing info. I have about 5# of tabs

I believe it on the oils. The parks oils were very cheep just a few years ago, but like any oil these days they are like liquid gold. 2 gallons will last me a very long time, getting dirty and catching it on fire are the two killers, but with a temp controlled oven….means no fires…..I do use a anti scale coating so I have to screen it out as it comes off during the quench……

Sending you a PM!! Awesome!

 

[civilsmoker]

Today was a good day because I played hooky and worked in the shop…. Wired up the heated quench tank and plugged it in…..holy smokes I’m one happy camper…..it heats up way faster than I was expecting…..about 35 mins from an oil of 74 degrees……

The wiring and initial heat went so well, I decided to normalize and quench the blade….. first temp, 1650 and hold the blade for 15 min, then air cool the blade to air temp and re-heat to 1500 and hold for 15 mins, followed by another cool and re-heat to 1350, for 15 and a cool again…….

I will note that since the blade has its initial lines before it went in the oven it got a nice thin coat of this….

This does wonders at eliminating scale!!

After the normalizing and the blade was back to room temp I set the oven for 1475 for the austenizing (hardening)…..once at temp the blade soaked for 7 mins and then…….

In the AAA oil for the quench…..it’s crazy how the heat envelope makes the blade look wonky in the pic (it is straight straight)….. the anti scale just blows off in the quench….

Bingo a HARD blade!!!!

This is how it comes out of the oil…..virtually zero scale, this saves considerable finishing grinding!

Tomorrow I will double temper it, two - 2 hour cycles at 365….. the hardness should be right at 61-62….. then final profiling!!!

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Fun stuff. I just picked up a new multi purpose welder so I guess you can call it glueing steel.

MIG TIG ARC and Spot welder all-in-one. Vulcan 220.

I bought a off road bumper for my 4Runner that is a laser cut steel weld yourself kit.

It has been a few years since I have done any welding so I have a few practice projects around the house to do first to get my welding game on track.

 

[Brokenhandle]

That's gonna be beautiful!

Ryan

 

[civilsmoker]

Fun stuff. I just picked up a new multi purpose welder so I guess you can call it glueing steel.

MIG TIG ARC and Spot welder all-in-one. Vulcan 220.

I bought a off road bumper for my 4Runner that is a laser cut steel weld yourself kit.

It has been a few years since I have done any welding so I have a few practice projects around the house to do first to get my welding game on track.

90 I would love a unit like that. A tig is the best for welding billets together! For me the biggest invention that has been made in welding is the self darkening lens…..just amazing! Sounds like you have a project…. You know if you cooked flame roasted food every night maybe I could be convinced to come help weld that bumper up!!! I’m not sure what I would tell the wife though on her honey do list…..

That's gonna be beautiful!

Ryan

Thanks Ryan! Yes I think it’s going to be a looker (fingers, toes, and, hopefully not eyes crossed) I’m excited to see what the final pattern will be once it’s a finish ground…. There is about 5/64s to take off each side…..

 

[civilsmoker]

Just a little bit of an update, the profile and bevels are all ground and now starting the hand sanding….. 220, 320, 400, 600, and finally 800…… 800 is as far as I will take it because that is all that’s needed when doing a hard etch (sometimes 600 is enough) I will spend about 3 hours hand sanding to get all the lines just right……

For hand sanding I use m77 adhesive and glue 1” strips to a semi polished 1 inch metal bar and 1.5” strips a 1.5 inch Micarta scales as sanding bars…..

I spend a bit of time on the bevel at the choil so it’s symmetric …… I catch myself holding my breath like “taking a shot” when I start to “edge” it in….. I’m pretty happy with how this one cut in!!!

 

[civilsmoker]

Big day today……. Finished the bulk hand sanding (went to 800) ……this thing is hard, it ate more than it’s fair share of paper!!!! Oh and my thumb found the tip…….ouch!!!!

I’m really happy with how the bevel lines turned out…..the goal was a subtitle line with a delicate/velvety feel as you run your finger across it. Ie I didn’t want a hard line conflicting with the Damascus pattern.

Next up is cutting, milling, and fitting the guard, once the guard is fit, it will get etched to reveal the final pattern…….I’m both anxious and excited to see what’s hiding in plain sight……

 

[DRKsmoking]

That is a great design to that blade. Love the lines

David

 

[Danblacksher]

amazing craftsmanship

 

[02ebz06]

My hat's off to you.
A lot of effort to achieve a great result.

 

[civilsmoker]

That is a great design to that blade. Love the lines

David

Thanks David, I have my fingers crossed each time I pick it up to work on!

amazing craftsmanship

Much appreciated Dan!

My hat's off to you.
A lot of effort to achieve a great result.

Many thanks 02!

 

[civilsmoker]

Today was a fun day, broke out the mini mill to fave up the guard slot…..

Man oh man I love the mill!!!! Cuts like butter!

All milled and initial test fit….

Not bad, but I’d you look really close you can see a small gap about 3/8” up from the bottom…..I slipped with the had file as I was rolling the ends to match the radius…..err

The other side, I did the same thing on the top side as well…….. so you may ask what now…..well something like this cans be simply fixed by “peening” the edge and the restat the guard and it makes a clean line fit…..

After the cleanup peening…..

If you look close you can see the swell from the peen, this will go away when I final clean sand the face…… really really happy with this fit up!

The opposite side….

All smiles here!

From this point on big changes happen……

Next up is to finish sand the fort face of the guard and rough shape to be ready to jb welded in place…

 

[DRKsmoking]

Can't wait to see after the etching

David

 

[civilsmoker]

Well the big day finally arrived……..
In the FC for 3 - 10 min baths and 2k grit polish after each…….

Just wayyyy happppyyyy!!!!

Since this is a presentation type knife I wanted the darks to really pop……so after the FC baths and final polish it when in a vat of really really strong instant coffee for an hour….. then a final 2k detail touch up polish…..

After that it got a WD40 spray and then it rested for 3 days to have the oxides set in…….then wiped down, wrapped in plastic wrap and e-tape to protect the results….. nothing but smiles but more on that later…..

got the handle drilled and test fit with the guard…..

As a “hack” to getting the 3.5 inch deep hole “reamed” out to an oval I use a chainsaw file that has been sheared off and I sharpen the end into a blade and then in the drill press to “mill” the oval hole in…..works pretty dang sweet….I also grind up a sheet rock saw to make a mini broach to cut inside the slot….for touch up…

Next up was to set the guard with some j-b weld….after tapping the guard on and getting it set it gets put under a spring to keep it tight till the jb is set…..

Closeup of the guard fit up…..

The face of the guard was flat sanded to 2k and then buffed to a mirror…..this helps keep any jb from sticking to the face…..I am also going to finish the guard to a mirror……..ok now on a 24 hour jb cure wait…… more to come, and it shouldn’t be too much more, hoping to finish it up in the next two weeks so lots of exciting steps to come!

 

[civilsmoker]

Last night I was able to get the handle rough shaped and refined and ready for the pin drilling, once drilled it will be set in epoxy (hopefully today). I will show a couple tricks on setting the pin. I did make an auditable on the handle and made it 3/16 of an inch longer just to cover larger hands and to make it balance at the choil (just in front of the guard).

 

[civilsmoker]

I happened to have a long lunch today so I took advantage of it and ran to the shop and fired up mini mill to drill the pin hole in the handle and tang......

Note that the in the drill, I taper this by spinning it in the drill and run it across grinder belt.....

Next if you look close in the hole you can see a little edge showing a slightly miss-matched hole between the handle and tang. This is intentionally (and why I love the mini mill) so that when the pin is installed it forces the handle against the guard and "locks" it in place. I also drill the tang hole slightly under the pin size just in case it drills a little off, then I put it in the vise and use a chain saw file to slowly work the tang hole so the pin just fits through and the miss match is just right like goldilocks....

The pin is installed while spinning it slowly in the drill almost "screwing" it in place. It is really tight for the dry fit but when it has epoxy on it is glides in. You can also see that my pin is really long and this is another trick of the trade, if you just drill in the pin after a test fit you can get a small gap on one side because of the pin being softer than the tang and pin "mills" away as it spins....So I use nearly a double length pin and once it has epoxy on and "drilled in" I stop with the drill and then lightly tap it further in, ie just past the scored drill lines so the pin is perfect matching the handle hole again.... ie i'm not a fan of micro gaps around pins!!

You can see here how much further the pin is pushed over the side above...... The other audible is I decided to scrap the lanyard hole..... very few bowie knifes have them, and I decided to move the pin a bit further forward so the balance would be off.....and my 3/16" copper tube drawer was empty......three strikes so it OUT.....

The final note is I always leave a little epoxy around the pin ends and handle to guard face line, ie leave these areas "messy" so if there is a slight pin to hole miss-match or gap at the guard the epoxy fills the gap and hides it.