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  1. Michael Kemp

    Random Pattern Kitchen Utillity w Maple Handle

    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...
  2. Michael Kemp

    Making the Mark.

    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...
  3. Michael Kemp

    new chef blade

    Another beauty, John!
  4. Michael Kemp

    Coote grinder users?

    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...
  5. Michael Kemp

    Normalizing - how far to cool

    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...
  6. Michael Kemp

    Normalizing - how far to cool

    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...
  7. Michael Kemp

    Normalizing - how far to cool

    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...
  8. Michael Kemp

    Normalizing - how far to cool

    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?
  9. Michael Kemp

    New Forge Build - WIP

    Yessir - Macallan for the special occasion!
  10. Michael Kemp

    New Forge Build - WIP

    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...
  11. Michael Kemp

    Pyrometer options?

    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!
  12. Michael Kemp

    Pyrometer options?

    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...
  13. Michael Kemp

    First Dagger - a practice piece

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

    First Dagger - a practice piece

    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...
  15. Michael Kemp

    Thank you

    +1 - thank you Kevin!
  16. Michael Kemp

    Makeshift Portable Forge

    Report: Yes! It was a fun day - there were half a dozen forges going (only one was coal). Several knives made. Cable Damascus welded up... On my "makeshift forge": The white inner bricks are 2800f insulating fire brick - which work great but crack & break at the drop of a hat. The inside can...
  17. Michael Kemp

    finish for carbon kitchen knife??

    Mike - I've had that happen on mirror finished 5160 - it's a cool look. If you can't "sell" that to your S.O. - here's another tack: I've got a small utility (or large paring?) knife I made of D2 which is not really stainless. After taking it to a satin finish I did 3 cycles of: soak in dilute...
  18. Michael Kemp

    Makeshift Portable Forge

    Our local knifemakers club (5160 Club) is having a hammer-in tomorrow. I could not resist cobbling together a makeshift forge to take out there. Yes. This is a loose pile of bricks with an internal temperature approaching 2000°F. What could possibly go wrong? (I promise to strap it up with...
  19. Michael Kemp

    Let us know if you want a "basics of heat treating" set of posts from Cashen

    If Kevin could address this I'd love it: For those of us without digitally controlled kilns - or who are heat treating with our forge - are there any ways to tell when the steel is: * hot enough for full normalizing * cool enough that a "thermal cycling" for grain reduction has been achieved *...
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