A couple of days ago I went over to some welders I know to see about trying to make the first HI Katar prototype a little more permanent.
At first there was some scepticism about whether welding would be possible; the HI kamis did such a good job on the polish that the welders were convinced the katar had been chromed! Kudos to the HI polishers...
The welder, Mark, tested the katar with a magnet, declared it to be weldable, and welded it with a Mig welder. Mark did a great job and I returned to my little shop a happy man until I realized that the katar, which Bura had made PERFECTLY straight, now had a pronounced angle where the blade met the frame.
I was even less happy when I realized the cause of the problem. The steel had not warped, I realized. Rather, the bolts had loosened up from a previous tightening and being the monkey I am I had forgotten to tighten them before Mark welded the thing up. So now I had a rock-solid, bent katar, which was entirely my own fault.
Much brooding commenced. Eventually it was decided to have a go at the weld with a propane torch at each side in the hopes of straightening the blade/frame juncture we could get the steel hot enough. We put the frame in a vise, point sticking straight up, and got to work with the torches. The steel began glowing maybe 90 seconds later, so I put on my welder's gloves and began pushing on the blade as hard as I could. I didn't seem to be getting anywhere, but when we turned the lights back on we realized that the taper of the katar's frame and its position on the edge of the work bench meant that the vise actually had it at an angle and the damn thing had actually straightened out just about perfectly!
Was it skill? No, it was incredible luck, but I'm not complaining.
What with the welding and the propane torch heat treating the katar needs quite a bit of polishing work, but I will post pics when it reaches its final form, in the hopes of stimulating demand for what may be one of the world's only modern-day katars.
Next up before polishing, though, is cryo...
-Dave
At first there was some scepticism about whether welding would be possible; the HI kamis did such a good job on the polish that the welders were convinced the katar had been chromed! Kudos to the HI polishers...
The welder, Mark, tested the katar with a magnet, declared it to be weldable, and welded it with a Mig welder. Mark did a great job and I returned to my little shop a happy man until I realized that the katar, which Bura had made PERFECTLY straight, now had a pronounced angle where the blade met the frame.
I was even less happy when I realized the cause of the problem. The steel had not warped, I realized. Rather, the bolts had loosened up from a previous tightening and being the monkey I am I had forgotten to tighten them before Mark welded the thing up. So now I had a rock-solid, bent katar, which was entirely my own fault.
Much brooding commenced. Eventually it was decided to have a go at the weld with a propane torch at each side in the hopes of straightening the blade/frame juncture we could get the steel hot enough. We put the frame in a vise, point sticking straight up, and got to work with the torches. The steel began glowing maybe 90 seconds later, so I put on my welder's gloves and began pushing on the blade as hard as I could. I didn't seem to be getting anywhere, but when we turned the lights back on we realized that the taper of the katar's frame and its position on the edge of the work bench meant that the vise actually had it at an angle and the damn thing had actually straightened out just about perfectly!
Was it skill? No, it was incredible luck, but I'm not complaining.
What with the welding and the propane torch heat treating the katar needs quite a bit of polishing work, but I will post pics when it reaches its final form, in the hopes of stimulating demand for what may be one of the world's only modern-day katars.
Next up before polishing, though, is cryo...
-Dave
