Custom forged this...

[Johnbeck180]

Your mokume is great. I am a cofessed flashaholic, but I am also a knife maker. I make damascus knifes out of two or three different kinds of carbon steel and knives made out of high carbon steel. You should check out bladeforums. Some of the bladesmiths might like you stuff.

Here is a pic of two of my knives. The one on the left is damascus witch is taking different steels and forge welding them together, like mokume. The orange Handled one is just hi carbon steel I think it's 5160 steel.

 

[bstrickler]

I think a mokume gane bullet would be a neat thing, excellent for a display case like this:

http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/arms...62437_01_wwii_commemorative_colt_1911_640.jpg

If I won the lottery, I would totally have you make some for me (gotta say, that would be a beautiful show piece).

 

[gollum]

thanks bstrickler,well I hope you at least buy a ticket and good luck

Johnbeck...

you got some nice damascus there and a nice style
I am registered at blade forums (also as gollum)
however i simply don't get time to surf the net and being a cpf fan suits me as I can check all the related edc
I own quite a few lights and love to see whats new

I have also made my own damascus
I have pics here and there in this section of cpf

I've recently made a few mosaic billets and also buy stainless damascus

here is some of my work

thanks for looking

maybe I should post a thread there
havent logged in for a few years
cheers Jason

 

[Johnbeck180]

thanks bstrickler,well I hope you at least buy a ticket and good luck

Johnbeck...

you got some nice damascus there and a nice style
I am registered at blade forums (also as gollum)
however i simply don't get time to surf the net and being a cpf fan suits me as I can check all the related edc
I own quite a few lights and love to see whats new

I have also made my own damascus
I have pics here and there in this section of cpf

I've recently made a few mosaic billets and also buy stainless damascus

here is some of my work

thanks for looking

maybe I should post a thread there
havent logged in for a few years
cheers Jason

Man those are nice!!
I've only been forging for about a year. Since its to cold outside I'm doing stock removal on some A2 and 52100. My wife's cousins husband is an engineer. I was talking to him the other day, and to my enjoyment he said he could do the heat treat on the A2. I've had the A2 bar stock laying around for about 8 months, didn't have a way to heat treat it so I want going to waist my time. I could do the heat treat on the 52100 in my forge and I think it would be fine. I too am a member of blade forums under the same name I have here. I'm usually on both forums every couple of days but probably CPF more for I have a HDS on order. Been waiting 278 days!

here are a couple more I've made along with a damascus ring for the wife and another damascus knife. Your work is great!! Happy forging.

 

[gollum]

ok A2 is air hardening
heat treat by bringing it to critical temp (goes non-magnetic) in your forge
then simply let it air cool
you can check hardness with a file (should slide off any area not bite in)
tempering is a try it and see,type of thing
begin at 300f soak for 1 hour. (can go up to 800f) to temper back to required hardness.
52100.... one of the best steels to use for blade stock
it is very highly refined
this can mean trouble
it can red-short easily
you will notice it is hard to move under the hammer

there is a way too see the correct colour when forging
its a bit long winded,
but something like this....

heat to cherry red
watch it change colour back to dark red
you will notice it goes from cherry red to dark red and then brighten back to red after darkening
this is very significant
it is the transformation/migration of the carbon creating the carbide structure for making (hard) dendritic steel
so don't try to get it hotter (when it moves better) this will cause red shorts (thats big ugly destructive splits in your work)
if you get red shorts...throw it away and remember the lesson well.

anyhow its something like that
research forging techniques and critical temps
get a pyrometer for you forge
although the old magnet test is a great way to test critical temp
(soak billet to good cherry red)test it for magnetism
it will be magnetic until critical temp is achieved
then when you are there it needs to soak for a few minutes
then you can quench it
use peanut oil or at least veg oil
it is far superior than motor oil
no nasty chemicals in veg oil
if you can get the veg oil to about 70celcius to thin it out for better quenching,your mate should be able to confirm this,industrial heat treat shops have big oil baths that have heaters in them to get to correct temp.

 

[Johnbeck180]

I would do that but, With A2 it's quite a bit harder than what you think. First it needs to be protected from decarburization and oxidation. You need to wrap the A2 in SS foil, or put it in a negative atmospheric furnace. Look here http://www.bucorp.com/files/aisi_a2.pdf
The process your talking about is the process used for pretty much all 10xx series steel, Ie, 1075, 1080, 1084, 1095. I would never do this process on A2 you would loose way to many points of carbon to make a good knife.

 

[gollum]

I have not used A2 for ages but I think you should try it without ss wrap and see how you go.
depending on your type of forge (I use coal furnace cave type and gas venturi firebox style,
both these are oxygen free) whereas brazier type is no good
your forge is oxygen free in the centre and lower area where the blade should be placed for a soak

I have achieved great results in the past,although it was about 20 years since I used A2

 

[Johnbeck180]

I have not used A2 for ages but I think you should try it without ss wrap and see how you go.
depending on your type of forge (I use coal furnace cave type and gas venturi firebox style,
both these are oxygen free) whereas brazier type is no good
your forge is oxygen free in the centre and lower area where the blade should be placed for a soak

I have achieved great results in the past,although it was about 20 years since I used A2

I think I'll try it thanks for the info. There are two things I've learned in the last year, and they were learned very quickly. One is Every one has there own way of doing things and there own recipes for a quench and two, blacksmiths and bladesmiths are some of the nicest folks I've talked to. Thanks for the advice, Ill try it in the forge. Thanks:0)

 

[gollum]

thats right
some of the best lessons learned are the ones done by trial and error

a lot of info especially metallurgy is relevent to engineering etc

bladesmithing is different
just the fact that that most blades are very thin and very specialised means different results will happen
one of the best things you can do is lots of trial and error and work with other knifemakers in their shop

good luck and be sure to post some pics
Jason

 

[Johnbeck180]

thats right
some of the best lessons learned are the ones done by trial and error

a lot of info especially metallurgy is relevent to engineering etc

bladesmithing is different
just the fact that that most blades are very thin and very specialised means different results will happen
one of the best things you can do is lots of trial and error and work with other knifemakers in their shop

good luck and be sure to post some pics
Jason

I was actually just in Half Price books today looking for metallurgy books. I also looked for engineering book. They didn't have any :0(
Do you have any suggestions on a good metallurgy book? I did a search on the net, man!!! Some of the ones I found are $100-$200+. You know any "cheaper" books on metallurgy?

Thanks, John Beck.

By the way I saw your stamp on your knives, is your initials JB also? And when do you stamp that in? Is It when its annealed so you can still normalize before hardening?

 

[gollum]

ok books
they can be very useful and i have borrowed a few
but I learned more working with knifemakers and blacksmiths

one of the best things to do is go to a hammer-in and just soak up as much info as you can
as you are in the US you'll have no trouble getting to one close by
any master smith will guide you towards more than enough info to keep you busy

a good hammer in should have photo copied notes on all activities

on my stamp... yes my logo is my initials on each side of a knife,its also registered with a knife makers guild

and yes i stamp when I'm at the 600 grit finishing stage before hardening
that allows some easy rubbing to remove swelling
then maybe a touch of 1200 grit and checking for stress relieving
before normalizing and H/T

 

[Johnbeck180]

Thanks for the info!

BTW, you having trouble getting on bladeforums? I am.

 

[gollum]

no I got on there ok...(forgot my password as I had joined years ago)
I did a long thread with pics about my knives etc...
some members started inquiring if they were for sale etc
so i replied and mentioned a price
which was not allowed in the discussion part of the forum,(fair enough).
however if you want to sell there you have to be a paid subscriber and pay fees etc

so I will not bother selling there
I'm sure its a great forum but my computer time is limited
I just think its better to be in the workshop than at the keyboard :thinking:

 

[nzlux]

the lines on the skull almost look like rifling left on a bullet once its been shot, very cool