Clay coated railroad spike knife picture

Just for the heck of it, I decided to see what would happen if I clay coated a railroad spike knife I was working on. Don't know yet if it has worked, but here is a scan of the blade after the draw if you are interested. It shows the clay pattern of each side of the blade and should polish out with that same pattern (keeping my fingers crossed that it does). http://home.airswitch.net/cbenson/images/spike6.jpg
Hopefully the link will work. If not, you can see it at: http://home.airswitch.net/cbenson/custom.htm and it is the picture second from the bottom.

Ravenclaw
 
Osbourn

Osbourn

Joined
Jun 27, 1999
Messages
804
Looks great, Raven. I've been playing with more RR spikes lately, and they can have up to 60 points of carbon, so I don't see why that hamon wouldn't take. What do you use for clay and what quenching medium did you use?

------------------
Oz

"Never try to teach a pig to sing.
It's a waste of time and it annoys the pig."
-Lazarus Long
Check out my egostistical homepage!
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
Looks really great Raven!
Now, did you take pure clay, and what type, or did you mix it with charcoal powder, iron-steel filings, glue, or whatsoever? I guess it is an oil-hardening steel; what temperature did you need?
Thanks alot for answering,
Have fun!
Claude
 
Hello,

The FLUE Cement used to seal up stove pipes
ect...works great for Clay tempered blades,
you can find it at most local hardware stores
like ACE hardware.

my .02
Allen Blade
 
I used satanite for the clay and water for the quench medium (just like the Japanese style heat treating). I put a thin coat of satanite on the whole blade and then a thicker coat on the spine down about 2/3rds to the edge and then create the pattern. Then I add ashi lines on top of that. I also have a thick coat about 1.5 inches up the tang to keep it from getting hard. The thick part is about 3/8 inch thick. The water temp is somewhere between 110F and 115F. I wasn't sure if the blade was going to crack as the edge is about 1/32 of an inch, but I wanted to try it anyway and there are no cracks or fractures. I lucked out big time!
Hope this answers the questions, if not let me know and I will try harder next time.
Ravenclaw
 
Answered mine just fine, thanks. I've been working on some tantos lately, and I've broken four blades so far on the heat treat attempts with water quenching, but I was leaving it bare on those parts and doing an interrupted quench. That worked once, but it's too haphazard.
Thanks again.

------------------
Oz

"Never try to teach a pig to sing.
It's a waste of time and it annoys the pig."
-Lazarus Long
Check out my egostistical homepage!
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
Sorry Raven,
But what is satanite? Never heard of this on the old continent.Don't let me die stupid...
Thanks,
Claude
 
Satanite is a type of refractory cement or clay. It works well because it doesn't come off during the quench process if done right. Some clays or cements will come off during the quench, that is why I use satanite. There are other types of clay you can use that work just as well (I don't know what they are as I don't use them, but someone might be able to shed more light on them for you).
Ravenclaw
 
Thanks Raven, NOW I have another "project" to put on the burner.
biggrin.gif
Seriously, looks good, please post another picture when you are done.

Rick
 
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