Finally my turn for a WIP!

[atakach]

looks superb!!!

i am no expert of the hammon, or anything for that matter, but wanted to mention, i read somewhere that 5160 shouldn't be clay coated due to the type of hadening it takes. i believe it even said that worst case scenerio one may even get a crack or stress riser along the clay line seperating the edge portion at quench.

maybe im totally out in left field here, ill have to research it again, maybe someone with a higher level of knowledge on the matter could step in.

either way looks great, and love the lil forge ive built a few of them, an sam is spot on with the water trick, dont really even have to be warm, it will work either way.

andrew

 

[Robert Mayo]

Thanks for the good words guys! Much appreciated.

Bob if you want there are a few pics of the little forge here.

http://www.lemeeknives.com/pages/Tutorials/tutorials_smallforge_a.shtml

I like yours better of course.

Jason, since I am new at this I pretty much have no preset plan when I am forging and did not want to misled some beginner on thinking that this was the way to do it.

Patrice

That is just the coolest little forge going ,very well thought out and well made.

Thanks Bob

 

[atakach]

ok maybe im wrong....lol, :foot:

idk, i looked real quick and cant seem to find where i read that, maybe it was in a dream

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for trying just the same Andrew. Nothing wrong until now with it but we'll have to wait for the etch to know more.

Never etched a blade before so this will be fun. Got the tanks ready and bought some Fecl. From what I've read I have to get the blade to final finish, usually pretty high grit. I'll have to read more on it to know more.

I'll try and post a few more pics tonight. The blade is tempered and ground. Now onto hand sanding.

Thanks again folks for the good words.

Patrice

 

[JasonSCarter]

Jason, since I am new at this I pretty much have no preset plan when I am forging and did not want to misled some beginner on thinking that this was the way to do it.

Patrice

I understand your reasoning, :thumbup: still way

Jason

 

[Will Leavitt]

You "should" be able to see a hamon/temperline/differential hardening line around 400x if it's a good finish.

I like that little forge, way cool! knife looks good to. I'm confused though, you've got a nice mill and all this stuff but this is your forge? Make a bigger one

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Will, my shop is the garage which is part of the house. So until I get a house with a separate shop, the insurance company and the wife just won't let me build a big firebreather like I would like.

But it's ok, I still have so much learning to do.

Patrice

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Working on the guard a little. Cut to length a piece of 304 Stainless. Darn that stuff is HARD!

On to the old mill to make it flat on the blade and handle side. (ok, it's not old it's brand spanking new and I love it! )

Looks flat to me. I tried carbide end mills for the first time and dayum! Love the stuff.

A little work on the disk grinder to smooth it out. More work than I thought. Next time I'll pay a little more attention to the finish on the mill.

More to come...

Patrice

 

[Patrice Lemée]

A few more!

Time to grind that blade. First tapering the tang so the guard can slip on there.

Next getting the ricasso flat. All this is done with a 60 grit belt and moderate speed.

Now grinding the distal taper on the blade. (I sure hope that's what it's called or I'll look like a dork. )
I left it a little thick cause I wanted to keep a few of the forging marks on there. We'll see how that turns out.

And finally the main grind. (What the heck is this called? Can't remember just now. See I AM a dork. )

More to come...

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Now we repeat the ricasso flattening and blade grind with a nice new 220 grit belt. Messed up the plunge on one side and a few other things but nothing surprising there. That is as far as I'll go on the KMG.

I forgot, I wanted to add a little false clip on there. I know it seems like I am trying to do too much with this knife and it may look that way when finished but I see it more as a learning experience (as much as I want to appear like a pro, I am just posing. I am really a relative newbie ) so might as well try as many things as we can. I did one or two clips like this only by eye and it never comes out really good. I tried this time to mark it as you can see and it actually helped a lot. It's still gonna be less than perfect but that's an operator problem.

Chucked it in the trusty old knife vise. (ok as you'll soon realize nothing is actually trusty or old but it does sound good doesn't it?) Let's brake out the latex gloves and the Windex, time for hand sanding, this will take some time.

Thanks for looking.

Patrice

 

[Robert Mayo]

It's coming along great Pat thanks for the play by play action.

Bob

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Here is the blade in the vise being sanded showing some of my sanding implements. I have been using a file for a while as a flat bar but I just realize that in the finer grits the teeth although pretty dull show trought the paper. That can't be good. Time to find something else to use.

This is the blade sanded to 600 grit. I will take it to 1000 before starting the etching process to try and get a hamon. Not very hopeful cause nothing is showing yet but I knew that it would be hard with 5160 and the simple way I used. We'll see.

Ok, sanded to 1000 grit. Time to etch. This is 10:1 FeCl dilution.

Etched it 5 times from 30 sec to 45 sec each time. The first few times I sanded with 2000 in between. The last 3 times I used 0000 steel wool. When I do the steel stays dark and shiny. No hamon of course but I was not hopeful. Not sure if to show the hamon you are suppose to get rid of the dark. Will experiment at another time. Looks pretty good to me anyway.

More to come.

Patrice

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Ok let's do a few more

Filing guide goes back on the knife and the shoulder is squared a little more precisely.

Milling the slot in the guard. I had planned on stainless but broke 3 endmills doing it. You guys gave me lots of good advices for the next time but for now we'll go with mild steel.

Using files we size the guard for a nice press fit.

Forgot to take a final pic of the process but I finished one side of the guard to a nice flat 600 grit finish using the platen on the KMG followed by green chrome compound on the buffer.

More to come...

Patrice

 

[Patrickknives]

I could not see from your pictures but I assume you are using at least a 5 gallon propane tank, there is a adaptor for that torch to a full size valve. If you dont have it I can try and find where i got mine.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Using the trusty guard pusher whatchamacallit to get it tight to the shoulder.

A little shaping of the guard before putting on the handle. Just some roughing nothing close to final shape but it's easier to do it now when I can dip the blade in water to keep it cool. When the handle is attached you have to be more careful about heat build up.

Drill a little hole at the bottom of the tang to secure it in my soldering gizmo.

Using what I have on hand to solder the guard. I have to see if it's the right stuff so don't take this for the law. I slater some acid paste, wait for it to bubble and apply the solder. Don't you love those highly technical explications.

Here is the result. I should have removed a little of the electrical tape cause it's melting on me.

Finally using some home made scrappers we clean up the weld as best we can.

Thanks for looking.

Patrice

 

[Patrice Lemée]

I would love that info Patrick.

Patrice

 

[johnggrg]

Looks great Patrice! Have you decided on a handle material yet? John

 

[Patrice Lemée]

I will use Bloodwood John. Never used some of the nicer professionally stabilized woods yet but I will probably start pretty soon.

Thanks for the good words.

Patrice

 

[johnggrg]

Patrice Bloodwood looks great. Can't wait to see it all finished really nice work so far. Ever see a handle done in Purpleheart? Thanks for sharing. John

 

[mattwheaton]

You can use a flat graver to clean up that extra solder. you can make one out of tool steel or mild about 1/8" to 3/16" It does not need to be too hard. Grind a 45 degree angle and polish the tip. I use a golf ball for a handle. just be careful not to gouge the steel.