Recent content by Michael Kemp

Thanks!

Here's some photos of my first pattern-welded blade - a kitchen utility knife for my personal use. 1095/15N20. Brass furnishings. Mosaic pin by Sally Martin at CustomKnife dot com. Maple handle finished in coconut oil. I've had the blade profile rattling around my brain for years (for a kitchen...

I use a cheap & finniky process with an old-style laser printer and Blue Press-N-Peel that can be a $#&*@# to get to work right but gives me a good range of freedom. Ink jet printer won't work - has to be laser-jet - let me know if you want any details on that. Re: Stencils - At the local club...

Another beauty, John!

I used one for years (hobby, not full time) and was quite happy with it - I agree on the comment about mounting the contact wheel overhanging your bench if you got the 10" wheel. 1-1/2 hp worked fine for me but more would have been better. My *only* issue ever with it was some cheap belts did...

Tai Goo - around 1000-900f I lost any hint of a red glow. This is inside a vertical forge I just built with doors in place that left only a 2"x3" access hole - this is in my "forging shed" set in Western Oregon woods - so even on a sunny day there's no direct sunlight. Anything that sits...

Kevin - the pyrometer may not hit the exact degree F - but it's a monster step forward for me - my previous forge had huge temp variation w/in the forge - the new one is much more even. To give you a reference - up to now my temp control has consisted of setting a ceramics firing cone or two in...

Thanks - I plan to play with a magnet and careful temp control sometime this week - !**! it's nice to have an actual pyrometer in the new forge - to get a better feel of the heat-up and cool-down transition between non-magnetic and magnetic. Doug... Kevin... Tia Goo... Bubba-San... Thanks...

Magnetic temp - OK - I'm confused - I thought steel went non-magnetic at in the 1420-1675f range regardless of the phase the steel was in - due to some arcane issue with Fe atom's electron's state above that temp. Am I wrong? Is magnetism based on steel phase?

Yessir - Macallan for the special occasion!

It needs some tweaking - but I'm glad to be at the "usable" stage. This forge gives me more even heat than my 1st propane forge - and is portable - and is marginally hotter (that's where I'll be tweaking and tuning). Here's the WIP - let me know if you are interested in details or costs. (hover...

Mark - thanks! To be honest - most of the price difference is between K type (2400F max) and R type (3000F max) thermocouples... Omega carries both (and more) - but Auberins also carried a nice low-cost battery powered readout - so I went with Auberins. Thanks again!

I'm building my 2nd propane forge - this one's more for forge welding - and I asked the folks at Omega what they'd recommend, given the temp range for forge welding. They came back with these: http://www.omega.com/pptst/DPi_Series.html http://www.omega.com/pptst/RAT_SAT_BAT.html which add up...

Thanks all! (if you saw it up close you'd notice some flaws - but I'm happy with it)

Wayne Goddard brings cured bamboo to 5160 Club meetings every so often and challenges us to use them in a piece. I wanted to try making a dagger so decided to make it a learning experience. The 1st try at the blade went into the "Oops!" drawer - the "waist" design means continuously changing the...