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Harley Chain to Double Edge Boot Knife

Bruce Bump

Bruce Bump

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
9,910
This is the link to the entire tutorial. It was so pictoral heavy that I couldnt leave it here on the forums. Please click here http://brucebump.homestead.com/hdchaintut.html

Indian George traded me 2 Harley primary chains for some mammoth tooth scales a couple months ago. I finally got around to using one of them. Heres how I am making a boot knife from it. I dont have the knife done yet so this thread may string out for a while.

I cut the chain in two equal lengths and loaded them side by side into a canister. I put a mild steel separater between them because I want to make two knives from the same canister.

I want to retain as much chain links and pins pattern so I dont want to stretch it out any more than I have to.

I filled the can with 1084 powder (from Kelly Cupples) and recessed the lid to slide down tight. I actually used my press to sqeeze the lid down and welded it in place. The welds need to be all the way around. I dont leave an air hole. Never have.
 
I am so intrigued... this is like that whole foreplay thing my wife keeps telling me about.

Keep us posted!
 
I made some cutout notches on the 2 sides where that separater is so I can later bandsaw the billet into two equal billets. I have a handle welded onto the canister for ease of handling.

Its up to around welding heat and it has soaked for about 15 min. Notice its almost invisible in the fire. I have a shot of the pyrometer in a minute that shows how hot it is.

Out it comes and right into a set of large squaring dies on my press. The squaring dies sqeeze from all four sides at once and quickly reduces the size of the canister

The last shot is too cold to work but you can see it is reducing in diameter and beginning to stretch out lengthwise. Notice the cap is dome shaped already. If it werent recessed it would have popped off and lost powder by this time.
 
Here is some of the drawing process and you can see Im still at welding heat. The billet is still welding even during the drawing process so I cant drop the heat down yet.

Notice though I have changed to a set of drawing dies. They are a matched set of curved faces that force the billet to get thinner and longer at the same time.

Next I put another set of dies on to re-square the billet. It is now about 1 1/2" wide by about 8" long.

Notice the scale is falling off as soon as I press on it. Thats a good thing because the canister will just get ground away anyway. At this heat the outer layer is really getting roasted. Also there is no flux involved with this method. Its the cleanest method I know of.
 
Here is my 8" long flat dies. (I know theyre not exactly flat but they also work on tapering tangs and distal tapering blades)

I used the chop saw to take off both ends. I can now see where that seperator is. Now it goes into the annealing oven at 1325f for 30 minutes.
 
Cooool! IG will be proud of what you're doing to his chains, I'm sure. I'm stayin tuned, don't worry :)
 
after anealing it can be cut in half along the seperator and each piece is forged into a blank about 3/8" x 1 1/2" x 10" long and flattened out.

My pics are out of sequence right here.
 
OK Im this far along now. I need to mill one of these blanks on each side until I can see chain.
 
B.B.!!! Very Very nice.:thumbup: :thumbup: I really think this is a great tutorial.:D Done good Bubba!!!! :D :D
Looking forward to the end product.:D
 
This is awesome education Bruce! Thanks for taking the time to document and share this project with us.

-d
 
Bruce:

Thanks

As well as being tantalizing eye candy, ( lusting after your press)
this is an excellent - well laid out tutorial.

I have read-seen-heard many variations on can welding, but this makes the most sense to me and clears up a lot of my misunderstandings

Steve
 
I do hope you can be as clear and specific regarding the heat treat.

Any idea of what the roller chain is made of ?

Does the combination of more than one steel type affect the heat treat procedure ?

Is this predictable or just learned with experience ?
 
It's all good!:thumbup: It takes a lot of work and time to shoot pics and put them together with text. Thanks for sharing.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Kerry you should know after putting the tutorials on the Bose knives. Im not that computer savy yet.
Click to expand...

thats why you have geeks like me around to answer questions you may have. if you want some help with understanding computers better just email me or give me a call at 210-445-9402. my email is pimpin.squee@gmail.com once i get a website up ill switch all my email address to jmcdonaldknives@gmail.com. that email address is also good.
 
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