Harley Chain My Way

With a surface grinder you are only grinding a small amount with each pass. I think the scalloped belts are great for that as they don't have a sharp edge and blend well. Plus they were cheap as they are only 1" wide not many buyers on ebay. I'm always looking for 1 x 72" coarse belts. These scalloped belts are 100 grit and don't last long hogging it off like this. I went through 4 or 5 to make all this steel wool.
Bruce,

Any particular reason for a scalloped belt on the surface grinder ? I've always just used regular belts.

Thanks buddy,

-Josh
 
Hey guys, sorry for the delay.
I forged Laurences bar out from just under 1/2" thick to just over 1/4" thick and ran it through some heat cycles in my forge and then again in my digital oven. The steel at welding heat has very large grain size and if left that way the blade would be easy to break. It needs to be "normalized" To reduce the grain size. I heated the bar in the forge to just above non-magnetic and let it cool until the red color was gone and repeated this 3 times and let it cool to room temp. Next I put the bar in my EvenHeat digital oven and heat it to 1500f and let the oven shut down to around 900f. I repeated this twice and the third and last heat was for annealing, up to 1350f and held for 1 hour and turned off for the night. Now the steel is normalized and annealed. Laurence can cut it with a butter knife, well a bandsaw anyway.

Here are some final shots just before it went in the mail back to Laurence.

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This looks like a fun piece to work with - I have really enjoyed this thread.

Thanks Steve,
Well its up to Laurence now. Lets see what he does with this bar of chain. It shows all the pins in these shots but when the bevels are ground in the plates will show up.
 
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I think you should invent a pair of magnets that cover a makers nose. Wouldn't that be nice to stop metal dust? They could be light weight and hang off a pair of safety glasses. You'll make a million bucks. You have time now to work on it. :)

Bad idea, just ask Navin R. Johnson! :)
 
Thanks Steve,
Well its up to Laurence now. Lets see what he does with this bar of chain.

Bruce,
That steel looks fantastic and its even better watching you go through all of the steps and explaining it as well.
I feel a Bowie type knife coming on? Rhino style of course, I hope I can do half the job of making a WIP here for everyone that my Friend Bruce has.
 
Aww, The Jerk with Steve Martin. I love that old movie. My favorite part was his family. Remember the new house they had built? It looked exactly like the old house only bigger. :) Navin just needed a better lawyer
Bad idea, just ask Navin R. Johnson! :)

The trouble with respirators is it takes extra effort to breathe through them. Do that all day and it takes a toll on your system. Our son Brian works in a glass environment and talked the company owner into buying the forced air pack system (can't remember correct name for it) and he loves it now but for us guys that just have steel in the air and stand at a grinder this just may work. It won't work for handle material and stainless but anything ferris.
I need to see what I'm doing and a hood and visor doesn't allow good enough vision for me. I wear prescription safety glasses.
 
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Bruce,
I found a great non- positive air resperator. Res-O-Rator, Model JR-7 on Amazon. Can't beat these for visibility & comfort. Don,t use the nose plug, just don't breathe through your nose and keep your jaw together like you are snorkeling or Scuba diving.that I

OK! I have received the super cool Harley c
chain Damascus and it looks like a 12" Bowie blade may be in order?

image.jpg I've had this wild block of stabilized & dyed maple that I had done a few years back that is a orange/red color and may bolster it with some black Acrylic MOP I have.

HHMMMM? Going to have to give some thought as to if I want this to be a clip point or a Searles point Bowie blade?
any suggestions?image.jpg Cool looking Damascus Bruce made.image.jpg
 
Hey Guys,
Yeah I'm still around, laying in wait for another wonderful Bruce BumpnWIP! And this one is extra special because it's a 2 part WIP, with the BRUCE AND Laurence! Makes me so happy, I could cry! We'll, that might be a little over the top, but I am really happy!!!

Laurence,
So sorry to hear that your closing your shop and selling off a lot of equipment, my advice would be to keep a bare minimum of things needed to make a knife! Even though the body may say no, the mind is so much stronger, once you learn to tap into that power, you will be able to make knives again, although it may be a much more limited schedule.
I too have been dealing with a lot of physical problems, Degenerative Disk Disease, Vertabrates that are bone on bone with several bone spurs on them, and a couple bulging disks that are inoperable. So I'm pretty much stuck, either suck it up and try to see if I can get my mind away from the pain, and into a knife, or the status quo, pain. It is never the same, sometimes I go out to the shop and stay for 3 or 4 good working hours, sometimes I piddle around for 20 minutes and go back inside, it's never the same! BUT! Having that ability to make a knife if you decided to, is much better than wishing and wanting some of the equipment you had to come back! I wish you the best and much success in this next phase of your life!

Oh and Bruce, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE GRANDBABY!!!!

Looking forward to more of this thread, Rex
 
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