- Joined
- Feb 5, 2013
- Messages
- 194
I have to put my ego aside to post this but I think it is worth it to remind others, especially other new makers, of how mistakes happen.
I think I made them because I don't have a routine built up from practice, I don't have a deep intuitive feeling for the metal, and I have absolutely no experience working with temperatures anywhere near these. You could find other reasons for sure but those seem the main reason. This is despite having literally practiced the moves I expected to make before lighting the forge.
I was trying out forging for the first time, scrap 1084 in the 2 brick forge I built a few days ago. My first mistake was not as drastic in immediate results but led to the other: I realized my tongs were getting a bit warm. I hammered until time to put the stock back in the forge and meant to do that first, then stick them in the water I had there from when I was using the hand cranked grinder an hour before. What I actually did was stick the workpiece/scrap in the water. I had the first of a few "Oh Crap!" moments where I realized what I did, only the piece didn't shatter and - here's where the lack of deep grasp of metal struck - I didn't think about the obvious fact I'd just hardened the piece.
Back to hammering for a bit. I finished shaping something vaguely resembling the bastard offspring of a butter knife, a spork and a chopstick, of which I was inordinately proud. I let it cool, normalized it three times, and tried filing it into something at least intentional looking.
File + Hard metal = scraaaape. Oh, of course. No big loss, chalk it up as a chance to learn.
So I tried to see if I could anneal it. I got a pot of ash, heated the, um, "blade" up, turned off the forge and stuck the thing in the ashes. Here is a lack of experience mistake: I figured it might well not anneal since the ashes were cold, but I also was more interested in experimenting than succeeding. I didn't figure the heat from the blade would do something that made the ash around the hot metal thing go away. Some blew out from the heat (tiny bit of steam maybe?) but mostly it seemed to just pull back and leave a big void.
I stepped away from the forge and scooped up some of the powered fire brick from making the forge and poured it in around the blade. I took my glove off to do so. Yeah. I know.
Here comes the painful part: I realized the blade was bottoming out and grabbed the protruding tail end of what could be considered a tang with my now bare finger and thumb. Second big "Oh Crap!" moment, this time with special bonus sick feeling - seemed to take forever for signal to reach hand to let go.
Looking back, I think part of my mistake there came from breaking the little tiny bit of routine: I knew it was still hot but I was away from the forge, the forge was off, the metal was no longer glowing and the portion I grabbed never entered the forge. My inexperienced lower brain was no longer hyper vigilant. I let my guard down for a moment.
I got two 3/16" by 1/2" to 3/4" 3rd degree burns, one on my pointer finger and one on my thumb. I felt stupid going to urgent care but the doctor insisted I was right to do that if nothing else today. Didn't hurt for a long time but all of a sudden the surrounding nerves kicked back online, apparently 3rd degree includes cooking the local nerves. Wow, that much pain from that small an area.
As I said at the outset this is hard to type (not just because my whole right hand is a gloriously and thankfully numb lump (nerve blocks = A++... until they wear off in a few hours). I'm embarrassed and pissed at myself. I know I made some really dumb mistakes when I knew full well at an intellectual level that I couldn't afford to. I'd really like to slink off and quietly heal instead of posting this, but just perhaps it will save some other newbie from a much worse mistake. I can't share my years of experience making great knives but I can share my week of making mistakes and day of royally screwing up. I was damn lucky. The same lack of presence could have led to much larger burns, burning down the house or, worst of all, hurting someone else. I think of myself as safety-conscious and not the one to make obvious dumb Darwin award winning screw-ups like grabbing forge temp metal (says the guy who opened a bottle of superglue with his teeth - at least that was an early life mistake).
So think it over if you are also new. Look at your own approach. Feel free to comment (of course) but please don't slam me. I promise I already get it.
Thanks for reading, hope it prevents someone else from doing something dumb.
By the way, I'd tried to drill into my head the bit I read in a sticky here: Just because it's not glowing doesn't mean it's not hot. I mean, I saw this coming and still it happened.
I think I made them because I don't have a routine built up from practice, I don't have a deep intuitive feeling for the metal, and I have absolutely no experience working with temperatures anywhere near these. You could find other reasons for sure but those seem the main reason. This is despite having literally practiced the moves I expected to make before lighting the forge.
I was trying out forging for the first time, scrap 1084 in the 2 brick forge I built a few days ago. My first mistake was not as drastic in immediate results but led to the other: I realized my tongs were getting a bit warm. I hammered until time to put the stock back in the forge and meant to do that first, then stick them in the water I had there from when I was using the hand cranked grinder an hour before. What I actually did was stick the workpiece/scrap in the water. I had the first of a few "Oh Crap!" moments where I realized what I did, only the piece didn't shatter and - here's where the lack of deep grasp of metal struck - I didn't think about the obvious fact I'd just hardened the piece.
Back to hammering for a bit. I finished shaping something vaguely resembling the bastard offspring of a butter knife, a spork and a chopstick, of which I was inordinately proud. I let it cool, normalized it three times, and tried filing it into something at least intentional looking.
File + Hard metal = scraaaape. Oh, of course. No big loss, chalk it up as a chance to learn.
So I tried to see if I could anneal it. I got a pot of ash, heated the, um, "blade" up, turned off the forge and stuck the thing in the ashes. Here is a lack of experience mistake: I figured it might well not anneal since the ashes were cold, but I also was more interested in experimenting than succeeding. I didn't figure the heat from the blade would do something that made the ash around the hot metal thing go away. Some blew out from the heat (tiny bit of steam maybe?) but mostly it seemed to just pull back and leave a big void.
I stepped away from the forge and scooped up some of the powered fire brick from making the forge and poured it in around the blade. I took my glove off to do so. Yeah. I know.
Here comes the painful part: I realized the blade was bottoming out and grabbed the protruding tail end of what could be considered a tang with my now bare finger and thumb. Second big "Oh Crap!" moment, this time with special bonus sick feeling - seemed to take forever for signal to reach hand to let go.
Looking back, I think part of my mistake there came from breaking the little tiny bit of routine: I knew it was still hot but I was away from the forge, the forge was off, the metal was no longer glowing and the portion I grabbed never entered the forge. My inexperienced lower brain was no longer hyper vigilant. I let my guard down for a moment.
I got two 3/16" by 1/2" to 3/4" 3rd degree burns, one on my pointer finger and one on my thumb. I felt stupid going to urgent care but the doctor insisted I was right to do that if nothing else today. Didn't hurt for a long time but all of a sudden the surrounding nerves kicked back online, apparently 3rd degree includes cooking the local nerves. Wow, that much pain from that small an area.
As I said at the outset this is hard to type (not just because my whole right hand is a gloriously and thankfully numb lump (nerve blocks = A++... until they wear off in a few hours). I'm embarrassed and pissed at myself. I know I made some really dumb mistakes when I knew full well at an intellectual level that I couldn't afford to. I'd really like to slink off and quietly heal instead of posting this, but just perhaps it will save some other newbie from a much worse mistake. I can't share my years of experience making great knives but I can share my week of making mistakes and day of royally screwing up. I was damn lucky. The same lack of presence could have led to much larger burns, burning down the house or, worst of all, hurting someone else. I think of myself as safety-conscious and not the one to make obvious dumb Darwin award winning screw-ups like grabbing forge temp metal (says the guy who opened a bottle of superglue with his teeth - at least that was an early life mistake).
So think it over if you are also new. Look at your own approach. Feel free to comment (of course) but please don't slam me. I promise I already get it.
Thanks for reading, hope it prevents someone else from doing something dumb.
By the way, I'd tried to drill into my head the bit I read in a sticky here: Just because it's not glowing doesn't mean it's not hot. I mean, I saw this coming and still it happened.
.
