What's going on in your shop?

[BossDog]

This last week I had a few friends over to the shop for a couple days.
L to R
Jeff, me, RB Johnson, Les Voorhies, Jim Moen, Dustin (works in our shop), Peter Marin, Jess Hoffman, Cody Hoffsommer and not in the picture is Cory Martin (Peter's son). Jeb Taylor also stopped by Thursday.

Here Jeff and RB are helping Les put together a canister for forging.

RB had some mammoth he was helping a friend sell.

 

[BossDog]

My forge is a CONNEX container out back of the building. It was cold with -0 wind chill and blowing snow.

Here is some canister Peter made.

This is some canister I made. It was random rod, squares and rectangles wrapped in .002" nickle along with some nickel powder in a 3x3x3" can.

 

[BossDog]

This shows the tiles cut from the canister. These are cut at a 45 degree angle fora Ferry Flip. The rust on the bottom ones is just light flash rust from a quick etch.

To lay it up into a full san mai, I used 80crv2 in .209" thickness. I found out after welding it that the core was way too thick and the tiles could be thinner also.


To lay it up, the core in the middle, followed by .020" thick nickel, then the tiles, then some SS heat treat foil followed by mild steel sheet metal on the outsides. The seams are welded between the core and tiles. The outer sheet metal is just tacked in place. If you weld the entire seam, you do not need any flux.

Here is what it look like all welded. The core piece was left long so I had a place to grab with the tongs.


The SS heat treat foil between the sheet metal outer skin and the tiles helped make the outer skin peel off fairly easily. The outer skin is fairly thin and can be ground away also.


The finished billet. It's about .300" thick. When forging, even with a good soak, the 80cr didn't move as much as the tiles did. Also when forging it looks pretty thin but reality hits when you have clean it up. Next time I'll forge it more and use thinner core and tiles.

The edge view shows the core.

 

[Jason Volkert]

That's some cool stuff @BossDog but all that mammoth is making me drool

 

[Von Gruff]

Spent a couple of hours getting the bottom die done for the forks from a length of 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 mid steel, so just have to make the top die now and I can see if they will be a success or whether I have spent time to no effect.

 

[Bill Vining]

What a mess!! 5 folders and a set of kitchen knives in various stages. I may just have to clean my bench. Things are getting lost.



Here is a pic of a folder that is almost done. Needs some finishing work. Excuse the crappy iPhone pic. I have not setup my little photo studio yet.

 

[Daniel Macina]

Picked this up from the local feed store yesterday. Don’t know if I’ll use it but might come in handy for tools or something.

 

[J. Doyle]

Just finished some carving/texturing on this Blackwood handle:

 

[Daniel Macina]

Just finished some carving/texturing on this Blackwood handle:

View attachment 67753

I am curious how that texturing is accomplished? I’ve seen it on a couple knives recently and have no clue how it’s done. If it’s a trade secret no problem I figured there’s no harm in asking

 

[J. Doyle]

I am curious how that texturing is accomplished? I’ve seen it on a couple knives recently and have no clue how it’s done. If it’s a trade secret no problem I figured there’s no harm in asking

The texturing is pretty straightforward. I use a tiny ball end burr in a rotary tool to dimple the surface. The size is 1/64". Bigger ones will work but I like the texture the tiny burr leaves. I just touch every bit of the surface with the burr so all the dimples over lap. Its FAR more tedious and time consuming than it is difficult.

Drawing, laying out and cutting the borders is a different story. I find that much more difficult. I made some small cutters out of files that work best for me.

 

[Daniel Macina]

Thank you sir!

 

[John Wilson]

I’ve been using my laser for extra side work.

 

[Sean Jones]

I’ve been using my laser for extra side work.

That's really cool! I especially like the tall ships...excellent work

 

[John Wilson]

That's really cool! I especially like the tall ships...excellent work

thank you!

 

[Self Made Knives]

I’ve been using my laser for extra side work.

Wow, didn't know you had a laser! I've been looking at them for past couple months, can't decide. I was thinking about trying one of those 50w Ebay ones. Which one are you using?

 

[John Wilson]

Wow, didn't know you had a laser! I've been looking at them for past couple months, can't decide. I was thinking about trying one of those 50w Ebay ones. Which one are you using?

i have a 40W ebay one! I bought it to do my makers mark. The wood engraving jobs just fell in my lap.

 

[Randy Lucius]

i have a 40W ebay one! I bought it to do my makers mark. The wood engraving jobs just fell in my lap.

I’ve been looking at those too but wasn’t sure if they had enough power to mark a blade. Looks like it works. Does it focus well enough to get clean edges? I’ve been wanting to do a knife for the football boosters with the team logo to auction as a fund raiser. This might work.

 

[John Wilson]

I’ve been looking at those too but wasn’t sure if they had enough power to mark a blade. Looks like it works. Does it focus well enough to get clean edges? I’ve been wanting to do a knife for the football boosters with the team logo to auction as a fund raiser. This might work.

it doesn’t actually etch the metal. you coat the blade with Cermark and the laser then burns the Cermark coating, curing it and bonding it to the blade. Then you rinse the blade and all the Cermark that wasn’t cured by the laser washes right off.

There are endless tutorials on youtube. A lot of people use an inexpensive dry moly lube instead of cermark. I tried it. It would be fine for marking things for my own personal use but I don’t think it’s worthy of a paying job. Cermark is expensive, but worth it.

I can remove the mark with sandpaper, but i can also remove my electrochemical etch the same way. To me this laser mark is durable enough and worth it.

 

[Randy Lucius]

Thanks John!! Very interesting. Looks like I have some research to do.

 

[John Wilson]

Does it focus well enough to get clean edges?

Sorry! I missed your question earlier.

For thin materials, yes. The first mod you’ll do is to take out the bed and give yourself much more room in the z-axis to fit bulkier materials. I use a $30 lab jack (scissor lift) with a sheet metal pan as my bed for infinite height adjustment. The laser lens focuses best between 1-7/8” and 2-1/8 inches.

Like all things Chinese, it’s best to think of it as a “kit” when you get it, and that’s why the price point is where it is. It takes a couple of hours to set it up but it’s child’s play to get it going.

I’ll say it like this- the cost/value of this machine is incredible. Modifying the machine is stupid simple. For $400 and some elbow grease you’ve got a machine that will run neck and neck with a $5,000 machine. The only obstacle being the limitation of the bed size (9x13 inches) and I’m working on a way to get around that. The $5,000 machines have much more capacity size wise.)