Congratulations to Jon Christensen!!

Jon came to the shop this weekend and took his ABS JS test..................He passed with flying colors!! I
I did my best to drag him along, but being the great guy that he is, Jon took it all in stride. I was going to post a couple of pics. but maybe we should let Jon do that!

Looks like my streak of failed JS tests might be over!

Congrats to Jon on passing the test, ya did great Pal!

Congratulations Jon - bring your test knife and a new rope cutter when you come to the hammer-in!

Jon,
Congratulations! Could you please share your methods, preparations, etc.? I'll be testing in April and would really appreciate it.

Thanks,

John

Congratulations, Jon. Maybe I'll pass this year also.

Thanks guys,
It sure is a relief to have that part finished. Now I gotta get ready for the Or. show.
John, not sure what to tell you. I do basically the same procedure that Ed outlined on his webpage. The one thing that really stands out to me is the thermal cycling. You have to prepare that blade for heat treatment. This is just as important as the hardening process.
Also make two blades together, doing everything the same, this way when they're finished you can test one and be assured that the other will perform as well. And TEST TEST TEST, destroy as many blades as you can before the real test. I guaranteee you that you'll learn alot after each set of blades, I definately did. See ya on Paltalk.
Good Luck!
Jon

All right Jon!

Glad to hear you've got that under your belt now!

Nick

Congratulations Jon ! I'm sure no luck was involved, just hard work. See ya.
Alden

We are really happy for you Jon keep up the good work , see you on palltalk .

Thanks Jon,

Sorry I haven't been on Paltalk lately, getting home real late from school, etc.

I went through a 5160 blade tonight. Tempered at 350 the edge near the ricasso was a bit soft, though the rest was okay. I think due to the shape of blade and handle--slight kukri shape with downward curving handle--the edge quench worked better towards the front. I think this is a combination of blade shape and cooling of the blade near the ricasso before I could get it into the quench. This is because I was so paranoid about bending the thing to 90 that I only tried to quench about 3/8" of the blade.

Anyway, shaving and chopping were no problem, and, because this blade was a bit under-hardened or over-tempered, I had to bend it to 90 and beyond about 6 times to get it to break so I could look at the grain.

The next blade was quenched to about 5/8" and I'll be testing/destroying that soon. Next I'm going to do one closer to a full inch; the 5160 was so tough and flexible I think I should be able to get away with it.

John

Looking good Jon. You must really be proud and I am really proud for you. Truly a banner day for you.