Need experinced input

[Pyromaniac]

Hi everyone,

I was recently researching hardening methods and I found this treasure trove. I thought I would make an account and hopefully be able to gain more insight into knife making. For the past year I have been making just basic knives like bowie knives and camp knives from old mill files and sawmill blades.

This is were my first question is: A friend and I were walking down a old railroad one day and came across an old grate with spikes piled on top of. He makes throwing hawks out of rail spikes so I let him take those and I took the grate. In fact it is fairly large (weighs about 100 pounds and is 3 x 3 of what appears to be hand welded flat steel). I have made one knife from it and it held up quite well but was wondering what kind of steel it could be or if there were any tests I could do to see.

I also recently completed a new propane forge for hardening, forging, and such and was hoping to be able to do Damascus in it. It is made of a 5 gallon air tank with the ends cut out and is insulated with inswool that is covered in Plistix. I have two atmospheric burners running in it. I’m not sure if I can weld in it so instead of just trying it and wasting metal and propane I thought I would ask instead.

Any help is much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Overmountain]

The answer to the steel question is... mystery steel. You can spark test it and get an idea, but bets are it is some mid level carbon steel. For most of their components, the steel composition can vary greatly. There are a lot of things that the railway doesn't need to be specific, just in a general area. Buy good steel, its relatively cheap and the outcome is predictable. No offense, but what you consider holding up "pretty good" and what I would consider to be a quality heat-treatment of a specific steel are probably worlds apart. Look on YouTube or Google the ABS Journeyman Smith cut and bend test... That is what I consider holding up well. Anything short of that may be pretty good, but just proof that it could have been better...

As for the forge welding question, you won't know till you know. The only way to find out is to try. There are plenty of people that have forges that reach temp, but that also doesn't mean they can forge weld. It isn't simple, but its not rocket science either. I can forge weld in my propane atmospheric at 10psi with a single 3/4" burner into a 4.5"x4"x12" interior using a .045 mig tip as a gas jet... There are more than just a couple of factors involved. That said, I know people that will swear you "can't forge weld" with an atmospheric forge... Don't know where they got that, but you in fact can.

Good luck.
Cheers.

 

[Pyromaniac]

I completly agree with your comment about how well it "holding up". I am familar with the Abs Journeyman test and can assure you it does not preform as well as a knife to those standards. In fact it does not preform as well as some of my other knives made from 1095. I am interested in this spark test though. I never heard of it. The reason behind my forge welding question was that my new forge is quite larger than my last one. My previous one was made the same way execpt I have no idea what the tank was from. It had one half inch burner and was about 7 inches long with a 3 inch interior and i could easliy forge weld in it. Sadly it was stolen when I was on vacation.