Forging again

[Gerhard Gerber]

I realised recently how many health issues I had this years, ridiculous for a  relatively healthy person like me, but that's age I guess 

From a tennis elbow to some unmentionables, worst affected was my 2 year old knife making hobby, and thanks to the tennis elbow everything from forging to sanding was out of the question......that covers knife making 

Anyway, only forging work recently was on a bearing race, I had in mind making a fixed blade copy of the Spyderco Lil Nilaka, something funny happened and the blade hardened somehow somewhere during the process, and after a lot of work and close to the end the worst happened...
I was center punching to drill the holes for the handle, 2nd punch the blade snapped in two.....still looking for the handle part.

What went considerably better is a big, busted old ball peen hammer that my cousin got at his work, deal was he does the hard work with the hammer and we make him a hatchet.
I have to say forging with an assistant is a pleasure, and we got excellent results.
Used a different method to my first effort which was also a much smaller claw hammer, welded on a rebar handle which we moved around as required. 
I would hold the piece and direct, cousin swung the hammer.  Every 2nd or 3rd heat I would just straighten things up a bit.
The huge advantage was we could work much more accurate, so the hole for the handle is not distorted much at all.

Cousin is doing the finishing work at home, but we hope to heat treat before Xmas.    Big ball peen hammer, mighty weapon   

But that's not the reason for my post, happy accident happened this week, and I'm very excited......

 

I was at a local supplier buying brass to make guards, got to talking with the owner about a fe other knife making and materiel related things, Damascus, and he mention Bohler K460......
Fortunately something rang a bell, my favourite knife maker in South Africa used K460 for his monster Bowies, and I remember him mentioning it's Bohler's version of O1.

I'm a bit starved for choice in steel, leaf springs, bearings and old files and my staple, and now I have a 1m long 20mm round bar  of O1 at home ready and waiting for tomorrow! 

I've done research on the heat treat and I don't have the right equipment to get the optimal heat treat on O1, but I'm sure I can get it pretty good.....

Seems to be a finicky steel with a narrow forging temperature, but fingers crossed! 

[ducttapetech]

Best of luck man. If anyone can work that steel, it is you. Also, hope you get to feeling better.

[Sparky415]

Good luck with it G 

 

[Poncho65]

Sounds exciting Can't wait to see what you come up with

[Blackbeard]

Tennis elbow goes away after awhile from my experience, hope you feel better. Getting old is no picnic, my body is falling apart more and more everyday.

[SteveC]

Glad to hear you're back at it !   

[David]

    

[Gerhard Gerber]

I'm terrible, but I'll remedy that later today with some photos.... 

For some obscure reason I decided Saturday was the day to mod my forge to hopefully get a bigger hot spot.  That at least worked, but I nearly killed myself, I was so sore on Sunday from wrestling with that lump of metal it's not funny......

K460=O1=a booldy smurf of a steel 

First step is turning the round bar into flat stock, bit problematic since I don't know how much steel will give you how much knife.....

I had about 15cm flattened, got distracted for a second and when I took out the piece it just fell off - I was warned overheated O1 turns to cottage cheese 

Probably should've called it quits, but I carried on.  There was clearly something wrong with the fried steel at the tip, so I cut that off and carefully started again.

I got about 20cm drawn out and started putting in bevels, but honestly the steel wasn't talking to a.k.a I had no plan.

Wisely decided to put that piece down, but because there was still charcoal left I did a bit more work on an old Nicholson half round file.
The half rounds are useless for stock removal, and I have many, so this one is also an experiment.
I'm flattening the file and then one edge to form the spine, and that's coming along nicely, lots of work but good news considering all the material I have....

No doubt, the files and bearing steel in general is much nicer and easier to forge, will have to use that O1 but not looking forward to it.....

 

Will fix that a bit later 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Tennis elbow goes away after awhile from my experience, hope you feel better. Getting old is no picnic, my body is falling apart more and more everyday.

That's it......rest and wait......which I initially didn't do.

Instead I put on some Metal, thought about people I don't like and took hand sanding to the next level.......

....and paid the price 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Forge mod to get a bigger hot spot.....guess I'm a grinder......



....not a welder.  It worked 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Where I stopped with the O1 and the piece that burnt off





Nicholson file was much easier and much more forgiving....don't meet your heroes  guess 

[Blackbeard]

very cool,  keep posting

[styx]

nice to see you're back at it. there is a way to fix tennis elbow and golf elbow for most people (same things pretty much only different tendons are inflamed). one way is to stretch the elbow in a flexed position with bands, a weight (hammer will do) or a pvc pipe (wooden shafts also work so you could use a broom). another way that complements this is to work the opposite muscle a bit more which in this case would be the triceps if I remember correctly

[ducttapetech]

Forge mod to get a bigger hot spot.....guess I'm a grinder......



....not a welder.  It worked 

Just remember the welder's creed.
Grinds and paint makes me the welder I ain't.

As long as it work man it is all good.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Just remember the welder's creed.
Grinds and paint makes me the welder I ain't.

As long as it work man it is all good.

 

There was a meme of FB about grinders vs welders, very funny but I can't remember the punchline  ......made me a bit sensitive 

I bought the welder this year, also my first time ever welding.  There is a massive learning curve I go through every time I take the bloody thing out, seems I'm not using it enough to remember the lessons.....

I need to get MUCH better before I can build a canopy for my Suzuki though.....