Success, Failure, a Stump and a New Tool

[69_knives]

Well, I fought back the wind as long as I could and got a few things done at the smithy.

The complete blade on the top is the success, so far. I'd been trying to learn to forge my blades nice and thin so there is a minimum of grinding needed to be done after HT and this, of all the blades I've made, is the one I'm most happy with. Took about a minute of grinding before HT and about two minutes, so far, after wards. I'm also quite happy with the shape and size. It is forged from 3/16" 1095. When I first read what somebody posted about making 100 blades before you sell any, I laughed, but now I don't think that is so ridiculous.

The lower is another attempt at 52100. If you see a crinkled paint 'look' on the surface of your blade do you say "Oh Cool!" or "Oh Shit!"??? You say Oh Shit!

This is a tool I made, I know there's a name for these but it escapes me at the moment.

It's for getting a nice plunge line with round bar stock. It's made of a piece of 1/8" 1084, bent, hardened up to where the round bar is welded and spring tempered.

And I FINALLY got a stump for my anvil. I don't know what it is but it is WAY better than a couple 5 gallon buckets.

I'm pretty sure I got some hamon on that 1095 blade, I'll post a pic later when it is etched.

 

[Burton Harruff]

Nice spring fuller. Did that 52100 knife break up like that when you went to HT? Looks like a good start on the top one.

 

[69_knives]

Nice spring fuller. Did that 52100 knife break up like that when you went to HT? Looks like a good start on the top one.

Thanks, I knew there was a name for it.

When I was cleaning up the HT scale I noticed the blade was full of little squiggly lines line crinkle paint so I just busted it up to see what the grain was like. I quenched in oil, then brought it out to look at and straighten and after a few minutes I dunked it in water, that's probably what did it in.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The 52100 blade may have been forged too cool. 52100 must be forged between 1700F and 2100F. Too hot or too cool will cause it to crack like that, especially when you are trying to draw out round or thick stock with a big hammer.Normalizing 52100 at 1600F before HT will help avoid cracking. If it was actually a few minutes ( as in 120 seconds or more) after the oil quench, then the water probably didn't do the damage.

Keep at it, Looks like you are off to a good start.
I always thought you should call your smithy "JUNK YARD KNIVES". It's got a neat sound to it.

Whitecourt's got its hustlers
Edmonton's full of bums
Calgary's got its own living legend
He's a hammer weildin' son-of-a-gun.

He's handsome and strong - Can hammer all day long
So you better keep an eye on your wives
And if you're ever goin' huntin' up in cold Alberta
Stop by and see "JUNK YARD KNIVES"

Stacy

 

[69_knives]

Haha, that's awesome.

Whitecourt's got its hustlers
Edmonton's full of bums

You must really get around, Stacy, if you know that.

I was trying to keep the blade on the cooler side. One thing I observed when I broke up the blade is the grain near the tang was really fine and got progressively coarser near the tip.