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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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  #1  
Old 05-07-2008, 02:21 PM
1Armadillo 1Armadillo is offline
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What happened?

My first attempt at blade making utilized an old cold chisel as a billet. After figuring out that a higher heat was necessary, the forging went pretty well, except that I noticed what appeared shallow cracks on both sides of the blade after it was annealed. I was able to grind these out, but the question is, what caused this to happen?
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Old 05-07-2008, 03:50 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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The first issue is using a unknown steel. Theres no telling what type of steel you were forging on. From what you describe, it sounds as if the chisel might be some type of cheap cast material....likely not something that would make a decent blade.

It might seem like the thing to do to start off with odds and ends you find for blade stock, but your really digging yourself a hole. Without knowing the specific type of steel, the only way to figure out if it will work for a blade is to do A LOT of experimenting, and then its all wasted time unless you have a huge supply of whatever your trying to use.

Although steel prices are high, its still fairly cheap to get yourself some known material so your not wasting your time playing guessing games.


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Old 05-07-2008, 10:38 PM
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chiger chiger is offline
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Armo,

Mr. Caffrey is giving you good advise. Sounds like you have used a low carbon steel and the surface cracks may be a result of the carbon hardening on the surface from carbon trapped during forging. I'm not a metallurgist, but I had a guy that is tell me that it can happen.

You can order a short piece of W-1 round bar online pretty cheaply and it is a know quantity. The stuff is predictable as the sun coming up. And makes a great knife. Heck, buy or find a big old Nicholson file and beat that into a blade. Most better files are W-1 tool steel.

chiger,
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Old 05-08-2008, 08:31 AM
1Armadillo 1Armadillo is offline
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I know you guys are right about learning the working characteristics of a particular type of steel before preceeding, and that is the direction I plan to take. But the truth of the matter is that I didn't have anythig else at the time and wanted something to forge just for the sake of practice. And, I learned from the experience, so it wasn't a total waste.
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