Armory Sponsor
Posted: 9/22/2015 10:47:28 AM EDT
|
Too a One-day basic Forging/Make a Railroad Spike Knife class on Sunday
Just after heat treat and Temper, Mine is 2nd from the right 
Finished, all 5 from the class 
Mine, both sides. I still have cleanup to do, a lot of emery work to get the grinding marks from the blade to where I want them, but how is it for a first effort?? 
|
|
Quoted:
How did they turn out? How was the class? Sorry for the Android Potato pics 
All 5 turned out pretty decently, we had a good group. Myself, a Teenager, an ER Doc/Surgeon from Manhatten, and a Dude and his Girlfriend (Asian, Cute BIG Cans, No Pics) Everyone did pretty well, one of the Instructors stepped in to help the girl do some of the heavier hammering, having her Strike, then him hitting the same spot..that said, it was mostly a matter of strength on the hammer, otherwise she kept up pretty well. The Instructors were worried about one, the guy drew the blade out a lot longer and thinner than I did (Surgeon, go figure), they were afraid he was going to cook off the tip during Hardening and Tempering, he was smart and let them do that bit for him to keep it protected. All of the knives turned out pretty well, all were serviceable. The Class was good, we started out doing some basic forge work, drawing out small (1/4 in) stock and making S Hooks. I started first on the Spike, it went into the forge at around 10:45, and I was done with the Forging, Cutting and Twisting in a little over an hour and ten min. Next time, Im going to do the slits myself, I didnt really like how they came out, although it doesnt show in the pics. Also, Next time, i'm going to grind the whole thing clean before the quench, the Scale on the grip portion is just being a stone bitch to get clean between the Mill Scale already there and the baked on oil Schmutz from the quench, it just sucks. On the blade itself, i screwed up the edge grind a bit,. it has a shelf on it instead of a clean angle..but I can get that cleaned up with Emery paper and elbow grease . It's sharp now, but i need to refine it a touch, but I'll hold off until i get the grind marks out, Im leaving in a couple of hammer marks just to give it some character, and I'm going to make a Sheath for it in the next week or so, I just need to get the materials. The Instructors bot liked it, and aid I did a decent job, but I figured that anything even remotely fiunctional would be regarded as a
Pass" All in All, It was WELL worth the $185 cost of the class. Similar classes here in NJ, were costing almost twice as much for a one day and a 2 Day from the place here was $500 as opposed for a 2-Day worksop where I went ($325) Anybody in the NY/NJ area who is interested, the website is She-Weld.com (Left cold) The woman who runs it does a lot of different metal working classes, Smithing and Welding and different materials. |
|
Quoted:
Very cool and money well spent. This is an excellent skill, even if at the entry amateur level...the blade turned out very functional and good looking. Trial and error can be more expensive than a single day class you wisely invested in... ROCK6 I had watched a shitload of Youtube videos, and done reading, I've been looking into giving this a try for a while, I happened across the class by accident and pretty much everything just fell right. It was actually somewhat easier than I had expected, and it wasnt hard learning to judge color, I only overcooked it once, and lost about 3/16 of the original tip which is why it ended up a little blunt, the Grinding took about 3 times longer than the forging, but i had left a lot of meat to work with... Ill probably do the 2 day to get a little more instructed hammer time, although i may or may not have some feelers out for a piece of railroad track for an Anvil, and im trying to find a local source for Kaowool, and G-23 bricks
|
sweet
Armory Sponsor