Cape Breton Hammer-in/Knife content

[P. McKinley]

I awoke at 0-dark thirty each morning this past Saturday and Sunday to attend a hammer-in put on by the new Cape Breton Blacksmith Assoc. (http://www.cbblacksmiths.com/ ) I drove the 1 1/2 hours waaaayyyyy out in back of Baddeck River to John MacDonald's Forge. John built his house all by himself 19 years ago in this breath-taking location overlooking the Baddeck River valley. The weather this weekend was particularly damp..... heavy mist and rain both days, but that didn't seem to "dampen" the spirits of thirty(or so) attendees.

His forge burns Cape Breton coal and uses a shop vac "blower" for air.

John also built his mechanical hammer:

I've never swung a hammer in anger at hot steel, so this was to be a very basic watch-and-learn event for me. My interest was in blade making, and although I was amongst a group of very talented decorative iron artists, nobody there had ever made a "real" knife blade!. Something about "all that scientific mumbo-jumbo" they couldn't be bothered with. I would not be deterred though, I went there also hoping to leave with a forged blade. I would not be disappointed.

I told John that my goal was to make a laminate blade.... he was up for the challenge. Here's a drawing of what I wanted to create:

We used a piece of 30 year old Nicholson file for the core between two pieces of wrought iron. This was forge welded together use a flux of Borax and iron filings.

Tack welded together.

Flux added:

Teamwork! The initial weld was done by John and another experienced blacksmith - a human of moose-like proportions named Chris - with a brutally hard blow. The weld was completed in three heats:

Drawing out the blade:

I took over and did some hammering to shape the billet into a blade along with John's help. A final flattening of the rough blade was done on John's home-made mechanical hammer. John then guided me through hammering in the bevels, and stepping down and drawing out the tang.

I also hammered out a blade...totally on my own, mind you... from a piece of 100 year old harrow rake taken from our farm. While the finished piece looks more like a Persian blade than my envisioned hunter, I'm quite happy with the first piece of steel I've ever forged.
Here's my work from the weekend. Along with the two blades is a piece of damascus(5160/1084 I think) I traded for, and then hammered out into a short billet:

There were a couple of funky old portable forges there. I was told this was one used by the military in WWII. I used this forge to do the more "curvaceous" blade shown in the photo above:

I don't know the story with this one:

By null at 2010-11-08

I got back home on Sunday night and had to start cleaning up the laminate blade immediately.

Last night I spent a bit more time on it and here's where I left it for now.

I had a great time! This won't be my last hammer-in and I may have to start looking for my own smithy tools.

If anyone can offer their thoughts on heat treating/quenching this combination of old Nicholson file core and wrought iron I'd be eager to learn.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Great stuff Peter...

Incidentally... we have been looking to move to Mahone Bay, recently. If we follow through, I might have to drop in sometime, buddy.


Email me at the address below about the heat treat

 

[Greg Obach]

beautiful area in Cape Breton !
and i totally dig his forge building.. :thumbup::thumbup:

myself, i'd normalize the blade twice and then on the third heat up to non-magnetic... make sure heat is dead even and quench vertically into hot canola...

dude, the blade is sweet... if you know someone with a heat treat oven, i'd go that way

great pic's ... thanks for that

Greg

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Could you give a little more info about your jig? Is the bar behind the blade magnetic? Is it attached to the wood or floating? Do you have a bar on the table to keep the jig parallel to the belt?

PS Nice forging job.

 

[P. McKinley]

Thanks Rick! You could choose many worse places to move to then Mahone Bay. Great little town with a vibrant art/craft community. (edit to add: Its also just a short jump from Mahone Bay to Kejumkujik NP.... a place you would go nuts over! I'm about six hrs from there here on the island, our farm is about 3 hrs from there.

I'll shoot you an email shortly. Thanks.

Greg - Vertically? I was thinking this blade would get an edge quench. Thanks for the tip.

Zaph - The blade is held in place with a cheapo magnetized knife hold strip that I cut to length and screwed to the wood backing. Larger blades require a c-clamp to hold then in place when grinding. No, I don't have a "guide" for the jig to run along. I just do it free hand and try my best to keep the blade flat against the belt/platen. I've gotten used to this set up, and although I use up 5-8 belt per knife, the system works for me. In the end, I spend a lot of time hand sanding to get the finish right. I'm about to get a proper grinder though.

 

[P. McKinley]

Also, is there a process that would highlight or accentuate the transition line in the blade?
Ferric Chloride, lemon juice, vinegar, just a good polish......??

 

[SBranson]

Great photos. Being from Antigonish myself, it looks a little like home.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Thanks Rick! You could choose many worse places to move to then Mahone Bay. Great little town with a vibrant art/craft community. (edit to add: Its also just a short jump from Mahone Bay to Kejumkujik NP.... a place you would go nuts over! I'm about six hrs from there here on the island, our farm is about 3 hrs from there.

I'll shoot you an email shortly. Thanks.

My wife works for Parks Canada... Keji and the Adjunct would be the reason we would move there.

 

[P. McKinley]

Progress on this blade and a few questions for those who know....

I spent some time last night getting everything square and straight and symmetrical, and brought the finish to 600 grit by hand just to see the steel better. I have yet to normalize, heat treat, and temper.

This morning I woke to find several patches of rust on one side of the blade. Its very thin and could be removed quickly, but I'm now wondering how to prevent this from occurring on the finished blade. My guess is that the wrought iron surface needs some sort of protective finish, but I don't know...?? Any ideas?

I have also been aware of some defects/cracks that were visible from the start. This one looks very suspect. these were taken before I cleaned up the plunges and bevels.:

These little ones are also a bit questionable:

At the right angle I can clearly see the transition line between the wrought iron and the file-steel core, but it is faint. I'd like to highlight that transition a bit. Again, does anyone have any ideas how this would be done?