COTS Project Thread

OK some Ash with no bores in it. Actually, my Dad told me that he found bores crawling out of the rest of this tree where he had it laying in the sun waiting to be split up. I haven't seen any though, and obviously, no tracks that we can see in these two splits. They are only about 21 inches long. I am hoping to make some hatchet handles with it.

ash_split by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
Native ash boring insects will tunnel throughout the tree whereas Emerald Ash Borer (accidental intro from China about 20 years ago) activity is restricted to the cambial layer between the bark and the sapwood. The wood is perfectly usable once you overcome the nausea of witnessing what 'alien' bugs, without biological population controls, do directly under the bark. They literally 'skin' the tree in a matter of 2 growing seasons.
 
300Six said:
Native ash boring insects will tunnel throughout the tree whereas Emerald Ash Borer (accidental intro from China about 20 years ago) activity is restricted to the cambial layer between the bark and the sapwood. The wood is perfectly usable once you overcome the nausea of witnessing what 'alien' bugs, without biological population controls, do directly under the bark. They literally 'skin' the tree in a matter of 2 growing seasons.
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The type we have here are yellow and black and they destroy the wood. Happily, (Maybe I should say hopefully? I find them when I split but I don't know when they leave the wood) I've burned probably thousands of them in the furnace. :p If you look at some of my pics throughout the thread you can see some of the really bad results of the bores in my wood pile.

ETA: ok I went back through and actually there aren't any good shots of the wood pile when it had Ash in it in the last few pages. :( So far I haven't seen the Emerald bastards here.

ETA part 2: Google tells me they are called banded ash borers.

Page 8 has a good shot of some ate up Ash in it.
 
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I love ash for 10-20" hammer handles. I like the tight straight grain and with a straight handle you can get perfect alignment every time.
 
cityofthesouth said:
forgedknife4 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

I can see why full tang knives are an issue with a hand forged blade - getting that tang flat enough for attaching scales is pretty damn tough. I dicked up the lanyard tube on the one side, along with a few other screw ups.
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Beautiful knife! You should be damn proud.

Flattening the tang is a huge chore as you discovered.

Finished%20tang.JPG


I made some brass rivets.

Finished%20rivets.jpg


I need to put some shape on this handle like you did. It's a skinner/utility knife.

Knife3.jpg
 
cityofthesouth said:
OK I made more of a real knife this time. I can see why full tang knives are an issue with a hand forged blade - getting that tang flat enough for attaching scales is pretty damn tough.
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This is why I stick with stock removal for full tang knives. I end up spending more time trying to flatten the tang than I would just grinding the blade to shape. I think it's easier to forge blades from round stock than flat.
 
Square_peg said:
Beautiful knife! You should be damn proud.
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Thanks! That knife is coming along nicely too. I gotta get something besides coil springs to work with (unless I can get them off a train or something) - although I do like this little knife and I think I will make more of them. It's light as a feather and would probably make a nice EDC fixed blade.

Bridger said:
This is why I stick with stock removal for full tang knives. I end up spending more time trying to flatten the tang than I would just grinding the blade to shape. I think it's easier to forge blades from round stock than flat.
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Yeah that was my line of thinking as well. I think I am going to do more stick/hidden tangs. More liners, some stacked leather, guards/pommels that sort of thing.
 
cityofthesouth said:
How are you doing it? Because yours looks like frickin laser cut stock after you got done with it.
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Hand filing. Checking both by eye and by calipers. I got it to +/- 1/100". With practice I found I could easily see 2/100" by eye without the use of the caliper. There was a time when machinists were trained to make precise parts with files alone. I'm not at that level but I'm learning.

Alex Weygers in his book 'The Complete Modern Blacksmith' speaks of his schooling in the art of filing at a Belgian shipwright's school. It's really quite amazing what those guys did. Invaluable book. Every tool collector should read it several times.
 
Square_peg said:
Hand filing. Checking both by eye and by calipers. I got it to +/- 1/100". With practice I found I could easily see 2/100" by eye without the use of the caliper. There was a time when machinists were trained to make precise parts with files alone. I'm not at that level but I'm learning.

Alex Weygers in his book 'The Complete Modern Blacksmith' speaks of his schooling in the art of filing at a Belgian shipwright's school. It's really quite amazing what those guys did. Invaluable book. Every tool collector should read it several times.
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Impressive, no question about it. On your recommendation that's the book I am learning from. I'm using his guidelines for the heat treat. So far it's been easier than I expected and the results are better than I expected - a rare combination for me, but certainly encouraging.

On an semi related topic, have you noticed that your stock ends up being somewhat thicker after grinding than it "looks" with scale on it as you are drawing it out?
 
Not really. But I've spend several decades working as a carpenter and I've developed a pretty good eye for fractions of inches.
 
cityofthesouth said:
Yeah that was my line of thinking as well. I think I am going to do more stick/hidden tangs. More liners, some stacked leather, guards/pommels that sort of thing.
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Hidden tangs work great, it would certainly be nice to see more of them. I'm not sure why so many folks seem to think they are inferior. Oh and great work on the knife, as always it looks fantastic!
 
cityofthesouth said:
How are you doing it? Because yours looks like frickin laser cut stock after you got done with it.
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Square_peg said:
Hand filing. Checking both by eye and by calipers. I got it to +/- 1/100". With practice I found I could easily see 2/100" by eye without the use of the caliper. There was a time when machinists were trained to make precise parts with files alone. I'm not at that level but I'm learning.

Alex Weygers in his book 'The Complete Modern Blacksmith' speaks of his schooling in the art of filing at a Belgian shipwright's school. It's really quite amazing what those guys did. Invaluable book. Every tool collector should read it several times.
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I should add that I annealed the steel before filing. Makes the work much easier. Then harden it after all the filing is done.

To anneal just take it to cherry red and then bury it in a bucket of wood ash and let it cool completely - like overnight. That will leave it soft as can be.
 
Square_peg said:
I should add that I annealed the steel before filing. Makes the work much easier. Then harden it after all the filing is done.

To anneal just take it to cherry red and then bury it in a bucket of wood ash and let it cool completely - like overnight. That will leave it soft as can be.
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Does letting it cool with the forge really achieve annealing? At the end of a session I turned the forge off and left the hot steel in it in an attempt to anneal it before I ground/drilled the tang.
 
Just letting it cool without quench will help. What you did probably achieved 80%-90% of maximum softness, depending on the type of steel you're working with. If you're using an a-series air hardening steel then you won't have accomplished much.

Here's a good link.

http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/heattreating.htm

That knife I was working on is 1085 and it responded well to cooling in ash. Vermiculite would work just as well.
 
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Square_peg said:
Just letting it cool without quench will help. What you did probably achieved 80%-90% of maximum softness, depending on the type of steel you're working with. If you're using an a-series air hardening steel then you won't have accomplished much.

Here's a good link.

http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/heattreating.htm

That knife I was working on is 1085 and it responded well to cooling in ash. Vermiculite would work just as well.
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Ash, now that I have plenty of!
 
My Mom landed this Wards Master Quality hatchet at a garage sale for $3 with a really cool octagonal handle. Might be a little bit sharpened away but I think I'm gonna keep it (I'll weigh it before I hang it). A friend brought the hammer by to be hung. It was an ebay find that appears to be handmade if not homemade. No markings anywhere. No taper in the eye so no need for a cross wedge on this one. Handle is made from a sledge handle I got at the local hardware store. I feel like I made it too thin, but otherwise happy with the half octagonal thing. I did a quick dressing to the faces and we'll call it good.

wards_hatchet_crosspeen1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

crosspeen_handmade4 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

crosspeen_handmade3 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

crosspeen_handmade2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

crosspeen_handmade1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
If that cross pein head could talk it'd be well worth the price of admission. In the same vein the 'stick-made' handle you've made and put on it doesn't detract from this, and more important, actually allows it to be used. Well done COTS!
Funny how some of us can better appreciate an old axe (or hammer) than a famous painting.
 
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