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For what it's worth I was reading the news on the web and they sited an incident that happened last June. It happened at a Caterpillar in Illinois when a worker fell into a vat of molten iron. OSHA fined Caterpillar over $140,000. They said that the crucible was over 2000°, but if it was...

I have gotten two antique (pre-1890) khurkuris from Atlanta Cutlery Corp. Sadly I missed out on a third knife that was on clearance. Anyway, both of the knives that I have are coated with gunk that probably started out as packing grease. I figure that I can clean the blades with a degreaser...

I just finished Kevin Cashen's video on heat treating. I can't recommend it highly enough. It answers in detail the various elements of heat treating including selection of steels and quenchants and many other issues. Doug

Kevin, this is for you as you asked. You posted that 52100 needs to be spherodized, due to it's chromium content which it will do better than 1095. I guess what through me is it wasn't clear what would be better than 1095. Doug

Dang, get gone for about a month and everthing gets changed. I even had to reload the site into my bookmarks. Doug:confused:

I just got a reply to email that I sent to Admiral Steel yesterday. They no longer stock 9260 spring steel. I don't know of any other supplier in the US who sells in small quantities. My understanding from our members in Great Britain is that they have a hard time finding EN45, their...

Having spent the last two days straightening blades that warped during the post hardening grind, I've got a question. My method was to clamp the blades to angle iron with C clamps while shimming them with pennies and heating the blades at just below the tempering temperature for 90 minutes...

I've go two hidden tang knives that I'm grinding now and should have ready for heat treating by the end of the week. Here's my question. Would it be better not to quench the part of the tang where it joins the ricasso or not? I know that if I hold the tang out of the quenchant that the tang...

I made two test knives from 52100 to test heat treating methods that I have been using. Knife A was 10.75" OAL with a 6.5 X1.5X3/16" blade. It was heated to just above non-magnetic in a forge running at about 1550-1600° and taken in and out of the fire for a few seconds at a time to keep the...

This was the knife that I was making for the recent KITH until I had trouble with installing the spur on the side of the guard. The blade is 11.5" with an OAL of 16.5". The blade was forged from 52100 and the furnature from 1" rebar. The scales are cut from Elk leg bone and have been dyed a...

Above is a destructive test of the knife pictured on the right. It was a spear point, single edged blade with an integral bolster forged from 3/4" 52100 rod and austempered at 430 degrees for four hours. I kind of screwed up the design so it got volunteered for testing. It passed the wire...

One of the steels that I work with is 9260 and not too long ago it was pointed out to me that it was a steel that would display a quench line or hamon with clay quenching. So I decided to make a test blade with it and give the technique a try. The blade below was forged, given a rough grind...

Here are two new knives that I made a few weeks ago. Both are from 52100 with black and tan G10 handles held one with cutler's rivets. They were polished out wth a satin finish. They've both been in use for a bit and have started to develope a patina. The Chef's knife is about 12" OAL and...

Above is my new(ist) anvil. It's an 87lb block of H13 that I purchased from a steel warehouse that was selling it's cut-offs on Ebay. The deminsions are 8.25X7.25X4.25". I was a little worried when I got it because it seemed a little soft and didn't have a ring. I'm sure my neighbors don't...

It's a small thing but I just got over a hurdle that has been bugging me for a while. This visually seeing when a piece of steel changes appearance as the steel austinizes. I've been looking for that "shaddow" that passes across the steel as it warms up as I heat treat going "ya, right" all...

These are the last two knives that I finished for my first knife show this weekend. They're both so similiar that I was able to use the same pattern to make the sheaths. The OAL's are 15". The blades are 10" long with a 9" edge, 2" wide and 1/4" thick at the ricasso and 2 1/4" wide and 3/16"...

The top two knives are basically the same, both sort of pattern after Nesmuc knives from 9260, differentially hardened with a clay coat and tempered at 400* for 3 two hour cycles. The OAL's are approx 10" with 6" blades 1 1/2" wide and 3/16" thick at the handle with a distal taper. The...

There will be a knife show in Mt. Vernon, IL on November 5-6th this year that hasn't made the knife mags yet. It might be a nice opportunity for the area knife makers to get together. I have permission from the coordinator to post contact information. Contact: Nancy & Larry Hancock...

The first sheath is Ostrich leather glued over a veg tan leather backing and laced with a basket weave pattern. The Ostrich leather was originally a different shade of brown but I overstained it to match the rest of the sheath better. This lacing came off better than the first time that I...

This first one is the first double edged straight dagger that I've done. Also the first blade that I put a collar on. The OAL is 8.5" with a blade 4.25" from the guard, 1.25" wide and 1/8" thick at the ricasso. Brass handle, mossiac pin, and copper collar. The coffin handle is out of sattin...