I picked up an old circular saw blade from a neighbor and set to work making my first large blade as it was the biggest piece of steel I've had my hands on so far. I ended up with a short sword/machete that has a 14" blade and an AOL of about 22". Everything is ready to HT, but I'm nervous. I've never done anything anywhere near this big so the potential for warpage is higher than I've ever dealt with. The edge is not ground too thin, but here's my problem: All I have for HT equipment is a dual-burner propane forge. It's big enough to get the whole blade in there, but not big enough to stand it up on the spine, so it'll have to lay flat. Here's my plan. Please correct me where you see I need it.
I grabbed a piece of C iron and positioned it in the forge so that the blade will slide in and out under the channel. (The burners are only about 1/2" from the C iron on top which doesn't seem great but it'll be better than straight heat). This should help to heat a little more evenly and keep the harsh blast off of the blade. I'm also putting a piece of steel under the blade so that it has a flat surface to rest on during heating. Otherwise, it will set at an angle in the forge.
Now here's my other dilemma: the quench.
First thing's first. I'm low budget on this particular project. I don't have enough oil to do something of this size. This is just a personal project anyway, otherwise I'd be sending the blade off to someone that knew what they were doing. Thus, here's my two possible options:
Horizontal quench in an old cooler filled with water (looking into making that "super quench solution" that I've heard so much about with salt and soap) and considering doing a partial quench, letting the spine cool slower, but will probably bend to the pressure and quench the whole blade since I'm tempering later anyway.
vertical quench in the trusty ol' 5 gallon bucket. This will be done in water or the super quench solution as well.
So basically, I'm going to the oracles here and asking opinions. I'm especially low tech with this project because it's experimental and larger scale than I've ever done, so I'm kind of back to old school knife maker techniques for hardening here. My main questions are regarding my processes for getting a relatively even heat, and which direction to quench this size blade in.
Thanks.
I grabbed a piece of C iron and positioned it in the forge so that the blade will slide in and out under the channel. (The burners are only about 1/2" from the C iron on top which doesn't seem great but it'll be better than straight heat). This should help to heat a little more evenly and keep the harsh blast off of the blade. I'm also putting a piece of steel under the blade so that it has a flat surface to rest on during heating. Otherwise, it will set at an angle in the forge.
Now here's my other dilemma: the quench.
First thing's first. I'm low budget on this particular project. I don't have enough oil to do something of this size. This is just a personal project anyway, otherwise I'd be sending the blade off to someone that knew what they were doing. Thus, here's my two possible options:
Horizontal quench in an old cooler filled with water (looking into making that "super quench solution" that I've heard so much about with salt and soap) and considering doing a partial quench, letting the spine cool slower, but will probably bend to the pressure and quench the whole blade since I'm tempering later anyway.
vertical quench in the trusty ol' 5 gallon bucket. This will be done in water or the super quench solution as well.
So basically, I'm going to the oracles here and asking opinions. I'm especially low tech with this project because it's experimental and larger scale than I've ever done, so I'm kind of back to old school knife maker techniques for hardening here. My main questions are regarding my processes for getting a relatively even heat, and which direction to quench this size blade in.
Thanks.
