- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 270
OK, here are a pile of photos of a knife I'm making. The knife is not necessarily complex, in fact the construction is fairly simple. However, those knives can sometimes be the toughest to get right, because there's no place for anything to hide. This knife was specially commissioned, and I just decided that it had been a while since I'd done a good documentation of a knife from start to finish.
Partly, this was an exercise in trying to get some really interesting photos of the process. It was kinda challenging because I was working by myself and most of these shots were taken off a tripod with a timer.
Now, some of this stuff is going to be old hat to some of you, but I asked permission to bore you and no one objected, so here they are....
This is some .085" x 1.5" O-1 and I'm cutting it 5.5" long. I always like that first weld to fit within the 6" deep jaws of my press.
I'm grinding off the mill scale from the O-1 prior to stacking. This actually isn't really necessary, but I feel better having done it, just in case.
Here is the O-1 on the left and the 15N20 on the right. The 15N20 comes nice and shiny so I don't bother cleaning that any more than it is.
I stack the whole bunch together and I weld the ends together. This photo was fun. I used some #6 welding goggles - the green kind- and I strapped them over my camera's lens to keep from frying the sensor.
This is the whole stack welded together and then a handle is welded on. The whole thing has about 30 layers. Most of the stack has the steels alternating one then the other, but in a couple of spots, I've put 3-4 pieces of the same steel together, just to create a little more...whatever....in the finished piece.
I'm lighting my welding forge. Probably the only combination naturally aspirated / forced air forge in existence.
As the billet comes up to temperature, the outside layers heat up first, and expand. This causes them to bow out from the rest of the billet. When the whole thing comes up to temp, those outer layers will lay back down.
Partly, this was an exercise in trying to get some really interesting photos of the process. It was kinda challenging because I was working by myself and most of these shots were taken off a tripod with a timer.
Now, some of this stuff is going to be old hat to some of you, but I asked permission to bore you and no one objected, so here they are....
This is some .085" x 1.5" O-1 and I'm cutting it 5.5" long. I always like that first weld to fit within the 6" deep jaws of my press.
I'm grinding off the mill scale from the O-1 prior to stacking. This actually isn't really necessary, but I feel better having done it, just in case.
Here is the O-1 on the left and the 15N20 on the right. The 15N20 comes nice and shiny so I don't bother cleaning that any more than it is.
I stack the whole bunch together and I weld the ends together. This photo was fun. I used some #6 welding goggles - the green kind- and I strapped them over my camera's lens to keep from frying the sensor.
This is the whole stack welded together and then a handle is welded on. The whole thing has about 30 layers. Most of the stack has the steels alternating one then the other, but in a couple of spots, I've put 3-4 pieces of the same steel together, just to create a little more...whatever....in the finished piece.
I'm lighting my welding forge. Probably the only combination naturally aspirated / forced air forge in existence.
As the billet comes up to temperature, the outside layers heat up first, and expand. This causes them to bow out from the rest of the billet. When the whole thing comes up to temp, those outer layers will lay back down.
.
