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DevinT

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I have not done anything creative for months. I still do not have the okay from the doctor to work, and I have lots of work that I owe folks, however, I need to make something without obligation. I apologize to those that I owe things.

The project that I have in mind is this: make a knife from salvaged material that would be something of value and very cool. I know several makers that like being green and using stuff that can be recycled. I have a 5 foot ring of wrought iron weighing 200# that was salvaged from a piece of equipment that was used in an old mine near here. Before the days of mild steel, they made and used wrought iron. It is made by getting iron to a semi molten state and creating a large ball of sponge iron mixed with some silica slag. They would squeeze this down and forge weld it onto itself multiple times to remove some of the slag and impurities. The result was a stringy iron bar with about 2% silica. Because the iron is nearly pure, it does rust but does not become cancerous like mild steel. They used wrought iron for anything structural, pipe. wagon wheel rims, mining equipment etc. If you look around it can be found today.We'll forge this out for the cladding on a sanmai blade.

The core material (pictured on top of the ring) came from the old Western Cutlery Co. that went from 1911 to 1984. They were based in Colorado and made fixed and folding sporting knives. I'm not sure if they made any kitchen knives. The steel is a grade that was developed specifically for knives and cutlery. It is known as 1095CV or 50100 and is still used by CASE and others for their carbon steel knives today. It is 1095 with the addition of chrome and vanadium. A knife maker close by picked it up as scrap and I got some from him 20 years ago.

I think that the profile will be the same as the Forgecraft. I like this idea because Forgecraft made their first knives from salvaged saw blades that had the recognizable pattern rolled into the surface to help keep the blade running cool at the saw mill.

We'll do a little every day. Not sure how long it'll take. Pic's are of the ring, cutting a small piece, and welding a tang so that we can forge it out.

More on the handle later.

Love and respect

Hoss

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Devin's giving some forgecraft love. Can't wait. If I had the dough, I'd commission one for myself.
lol
have fun, take it easy.
 
too cool. I'm looking forward to seeing the progression. thanks for sharing.
 
Interesting project Hoss! Happy to see you doing something purely for passion.
 
I think some of the best knives comes from these experiments. Way to go Devin! I know you have been itching to make a knife for a long time.

M
 
Cool man. Just glad you are feeling well enough to get moving even if it's just a little bit. You go a bit crazy when you haven't created anything in awhile.

Best Regards,
Rick
 
Love the action pic with the Hoss glove

Hoss= Funky Boss
Hoss=Awesome sauce
Hoss=money floss
Hoss=Golden Gloss

I don't have anything in the works by Devin, but I wanna see him get back in action again so bad!
 
Thanks everyone.

Love and respect

Hoss
 
Trouble!

The force of the rolling mill split the wrought iron right down the middle.

Hoss

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That Darth Vader boot is screwing up your Chi!
How long till you get that thang off Hoss?
 
:curse: Does that mean this piece of metal is kaput? Restart with a new piece?

If you get slag on your footwear, it'll be harder to fool the Dr.!
 
I'll re-forge it and mix it with some other old wrought iron, we'll be fine. As for the foot , I just put that photo in there for sympathy.

Hoss
 
Nice, I'm following along on this one.

Hey Devin, if it was your other foot could you still work the treadle as good with your left?
 
I knew I learned something in forging and forming.

 
Nice, I'm following along on this one.

Hey Devin, if it was your other foot could you still work the treadle as good with your left?

Left foot, blind folded, while sleeping.

Thanks Dave,

Hoss
 
I knew I learned something in forging and forming.


It happened just like the diagram. I've had this happen before, always does it when there is a weak vertical weld near the middle. It can usually be prevented by arc welding the end before it is rolled.

Thanks son
 
@Larrin, I don't quite understand the explanation. There's not much width growth while rolling. The strain seems to be because the center stays hotter longer and grows faster than the edges causing it to split like it did. In diagram (a) it shows the strain opposite from my experience.

Dad
 
Good to see you back at it Devin, go slow and have fun. Looking forward to this one as well!!
 
Most of my rolling is with non ferrous metals, butt I see quite a bit of width growth when rolling.
 
Most of my rolling is with non ferrous metals, butt I see quite a bit of width growth when rolling.

Before I rolled it, it measured 4" x 7 1/2", after rolling it measured 4" x 9 1/2" not counting the split. There was no detectable growth in width as apposed to ~22% in length.

Hoss
 
Typically there is little increase in the width in rolling. Oftentimes it is zero. With thick pieces you can have spreading, however.
 
@Larrin, I don't quite understand the explanation. There's not much width growth while rolling. The strain seems to be because the center stays hotter longer and grows faster than the edges causing it to split like it did. In diagram (a) it shows the strain opposite from my experience.

Dad
The reason that the ends of the bar are round is because the center lengthens more than the edges. This is from more than the just the center staying hot, it's related to the "friction hill" that is mentioned in the section I posted. This difference creates the tension in the edges.
 
Because they are not equally distributed.

-AJ

I was hoping there would be an interesting answer...but I didn't understand it. inhomogeneity = evenly distributed differences and heterogeneity = non-evenly distributed differences?
 
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