Failure, and a sucess

p moore

p moore

Joined
May 31, 2002
Messages
384
If I may, I have a story to share with you guys.

This is a story of pain, a learning experience, and finally joy. :p
A few weeks I made a knife from 1095 1/4" thick. I had never really worked with this steel. I have for the most part, used O1. This is in a different game all together. When my usual methods of HT did not give me the results I was used to, I took drastic measures. With horrible results.
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The break at the riscasso showed up when I went back to the grinder. I hit it aginst a tree, and it fell off. So I went to the anvil with a BFH and beat it till it broke again. There were small cracks along the spine. This was a heartbreaker, and an important lesson. At this point I went to the net. I spent a week reading everything I could find from some people who knew from experience the best way to deal with the problem at hand. Things had to be changed. Process, epuipment, and mindset.
I made a test knife to find out if all the new changes in the heat treat process would work. This knife was made 7" long,1/4" thick, tapered tang, lightning holes in the handle, swedge along the top. I was trying to apply the most things I could into this knife to see what would be the weak link. Answer, nothing.
I put this knife through the wringer. Here is a list of the things I did to it. First, I beat it aginst a stump. This was the waterloo of the last one. Then I started throwing it into a piece of firewood. Easy at first, then just heaving it. It would sink about 3/4" in. I battoned it down a 18" piece of oak. Hacked on a 2X4, Battoned a 2X4, and cut everything I could find. Carpet, 30+ cuts on cardboard, shipping tube, hickory, lighter knot, plywood, plastic, bungee coard, skived leather,
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After everything I threw at it, it still shaved. I am very excited. Here are a few pics of the test.
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Paul

Continued:
 
Well, because of the results with the test knife, I went for the larger project once more.
I wanted to do some testing of this blade before I went any further. The results suprised and pleased me. I just put a quick and dirty convex edge on the chopping area up front and went to town. I started with the usual chopping. I had a piece of the same Oak about 1" thick. I started chopping like you would if it were standing. This went well. Then I started chopping cross grain. I was not holding back, I was cutting whole pieces off. Still good. Now, hold on to your hats. I wanted to really see how tough the edge was.
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Can you see where this is going?
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That is straight through the top to the bottom.
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Edge looks good.
Are you ready?
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Now understand, I am not bragging, I am just so pleased, I am telling people who don't even care. I know I can find some people here that understand why I am smilling so big.
Paul
 
and the finished knife.
I am sure I will have some going over to do as well as making the sheath. Not sure how well the burlap shows in the pics, but I really like it.
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This has been one of those lessons that I am sure everyone has endured at one time or another.
The biggest thing I brought from this was not to let even a great failure keep you from trudging ahead. Don't do so blindly, but take the step back and learn from the mistakes. I owe you guys a great deal for this, I spent many hours reading post about your sucess and failures in dealing with these steels as well

Thanks for your time.
Paul
 
May I cool you down a bit?:rolleyes:
The real challenge will be to make every blade the same good..:cool:

By the way, cool HT on that one! Congarts.
 
That is so true, But I will take em where I can get em.

I will be putting some more practice before I have it down pat. If ever, always the little things that throw you for a loop sometimes.

Paul
 
Great, Paul, looks like you nailed the heat treat on this one! Like Dmitry said, now repeat it :)
 
May i ask what you did differently in your heat treatment process? i've made 1 knife from o1 and i have some 1095 to make my second. I'm interested in what you did differenly with the 1095.
 
krap22 said:
May i ask what you did differently in your heat treatment process? i've made 1 knife from o1 and i have some 1095 to make my second. I'm interested in what you did differenly with the 1095.
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Almost the same question here. Did you make drastic changes all at once or did you only change a thing or 2?

My problem (habit?) is to change too many things at once and not realize exactly which I needed to do! :eek:

Great looking knife, and WONDERFUL story line! I like the handle material as well.

Charlie
 
Sure,
First off, thanks for all the kind words. Needless to say I am feeling better about the whole thing these days.

The main change in the HT process was the use of a better quenchant, and the useage. From my understanding, you can edge quench 10XX steels with sucess, but this is best for thinner materials. Using 1/4", I went for the full quench. I ditched the homemade, quench fluid for Mcmaster Carr's fast quench.
I had to build a better quench tank, and rearrange my set up. With these steels, you have a VERY short time to bring the temps down in the transformation. I ran the balde through 3 normalizing heats, and then brought it back up to temp and quickly plunged it into the oil. Following this with two tempering cycles.
I will be making one in the near future with some of the 1/8" and 3/16" steel. I will try these with an edge quench, and post the findings.

Paul

BTW, the burlap was some I made a couple weeks ago.
 
p moore said:
Sure,


BTW, the burlap was some I made a couple weeks ago.
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well make it again!

IMO, it looks like DEEP off color carbon fiber almost, and has a texture that you can't get with G10... Original to me for sure.

Did you use normal burlap? Also, what resin (if you care to elaborate) and how did you press it?

Charlie
 
Thanks Doc,

Yes that is plain burlap. I believe they have several colors at Hobby Lobby. I cut strips and coated them with Bondo fiberglass resin. Wally world carries this. The main problem, it's color varies. I was lucky to get a light clolor. I opened the cans to see the difference. In warm weather, use only about half the hardener. This will give you a good 15 minutes of working time.
Lay your materials out on wax paper or a plastic shopping bag. Coat each piece, and add to the stack. You can use a couple of boards and C clamps, but I have a cheap "A" frame bench press and hyd jack. Let stand for about 3-4 hours, unwrap and let cure for at least 24 hours before using. Allow a good 1" around the outside for trimming the rough edge.

Simple. I have another piece comming soon that I will show you when complete. I used 2 colors and gave each piece a twist when stacking. Not even sure what the pattern will look like till I grind.

Paul
 
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