I am watching

It was only the left eye on page 70.:eek::eek::D

Hey I took that picture of myself. Maybe should have shaved first. Erik Fritz has that real knife maker look. I need a hat of some kind to help with my identity crisis.

Have you worked on the chain knife? I havent had a chance but if you screw yours up I can sell you my billet:D
 
Hey I took that picture of myself. Maybe should have shaved first. Erik Fritz has that real knife maker look. I need a hat of some kind to help with my identity crisis.

Have you worked on the chain knife? I havent had a chance but if you screw yours up I can sell you my billet:D

BB, how many years were you bugging me for the primary chain off my 1947 Indian??? Around 8 years wasn't it?? It will probably be that long for me to get back into the groove for making a knife.:( I still haven't done anything with the billet with Helen's ashes in it.unsure
 
BB, how many years were you bugging me for the primary chain off my 1947 Indian??? Around 8 years wasn't it?? It will probably be that long for me to get back into the groove for making a knife.:( I still haven't done anything with the billet with Helen's ashes in it.unsure

Geo, I see you have hammer ins at your place all the time. You must be still working on knives arent ya?
Maybe you should leave Helens billet as is until the right inspiration comes along, meanwhile grind out something for spending money.
 
Geo, I see you have hammer ins at your place all the time. You must be still working on knives arent ya?
Maybe you should leave Helens billet as is until the right inspiration comes along, meanwhile grind out something for spending money.

Yep!!! I hear ya Bro.;)
 
Yep!!! I hear ya Bro.;)

I'm thinking about doing a tutorial on my half of your Indian chain billet. I have beginning forging/cannister pictures from before and can continue here all the way to a finished boot knife. What do ya think? It should be a good thread.


Here is the first picture I have.

This is the primary chain from Indian Georges 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle. I've been wanting it for years so finially Geo said I could have it to forge into a couple billets and he could have half.

So here it is:

Cleaning the excess oil off. Its not neccesary to clean it sqeeky clean. In fact a little kerosene soak would actually aid in the forge welding.

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I made a thin wall mild steel box and lid. I lined it with used stainless steel foil. Used foil is oxydized and wont allow the contents of the box to weld to it. I need to remove the foil after I forge weld it and its easy if it doesnt weld itself to the chain.
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With the chain nicely tucked into the lined box I mig welded the lid on and filled the box up to the top with pure nickel powder metal and welded the rest of the seams closed except for a tiny pinhole to allow internal gasses to escape. Without the small vent hole it could balloon from the internal expansion caused from the heat.
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In the forge it goes. This picture shows the forge not up to welding heat (2300 f) yet. A nice lemon yellow color is about the right heat to forge weld. I do use a pyrometer in my forge so I can be more exact than my eye for correct heat for forging and welding.
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Here is the box at welding temperature. Look at that pretty lemon color (almost white). Into my press it goes with the squaring dies. The square dies will weld it from all four sides at once.
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After its welded a couple times with the squaring dies I begin to draw it out and flatten it on flat dies. It is welded inside but the box is loose on it and bowed out. Thats a good sign that the stainless foil has done its job and didnt allow the box to weld to the chain.
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I ground the corners off the box and opened it up. The stainless foil peeled off easily and revealed the chain and pure nickel billet inside.
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With the mild steel box gone now I can forge the contents to size.
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I clean it up on the grinder
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I shaped it on the grinder and cut some grooves into it. I plan to weld a 1095 powder steel edge on it.
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So back into another mild steel box but this time filled with fine grain 1095 powder steel.
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If there is any trapped air inside I put a business card inside the box and it will burn up and use up the trapped air. Air is a bad thing in forge welding.
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