antique oak fencepost hafting and annealing those BIG blades...

anvilring

anvilring

Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
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<html><font face=arial black size=4 color=darkblue><b> Here's a little test hunter I made with "antique live oak fence post left under an old house" hafting. Cool stuff really; very hard (as ebony) weathered and a bit unstable so I tried it on a blade I had laying around here for some time because of some problem now lost to obscurity. Sooooo I stabilized it! as per my "learn'in" at the hammer-in and epoxyed the scales on and left it in a vise overnight. Now, when I went to pin it, I remembered why I now <b><font color=red>MARK</B></font color> blades when they've been tempered<b><u><font color=red>AND </font color> </b></u> (the spine and handle area) annealed! You notice on one side are two pins? and on the other side are none? Well you can't drill through hardened steel! Fellas, mark your blades somehow when they've been hardened; and another mark of somekind when you've drawn and annealed...lest ye be "buy'in bits a plenty"
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<img src=http://www.main.com/~wilkins/knife/oak01.jpg
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<img src=http://www.main.com/~wilkins/knife/oak02.jpg
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<img src=http://www.main.com/~wilkins/knife/shop01.jpg
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Here's me and my messy shop: doe's yours ever get clean???
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<img src=http://www.main.com/~wilkins/knife/sawblade01.jpg
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Here's how to anneal those really big blades: these bandsaw segments are about six feet long and ten inches wide. The original blade was a full 60 feet long! It's L6 I believe and I use it for my contrast in my damascus stuff...
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A little mail? Just click on the blacksmith.. <a href=mailto:mitchwilkins@main.com><center><img src=http://www.main.com/~wilkins/gif/blacksmith.gif border=0></a></html>
 
Mitch,
I have used carbide bits to drill through hardened steel or you can also "spot anneal" you blade where the hole will be by cutting off the nail head and putting the nail in your drill press. Spin the tip of the nail on the spot that you want to soften. It will heat up in just that one spot and you want to let it get fairly hot. Let it air cool. Doing this will anneal that one spot enabling you to drill through it. I was one of the "nay-sayers" until I tried it.

At least you keep your shop cleaner than mine!:)

C Wilkins
 
Very nice knife but
I bet that my shop is worse most of the time.

I glue the scales on one at a time this allows me to use the steel as a patern. and then drill before I glue the 2nd scale on This is the only way that I could figure out to get them right every time (besides if you have 4-5 things going on and use 5 min epoxy it doesn't take that much longer):D
 
That knife looks really great.
I drill the holes before I heat treat most of the time,but since I differentially heat treat my blades I have a soft tang anyway.I agree that putting the scales on one at a time is the easiest for me to keep things straight,and then I drill the holes before I glue the next side on and after the glue dries I drill the holes all the way through the handle.It works great for me..
Bruce
 
Oh Yea....I know my shop is messed up allot more than yours.How can you find anything in that clean shop (HA-HA),If mine is clean then I figure that I am doing something wrong like not working in it:D Hope you don't have the same problem like I did one day when my wife decided to be nice and clean my shop for me:eek: It took a month to get things messed up enough to find anything again:D
Bruce
 
Thats a great idea to anneal the saw blades that way. How do you cut them up into strips for your damascus. Do you have a friend with a shear?
 
try using straight flute carbide drills will drill any hardened blade up to 66rc at least used carfully with a good cutting fluid they last well
 
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