My Old Landy
Engineering Mayhem
- Messages
- 3,334
- Location
- North Lincs
That looks cool 
- Thread starter h-dom
- Start date
I know a few watch this thread so I'll put my question here rather than start a new thread. Have a look at this:
It is a first go at a "Viking" style folder. You see those three brass pins sticking up proud? Obviously there will be four once I have filled that hole with another.
I want to pein them over. I have tried this once and it didn't go well at all! What are the rules? I thought:
Anneal the brass with heat and water.
Countersink the holes slightly?
How much pin do I leave proud? 1/2/3mm?
Ball pein hammer on a hard surface?
Can I file excess material off?
I am going to do a batch of heat treats tomorrow as the temperature is dropping slightly. I didn't fancy firing the forge up when it is already 30+ degrees!
TIA.
It is a first go at a "Viking" style folder. You see those three brass pins sticking up proud? Obviously there will be four once I have filled that hole with another.
I want to pein them over. I have tried this once and it didn't go well at all! What are the rules? I thought:
Anneal the brass with heat and water.
Countersink the holes slightly?
How much pin do I leave proud? 1/2/3mm?
Ball pein hammer on a hard surface?
Can I file excess material off?
I am going to do a batch of heat treats tomorrow as the temperature is dropping slightly. I didn't fancy firing the forge up when it is already 30+ degrees!
TIA.
h-dom
Member
- Messages
- 593
- Location
- Lincs
Having never done that I would do as you suggested, countersink the holes slightly, peen one side before it goes in, flat surface peen the other side and yes file or grind the excess off. What as your process when it didn't go well?
As you mentioned heat treats I have a question with a possible answer. You mentioned on the previous page you had hand sanded to 1200g ready for heat treatment. Whenever I hear treat I do it from a rough grind knowing I am going to get scale and decarb and the finish will be ruined anyway. Then I finish grind and hand sand after heat treat. I have tried fluxing before heat treat to prevent the build up of scale and although it was a minor improvement it was minimal. Yesterday I heat treated another Damascus knife and I had ground it to almost finished. Knowing I didn't have much material left to play with I did some research and found someone giving a good soak of wd40 as flux when setting a Damascus billet. I thought I would try it so gave the knife a good spray all over, then put it in the forge. All through three normalising cycles and then the final heat treat there was no build up of scale and the finish was still bang on after I cleaned off the oil. Might be worth a try or if anyone has any other suggestions please chime in.
As you mentioned heat treats I have a question with a possible answer. You mentioned on the previous page you had hand sanded to 1200g ready for heat treatment. Whenever I hear treat I do it from a rough grind knowing I am going to get scale and decarb and the finish will be ruined anyway. Then I finish grind and hand sand after heat treat. I have tried fluxing before heat treat to prevent the build up of scale and although it was a minor improvement it was minimal. Yesterday I heat treated another Damascus knife and I had ground it to almost finished. Knowing I didn't have much material left to play with I did some research and found someone giving a good soak of wd40 as flux when setting a Damascus billet. I thought I would try it so gave the knife a good spray all over, then put it in the forge. All through three normalising cycles and then the final heat treat there was no build up of scale and the finish was still bang on after I cleaned off the oil. Might be worth a try or if anyone has any other suggestions please chime in.
I got a tub of some sort of compound from Ground Flat Stock. I guess it is some sort of ceramic in suspension. I keep meaning to see if it will give me a hamon pattern but haven't got around to it yet.
I got it because I was being plagued with scale. Dragon skin scale it was called and it was so bad it almost looked like a Damascus pattern but of course, wouldn't clean up.
I now know that this was probably down to me pre heating the quench oil too much. I still use the same oil, (Crisp 'n Dry) but now have a bit more of it. I also use a smaller piece of scrap to preheat the oil. I still use the coating as well just because I have it!
Scale is not anywhere near as bad. Once I have cleaned it off, I can go straight to tempering cycles and can see the colour pretty well. This time, I'm going to do at least one normalising cycle as well. I'll show the results here.
I got it because I was being plagued with scale. Dragon skin scale it was called and it was so bad it almost looked like a Damascus pattern but of course, wouldn't clean up.
I now know that this was probably down to me pre heating the quench oil too much. I still use the same oil, (Crisp 'n Dry) but now have a bit more of it. I also use a smaller piece of scrap to preheat the oil. I still use the coating as well just because I have it!
Scale is not anywhere near as bad. Once I have cleaned it off, I can go straight to tempering cycles and can see the colour pretty well. This time, I'm going to do at least one normalising cycle as well. I'll show the results here.
h-dom
Member
- Messages
- 593
- Location
- Lincs
I've just heat treated this one, it's now in the oven tempering. I hand sanded to 150g before hardening and you can see there is barely any of the dragon scale. Soaked in wd40 before going into the forge and it went into a cold forge. Quenched in vegetable oil.
h-dom
Member
- Messages
- 593
- Location
- Lincs
Here's that knife above all finished and the first sheath I've made, it's not great but it fits snugly. I tried something new by using HDPE for the handle, I'm struggling to get a good finish on it even sanded up to 1000g, I've ordered some blue buffing compound and I'll give it a go when it arrives. Stainless pins.
My Old Landy
Engineering Mayhem
- Messages
- 3,334
- Location
- North Lincs
Looking very smart, I like the simple sheath. Excellent work
Well, that went badly. I did a normalising cycle and I could hear the coating ping off and cracking as it cooled. I should have cleaned the blades and stuck another coat on.
Got some dragon skin scaling. Getting very fed up with this game. Going to have to start again at 180 grit. Working without power, it'll only take a short eternity!
Got some dragon skin scaling. Getting very fed up with this game. Going to have to start again at 180 grit. Working without power, it'll only take a short eternity!
Guess what? 180 wasn't enough. Have had to start at 120. Ah well. Once the scale is off and I'm back to smooth metal, going up to 2000 won't be too terrible. Hope my fingers don't bleed again!
Thought you might like a pic of the heat:
Going from left to right we have a bushcraft clone, a simple chisel made from a dead rasp and a hunting knife. This must have been the normalising cycle as I let the oil cool slightly before doing the hunting knife as the bushy and chisel had already been into it.
Thought you might like a pic of the heat:
Going from left to right we have a bushcraft clone, a simple chisel made from a dead rasp and a hunting knife. This must have been the normalising cycle as I let the oil cool slightly before doing the hunting knife as the bushy and chisel had already been into it.
A rare bit of knife making success. The folding knife above has been finnished with a peining hammer and bolt. Once I'm happy, I'll use some thread lock on the bolt.
Next time, I need to have the pin holes slightly less close to the edge. Peining is quite brutal (or, I was) and you can see a little distortion on the edge of the scales. Not too sure about the aluminium either.
Closed not too bulky. I kept the flipper small. Opened up:
I carefully kept the overall blade length under 75mm. With it not locking, it is legal in the UK. Just need to sharpen it now.
Future evolutions might be a pocket clip, different scale material and maybe a mini Tanto blade style? Knowing the design and dimensions work is good.
I think next time,mix will use a piece cut from a drinks tin as a shim when I pein the pin closest to the blade pivot. It was mighty tight using the blade as a spacer. I had to file some room. I might get some thin shim brass or something.
Next time, I need to have the pin holes slightly less close to the edge. Peining is quite brutal (or, I was) and you can see a little distortion on the edge of the scales. Not too sure about the aluminium either.
Closed not too bulky. I kept the flipper small. Opened up:
I carefully kept the overall blade length under 75mm. With it not locking, it is legal in the UK. Just need to sharpen it now.
Future evolutions might be a pocket clip, different scale material and maybe a mini Tanto blade style? Knowing the design and dimensions work is good.
I think next time,mix will use a piece cut from a drinks tin as a shim when I pein the pin closest to the blade pivot. It was mighty tight using the blade as a spacer. I had to file some room. I might get some thin shim brass or something.
pedrobedro
Man at Matalan
- Messages
- 12,985
- Location
- CX near Chesterfield
I've experimented with folders and made a couple just tinkering in the shed. I've thought about flipper style knives but never got round to trying one, that looks very doable. Nice project.
Screwdriver
Member
- Messages
- 10,549
I start sanding right down to 60-80. If you have enough paper to go up through the grits I find it goes rather quickly. The other point is of course, being a tightarse, I cut my sheets into 3x1 inch (ish) and use windex/WD40 or somesuch. Each sheet is only going to give half a dozen good strong grinds before the grit is exhausted and I do swap them out very often. Otherwise once the grit is dull, you're effectively burnishing and wasting valuable time and fingers.
I keep them when they are dulled of course for more general purpose use.
pedrobedro
Man at Matalan
- Messages
- 12,985
- Location
- CX near Chesterfield
One I did a few years ago for a project someone was running from Sheffield University. They showed you how to make a knife and you made one and sent it in to them. This was my second attempt and was a tiny pen knife only about 3" long altogether.
Parm
Respect The Sound System
- Messages
- 17,900
- Location
- Towcester
yes please. Im often down in Barnstaple
Mma man
Member
- Messages
- 134
- Location
- Devon uk
Let me no when budy and we will arrange it
Parm
Respect The Sound System
- Messages
- 17,900
- Location
- Towcester
Thanks
