Started with a 5/8' brand new Coil spring from a Jeep. Started at 12" but now that she is hammered out its about 28" WOW
I have ground the blade to 120grit so that is nice.
I have been heating to almost red and then leaving in propane forge overnight until I am ready to work again. It might help, it might not. But it makes me feel like I am doing something like a normalization or something.
the forge is only big enough to hold the blade part in it, so...
I am going to get a bucket of kitty litter(clay)(new) and some wood ash from the grill and use that to hold for overnight.
so the next steps are to heat to critical, then I am torn between quenching it all in water or if I want to just quench the cutting edge in water and let the rest air cool and kind of temper itself some.
I left the front edge about 1/8" so I still have some grinding to do.
Thoughts?
Hello Greg and welcome. The main issue is you do not know what the steel is other than coil spring. Could be a number of steels. I would say play it safe and do not quench in water unless you want to lose your hard work. Get some canola oil and use that. Heat the canola to 120 to 130. Much safer than water. Unless you have a lot of experience using water as a quenchant, you will probably be looking at a visit from the crack fairy.
Let us know how it goes.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
Well I didnt have anything large enough for the blade of it, so I got a cake pan and filled it so about 3/8" of the 1 1/8" blade was in the canola. It hissed and such but the file didnt skate well. so I tried again, nothing. So I tried again to non magnetic and did in water, it skated more but not as much as I get from other metals... hmm. sure does spark all fine and far with the grinder belts though.
Will go with it for now but not as thrilled as I would like to be. No tinks or warps so that was a first for such thin metal.
I got her bent for handles and will grind it up some and go for a wall hanger at worst.
Will weld up a 2" square tube for dipping next time and make it longer then I can get a better quench.
Thanks for the help and will post a pict when done with the grinding.
Off to make a BBQ fork from a RR spike and see where it goes from there. How does Xmas gifts only come to mind in Dec?
So the draw knife seems done, just needs some handles and a final sharpening on the stones. Think its good, but will see how the edge holds.
Also got a BBQ knife and fork set done too.
