The one brick, 2 burner forge W O R K S !

L

loosenock

Joined
Jul 10, 2002
Messages
77
What a night, I couldn't sleep last night. I laid in bed thinking about heat treating all night. I must have thought it through the process 40 times last night. I would have been better off getting up and just finishing the blade at midnight.

Fired the forge up at about 5:30 and brought the blade up to red. I suspended a natural magnet from the ceiling on a copper wire. At first it wasn't hot enough. I got it hotter, its really cool how the magnet ignores the steel when its up to temp. I laid it aside to normalize....

I had a harder time getting my quenching oil up to temp than I did the blade....I normalize again waiting for the oil.

Finally everything was set.....heated the blade up again...a pass by the magnet...everything fine.... back in the forge for one more minute and then the quench.

A little smoke but no fire. I put a little soft mechanics wire through the thong hole so I could pull it out of the oil.

In about 20 minutes I pulled the blade out, let it drain a few seconds and then pulled it up to look at it.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST EVERYONE TO TEST THEIR FRESHLY QUENCHED BLADE BY DROPPING IT FROM EYEBALL HEIGHT, POINT FIRST, DOWN TO HARD COLD CONCRETE.

This test is also proves the law of gravity because your blade, your heart, and other precious bodily appurtenances all hit your concrete floor at the same time.

A piercing pinggggggggggggggggggggggggggg rang through the quiet neighborhood.

Absolutely no harm to the blade......whewww!.

What had happened was the wire straightened out during the forge trip (DUH).

I then triple tempered it at 420-430 degrees.

I had my handles ready to go and it only took about an hour to finish it.

Here's a pic. A little stain on the Hard maple handles and a sheath will be forthwith.

Loosenock
 

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Dave, thanks for looking at my knife. I do appreciate your comment.

I had a chance to look at an original Ek Model 2 a couple of years ago and was captivated by the simplicity of the knife. Being old, it had a certain character. Unfortunately I couldn't afford the $575 price the seller was asking for it. Now I wish I would have bought it anyway because they are becoming quite collectable. The original WWII knives with the lead rivets give the knife a very pleasing "heft" to it while not being heavy. The knife lays in your hand by the handle without trying to fall out of your hand. It also lays flat on the handle and not on the blade when laying down.

I have an Illinois EK and a Richmond but the original one was way kool.

The numbers I struck on the blade signify that this is my "first".."one". I guess my humor is reflects my age..

Thanks again.

loosenock
 
Hey that's really cool!

I have done repair work for collectors and have done a number of EK's...mainly repairing the lead rivets and a few others where the entire grip needed replacement.

Are your rivets poured lead?

Greg Covington
Bladesmith
 
Hi Greg, yes my rivets are poured. I borrowed a taper reamer and put a slight taper in the handle holes. I didn't know how pouring lead into an "hour glass" hole would work out, but it came out great. I set the rivets with a 1/4 blunt punch and then sanded the handles down about a 1/32". This removed the scorch. If you look real hard you can just barely make out a tiny scorch ring around the rivet.

Ek did his knives this way so that they could easily be repaired in the field without tools. If needed, you could tap the rivets with a rock and reset them.

One thing for certain, they suck those handles down tight.

Loosenock
 
I would trust any of my blades to pass that test--after tempering! Prior to tempering, certain steels would simply be too brittle to stand up to that test. With your high tempering temps, I'm guessing you were using something pretty high in carbon (O1 or 1095?). Congratulations on your success.

John
 
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