Chat! Stop By and Say Hi!

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Mornin y'all!

Got a kick back day at work today, unless something goes wrong.


Hope y'all make it a good one!



-Xander
 
I'm not too sure yet, I spent the morning lining up more materials... lots of different stuff. More steel, yesterday I ordered 5' of Titanium... just got in a cool tramming tool for my mill and am doing a list for materials. Catch up and paperwork too... I may take a rest day as I haven't in a while, we'll see if I can pull myself away from the shop!

Yesterday I got in from working on the folders around 6 and decided to make Mokume! lol I broke out the sandpaper, cleaned up my materials and finally got a good weld!!!! It was awesome, I was not getting my metals hot enough before, a change in firebrick made the difference.

I made a liver of sulphur solution and put a cool patina on the mokume, the copper is black with blue/rainbow highlights on the nickle.

So maybe a paperwork and fun day here! My hands are so swollen I can't make a fist so it may be a good idea. lol Sara better hide the sandpaper! You know you like your job when you have to force yourself to rest.
 
Rest days clear the head. Especially when you are solving problems in the shop. Take a rest. Have an epiphany.
 
I think it might be a good idea for you to take it easy today Daniel. You don't want the story to go "Daniel was well on his way to becoming the best knife maker in the world and then he caught the ol' hamfistanites ! " :D I am heading off to the mountains for a few days for a little backpackin'. The TBOK will be going with me again. I guess I need to get a DFK Backpacker if I am going to do all this backpackin' . Ya know the right tool for the right job and all :D Y'all have a good one and I will see ya when I get back.
 
Nice on the mokume. I haven't tried it in a while, had bad welds and such. What are you using for flux? I may give it a go again.

Kevin, watch out for them sasquatch, I hear they will get you drunk and then take all you money and leave you with nothing more than a few sharp pieces of steel or titanium.


-X
 
Thanks guys! I'm chillin'! Might go to a random mountain and look around....

Emails - caught up and if I did not get back to you just get at me, I should have talked to everyone though! I was a few days behind there on the more casual stuff.

The phone guys are back too, Sara saw them down the road just a second ago! We never even called, just got a notice that they were doing some major line repairs. :D


Xander - I just sanded my stock down (75 cents worth, lol!!!) with some 320 paper and then cleaned the heck out of it... used a Mapp gas torch (pretty decent one made for soft glass) and put my stack on some soft firebrick.

I had been using hard fire brick and I think the soft made the difference. More heat! I was able to get my whole stack way past red hot.

I thought seeing the colors dance around on my metal was enough heat but I actually saw the metal "sweat" this time, it was awesome! one light whack with my tons was all it needed to weld, I may have been on the hot side as it felt like I was hitting liquid and some nickle came out. I could see the nickle sweat to the edge as I moved the heat around...

I bet you need more heat, I didn't get the soot I had been getting before that I had guessed was a flux or environmental (flame wise) condition.
 
I'm happier with the patina than the actual mokume! I'll press on with both, I may buy some steel plates next.

 
Sweet stuff. I took a stack of $1.50 last time I tried. I did it in the 2B forge, gotta be careful on that first hammer blow, molten metal goes flying! I need to pick up some borax for flux and give it another go. I guess I could try hot vinegar for pickle to clean them first. I guess with a proper clamp you don't even need to press or hit thm to weld, they expand so much during heat that they will weld themselves, but the clamp needs to be über tight.

Oh, a random question, what's the hole diameter, spacing and overall length of the pocket clips you're using for the folders?

Go take some R&R.


-X
 
fast14riot said:
Sweet stuff. I took a stack of $1.50 last time I tried. I did it in the 2B forge, gotta be careful on that first hammer blow, molten metal goes flying! I need to pick up some borax for flux and give it another go. I guess I could try hot vinegar for pickle to clean them first. I guess with a proper clamp you don't even need to press or hit thm to weld, they expand so much during heat that they will weld themselves, but the clamp needs to be über tight.

Oh, a random question, what's the hole diameter, spacing and overall length of the pocket clips you're using for the folders?

Go take some R&R.


-X
Click to expand...

Thanks! It had a traditional look before the patina too, multi etch also seemed to be a really nice look.

Yeah the forge is different, I want to try the kiln next. That is a decent investment so I will go all out... 1" plates

..I almost tried a borax slurry.

You might be able to buy packs of powdered pickle (add distilled water) if you have a local jewelry supply, of course storage for the liquid is the real issue. Cheap crockpot and you're good to go! Check monsterslayer.com for pickle online, I guess they can ship it. They have a bunch of different fluxes too...

I just used soap/water then simple green then windex... all rinsed with distilled water then cleaned with acetone.



The clips are the standard three hole pattern, you may need to drill a stock clip with a 4-40 screw clearance hole but the spacing is the same...

I just checked with USAKM and they are .340" on center between the holes. Right now I'm using their low-rider clip, the same as the recent fricky had.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Thanks! It had a traditional look before the patina too, multi etch also seemed to be a really nice look.

Yeah the forge is different, I want to try the kiln next. That is a decent investment so I will go all out... 1" plates

..I almost tried a borax slurry.

You might be able to buy packs of powdered pickle (add distilled water) if you have a local jewelry supply, of course storage for the liquid is the real issue. Cheap crockpot and you're good to go! Check monsterslayer.com for pickle online, I guess they can ship it. They have a bunch of different fluxes too...

I just used soap/water then simple green then windex... all rinsed with distilled water then cleaned with acetone.



The clips are the standard three hole pattern, you may need to drill a stock clip with a 4-40 screw clearance hole but the spacing is the same...

I just checked with USAKM and they are .340" on center between the holes. Right now I'm using their low-rider clip, the same as the recent fricky had.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanx! I'm not too keen on having a hot pot of caustic chemicals emitting fumes in my poorly ventilated shop, I'll go more normal routes. Supposedly the hot whie vinegar works well enough for soldering, and that should be clean enough for welding.

Oversize steel plates, say 3/8" thick with holes drilled in the corners for slip fit of 1/4-20 SS bolts and a nut on the other side. Clamp your stack down as tight as possible, then a little more. I believe you need to bring it up to 1600*F and hold it for a while. The internal pressures of the expanding metals will be enough to weld. I know jewelers say its a 6-8 hour process in the kiln, but I dont remember the exact times at temp or if ramps are needed.

I've done lots of research on it, but haven't had the time to play with it too much yet. Maybe I will soon.

Thanx for the clip info.


Time to head home for the evening. Uneventful day, just as planned! I think I'll have kielbasa and eggs for dinner. Call me strange, but I'm just not a fan of bacon.


-X
 
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