A few questions.

D

DgrantD

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I am planning on make a few of my knives using hand tools (files, drills, hacksaws, mabye a power saw) and need some tips. How do you anneal a common hand file? what type of steel is it? how do you keep a blow dryer from over heating when you use it to provide air for a forge. Does anyone know where I could get some already annealed steel in relitivly small peices, good stell, like O1 and the like. Does anyone have any small (I dunno, 8 inches? i have no clue how much this stuff costs so I dont wanna ask for to much) peices they would sell to me, I cant afford to much as I am just 18 and dont have much money availible for knife making, so if anyone could help me, I would really appreacate it. I could send them cash, or give them some ammo for trade, I have alot of 22lr and 7.62x54r.

Thanks alot.
 
Annealing a file seems to me the long way around the block. There have been a bunch of knives made from them though and I'll go no further on something I have no experience in using except annealing. Annealing normally takes a certain high temperature and prolonged cooling. Each type steel, and I do not know what the file is made of, may differ in both temperature and cooling times. Cooling can take many hours that may turn into a full day or even more, again depending on the steel and its volumn.

A good source for O1 is: http://www.admiralsteel.com/

They, I think, sell it as 'hot rolled' for knife makers. That is what you want but specify annealed just to make sure.

Roger
 
You may have some luck if you go to the local automotive spring repairer. They stock annealed spring steel in a number of flat bar sizes and If you wanted to anneal a file they may be able to do it for you.

Buying a piece of annealed spring shouls only be a couple of dollars.
When I started I got a couple of pieces for free. I told the guy what I wanted to do with it and ofered to pay. He just walked over to a pile and gave it to me.

I made a huge bowie. If I were to start again I would make a nice little knife with a stick tang and a 3 to 4 inch blade. Far less work before you have something to be proud of.

Good luck.

Our shire tip has a recycle station. I picked up a old vacum cleaner
with a blow hole out the back. I use it for sucking but you may find one that does not over heat like the hair dryer.
 
Hi this is DaQo'tah

Im new to this sport as well. I wish to just say "good luck" with everything you try, and be sure to let us know how you are doing.

Now, as Im new, I dont have much advice for you , (as I need advice all the time myself),,but I can tell you that that spring steel idea of Ellery is the way I went too.

I got a hold of a leaf spring from the junkyard, ($10-$15) and got to fire up my home-made forge for the first time with it. Have you been to my 2nd website to see they photos of that event?

http://eastof29.tripod.com/daqotahforge2/id4.html

(Oh by the way, haveing a website is fun AND it helps me remember things I have done , so I learn faster)

I read that you should do something called "normalize" to the steel first.

then that "Annealed" thing.

Then I did a 3rd forge heating to bang on the steel. I made a very crude point, then spent some time hitting it flat,,,I had to do this part due to the bend that all springs have when you get them.


Now as for you use of a file for your knife?....that scares me,,,I dont think I will ever try that file idea myself, Im told that a file will make a good blade, However in his book KNIFE TALK , Ed Fowler points out the fact that you have to grind away all the darn teeth of the file to make it a usefull knife. To me, that sure sounds like a lot of work to do with hand tools.

But I could be wrong, as I have never worked on a file/knife yet.

Now, you asked about the "Hair blow dryer" overheating?

YES!,,I too suffered this,,,,it over heats all the time,,,there is also another problem I ran into,,,

when I wanted to do something to the coals, I would turn off the blow dryer so that it didnt blow sparks into my face. But every time I turned off the dryer, the darn thing would seem to get smoke backed up into it,,perhaps heat too,,and this made it not work and need to be removed to cool down.

In the photos of the first time I forged I ran into this problem many times, Untill I gave up with the blow dryer, and used the shopVac. the shop vac has different problems, but it always worked and worked well.

if you dont have a shopvac, and need to use the blowdryer, I know of no way to fix it so that it will not auto-turn off when it overheats. the switch must be a part of the way its made to be safe and not ment to be changed.
 
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