/diy/ - Do It Yourself

This is a set of blade-blanks I annealed and ground to shape, then quenched in veggie oil. These were also meant to be gifts for my co-workers, as we're almost constantly passing one or two box-cutters around. Not the best steel by any means, but they do what they were designed to do amicably.

>>388360
Here's a picture of the first knife I ever made, in which I didn't 'bring it out' any, I just heat-treated and ground it to shape. It's fugly, but it holds a surprisingly good edge.

Next to a similar file for comparison.

>>388362
Ergh, sorry for the huge image size.

Here's the knife from that post, next to the second knife I ever made. With this one, I experimented 'bringing it out' some, to make a thinner blade more suited to cutting soap (which was its intended purpose). Protip: carpenter's hammers suck for blacksmithing, haha. The hammer-marks are clear and evident, there.

This also holds a surprisingly good edge; much much better than my first knife. I won't say 'razor', but I will say that I cut myself pretty badly on it with very little effort, cutting through a piece of string.

That's all I have pictures of; I hope to see you /diy/nosaurs post some stuff!

I have a 50 lb rail anvil and a coal forge, going to go make some knives tonight

>>388384
Anchor the anvil (I have the same kind) or it will bounce and move with every blow. Huge pain in the ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jJX_fZbm8

bamp

>>388364
>holds a good edge
>it's a sharpened piece of tool steel designed to be harder than regular steel to cut it
YOU DON'T SAY
I'M FLABBERGASTED

I'd suggest making a brake drum forge, they are cheap and retain more heat, and putting it in an old grill to keep even more heat in. With the anvil either make a stand out of 4x4s and chain it to it or nail it into a stump with U nails.

This guy has a pretty good forge setup and some decent videos about black smithing.

>>388772
Forgot link.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZLagqylZ3j7H2MEDrDTb7Dz6xVZeMRTt

>>388768
>what is tempering

hey, can I see a picture of the knives that you've made by hand?

don't be an asshole.

Mostly done leather work, just starting out metal.
So far Ive made ( with help, lots of help) a buckler.
Soon i'll be making pouldrons, but my wrist is fucked up and I can't hammer anything, or even use powertools.
>tfw no diy for a quite a few months
>have nothing to do anymore

>>388364
Carpenter's hammer? You gotta be shitting me. Just go buy a 5 lb sledge from home depot, it'll do a hell of a lot better than what you're using.

>>388360
to improve your steel you can do a poor mans damascus and take a couple different types of steal, and "twist" and fold them together as you're forging

>>388974
I have long since upgraded; I made that a long time ago. I now use a 2lb and a 5lb hand sledge and a few different ball-peens for finer stuff.

>>388989
I have tried to experiment with forge-welding, but have been pretty unsuccessful thus far. Thanks for the tip, though.

I'm a blacksmith. Heres my third knife, this ones kind of ugly to be honest ataketd lion

Never blacksmithed in my life. just curious

what do you guys use to get your base metal?

is it as simple as throwing scrap metal in a furnace?

have you ever tryed smelting your own metals from scratch? ie extract from ore into metal?

I think these were you right?

>>389675
just realized you are using files for all these knives.

is pouring molten metal into a cast something that happens? or do you just get a file from the hardware store and flatten it into a knife?

>>389694

>>389708

>>389675
there was a time when aluminum cost more than gold. despite a very large portion of the earth's crust being covered with the stuff, it isn't easy to get it out of rock. the induction furnace made it easier, but pound for pound recycling aluminum is far cheaper than producing it.

>>389734
so basically starting my own civilization from a hole i dug in the backyard isn't possible?

ie if you were on earth 5000 years ago making a knife would be near impossible?

This picture almost makes me drop 10K on a blacksmithing/pattern welding setup every time I see it. Holy shit it is beautiful.

I find the pattern weld a little too flashy, but the stainless lamination over the carbon steel and the subsequent bleed through is absolutely sublime.

Seriously, I can't even describe how much the blade calls to me. If I had a year of my life to spare I would spend every day trying to replicate that lamination.

>>389763
Here is another knife that I find very intriguing, although in a different way.

I find most pattern welds to be garish and offensive, and this one is certainly no exception. Most pattern welds end up looking more like a kaleidoscope than a knife but I am still amazed at what an be achieved with steel alone though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZoPRKsfZEM&list=UUQc3EOGXOnMmvMZnOfgYOAw

Here you go

>>389763
red is cool too

>>389774
Excuse me?

Here is a prototype I hammer forged out of 1084. It is a Single Bevel knife and forged finished or Brute De Forge. This is before heat treat because I am out of satinite. I'll use the satinite to deferentially heat treat the blade and hopefully get a mild hamon on the blade. I use parks-50 for a quench medium. right now im using a propane forge, from time to time I use my large coal forge. I am currently saving up for a real belt grinder, after I get that I wont have to spend hours draw filing my blades. A good source for forging steel is http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/

>>389665
It is a but ugly, but I've really no room to talk. Practicality is what counts, imo, and it looks plenty practical. Nice!

>>389694
>>389708
>>389728
Hey, holy shit! That is me! I didn't think anyone would save it; I was just helping a /diy/nosaur out. Very cool; I'm glad the knowledge is being spread around.

>>389675
>>389706
>>389759
Iron casting was the norm for a while, but generally not until around the time of the industrial revolution when furnaces that burned hot enough to melt iron became commonplace. For a long time, what people did was find ore rich with iron and smelt it in a furnace; the slag would become molten and run out the bottom (usually through a hole created on-the-spot for this purpose), leaving a chunk or 'bloom' of iron at the bottom. The bloom was then pounded into a rough bar shape and then usually broken into smaller bars for use. Digging in a hole in your backyard to find iron ore would be tough; in most cases the pre-industrial iron workers would have to seek out iron ore (usually at the bottom of bogs or lakes). It isn't exactly commonplace everywhere in amounts that would make refining the ore a feasible or easy thing to do; there's a lot of slag left over when you smelt ore so they wanted the most concentrated pieces of iron ore possible.

>>389763
>>389770
>>389774
Wow, these are beautiful. I especially like >>389770
The stainless laminate on >>389763 is very nice; clearly a master's work. Personally, I prefer the looks of darkened or forge-finished steel.
>>389798
Hey, very nice. I love the look of forge-finished steel.

I've never used (or heard of) satinite, or parks-50. To be honest, I just use used motor or veggie oil. Also, I know your pain as far as draw-filing goes; it's a bitch and it takes forever, and metal shavings sting when they lodge themselves into your skin. Also, thanks for the link, I'll have to see about ordering some nice steel for a project I have in mind.

Happy forging everyone!

>>389585
to forge weld you got to get your steel white hot. here are some tricks for forge welding. grind the surface you want to forge weld to a bright shiny finish. stack all you steel together and tack weld the ends, or wire it all together. Now dip it all in kerosene and coat it with Borax. You can find 20 mule team in most grocery stores. now bring it all to white hot temp. have some one hold while you strike. once you get into the orange color re coat it with Borax and bring it back up to temp. you can practice this with a stack of quarters.

>>388364
Go to harbor Freight and spend 8 buck on a cross pein hammer. Use the the pein to draw the blade out, then the flat of the hammer to smooth out what you did with the pein. If you can find a straight pein hammer that will be much easier to use, and if you really want some thing nice get a quarter pein aka angle pein hammer 90-200 bucks though. Also bladesmithing is all about finesse start lighter not heavier. I would only use the sledge for forge welding or really thick bar stock.

>>389694
Never "stir" a blade around in a quenching medium; this will warp you blade. You should move the blade back and forth along the vertical axis being the cutting edge and spine; never side to side or in a string motion. Water and brine(more so) are harsh mediums to use. you run the risk of breaking a blade depending on the steel. mineral oil is great, so is used motor oil, and the best scavenge medium to use in automatic transmission fluid.This image it the result of water quenching.

sorry forgot to add the image

>>389860
Ah, my problem was I was only bringing the steel to yellow-hot. I knew to dip it in kerosine and use borax as flux, though.

>>389870
I did NOT know to only move a blade back and forth. Thanks for that tip; you have undoubtedly saved me some heartache.

why do my comments on here get deleted? they are relevant to the topic right? blacksmithing general?
i'm not too worried, just want to know why.

>>388357
>>388357
>>388357
You could use practice but don't stop.

here is some knives i've made plus what i use as an anvil

>>391885

>>391887
forgot to add that on that on the rebar knife i accidentally broke the blade off and had to weld it back on. turned out decent though. i used a wire wheel to polish the handle so it wasn't "rebar" colored.

the anvil i use is just a 115lb block of high carbon hardened steel block. I've been trying for probably 3 years now to find an anvil for a decent price. anytime somebody with an anvil laying around their barn sees me making knives, they always make one knife and never touch the anvil again, but wont give it away for a decent price or even let me use it. TALK ABOUT FRIENDS RIGHT?

>>391891
also, i think this might be the only picture i have of it, its not blacksmithing but it is knife making.

I made it out of a piece of a used band-saw blade from my old work. at the bottom of the handle, I cut a notch about a half inch deep into some bar-stock and welded it to the blade handle to be used as a hammer. I use it as a machete/hammer out in the woods when im camping.

I have about 75 of these knives lol. only 3 of them have the bar-stock hammer on the end as i could only use scraps to build it.

Question. I have a whole bunch of beer caps I want to melt down and sand cast into a d20 dice.

How would I go about doing this? Would putting them all into a big can and putting the can onto a fire work or is the heat to low?

Contribootin-- Heres a rose I did 2 or so years ago

>>391910
Forgot pic

Took me a bit to find a pic--end up selling or giving away most of everything...

So, ever try to forge a statue?

Also a cuttlebone casting I did--not really blacksmithing, but metalwork

>>391918
lolno.

you have to cast shit like that

>>391909
if the caps melt, so will the can :|

google casting.

>>391909
like a folgers/coffee can? Aluminum has a fairly low melting point--BUT has a crazy amount of shrinkage when it cools....so its not great for casting-id alloy it with some leadfree solder or copper. but anyway--propane torch, coffecan, and caps--youll be good. make sure the sand isnt too wet--or youlll have problems

bump

Bump

>>391939
you put copper in it, good luck melting that before a coffee can.

>>391966
I've done it. Go slow, and nothing will go wrong. melt the aluminum first and then add the copper, which will eventually melt into it

>>391885
Whenever I work with railroad spikes, they just become flat and I have to make it double edged. How did you get yours to be one sided?

>>391975
Angle your hammer--its nice to have edges on your anvil (id recommend investing in one) but angle like this / over the anvil face _ forcing it toward the edge, thinning the blade

>>391979
I have a 30lb anvil. I found it in an abandoned house that was in my neighbor hood. I am sorry but I do not understand what you mean.

>>391970

Personally, I'd just invest in a Cast Iron Skillet or something and not piss around with the possibility of a meltdown of the container.