My $4 quench set up.
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My $4 quench set up.
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I kind of fell off the map/got busy...How is it going ? I just resolved to use peanut oil but 4 bucks is tempting. As long as I don't have discharge a 35 dollar fire extinguisher.
I fell off the face of the earth too. However I only need to get air flow under control before I'm ready to heat treat. I've had a few "flare ups" in the past but have never had something uncontrolled that required emergency action. Although having precautions near by is always a good idea. It's our anniversary this weekend, so not much more will get done for a few days.
Putting the whole blade under the surface oil helps with flare ups also. When you leave some red hot metal above the surface it tendsto flare up a little bit there.
Charlie
I won't be messing around. As I understand it the faster it goes in the better. I have a fire extinguisher handy when I light a cigarette :<0)
"not much more will get done" ?? It's your anniversary , you better get something done :<0) You got shopping to do, reservations to make.
A couple of things about extinguising fires in a workshop.
After a couple of quenchings, esp with a small container, the oil is very, very hot. Whatever happens, don't spray water in the quench tank. Bad things will happen. :) Think water in a deep fryer. The second thing you need to know is that if you extinguish with powder, the powder gets everywhere. Literally. It is also destructive. A fireman once told me that a powder extinguisher discharged inside a house will yield approximately 20000$ in damage.
Knowing that, it pays to put the quench setup and your fire somewhere that is more or less safe in case something goes wrong. And put some thought into how you might extinguish a fire. Look I don't want to scare you. I've never had anything burn accidentally and I've made a lot of fires in my forge and did a lot of quenching. However, unnecessarily using a powder extinguisher will probably end with your wife being so made at you that you won't be making any fire for a loooooong time :)
Well, I got the "forge" lined with fire bricks. It took a trip to my Dad's house. We had dig though all my old stuff from when I was forging knives in his back yard as a kid. Also, I was able to get some airflow control. I realized that my shop vac is just a series DC motor (otherwise known as an universal motor as it can run on AC or DC). The way to control a DC series motor is to vary the voltage. So a simple light dimmer is all that's needed. Just plug in the forge, plug the shop vac into the outlet on the forge and turn the knob.
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Brilliant plan with the light dimmer switch!
On a side note, I have a degree in Fire Science. Been doing Fire Fighting for the past decade. Specializing in extinguishing flammable/combustible liquids (jet fuel mostly) and hazardous materials. If any of you guys that forge want any type of safety or extinguishing advice, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Well I fired up the forge and was able to harden the blade. My wife wasn't too happy with me using the forge considering all the wild fires in Washington State right now, but I'm happy to say that none of them were from my forge. The blower worked great and it was easy to control the flame with it. There were no flareups when I quenched the blade in the oil either. I polished off the scale and reshaped the tail a bit. Also, I ground the blade a bit thinner now that most of the risk of it warping is behind me. My wife is baking cupcakes for a wedding reception so I'm going to have to wait to temper it in the oven.
Wrap it tightly in aluminium foil before putting it in the oven. that will prevent smoke and smell from the oil.
Best not to annoy the wife when using 'her' oven :)
Wow, holy cow... This last week has been overwhelming. Besides the worst fires in Washington State's history and everything going nuts at work, we had a horrible storm. 70 mile an hour winds and funnel clouds at my house as well as thunder, lighting and BUCKETS of hail and rain. We were without power for a few days. We lost over 30 trees on our place in 15 minutes. So needless to say, I didn't get much razor making done. Today was much quieter though and I was able to spend some time in the shop.
First off my oldest boy is turning 15 and the fuzzy lad needs to learn how to shave, so I turned these out as his gift.
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The str8 razor is done and ready for scales. The blade is fully ground to what I would call one quarter hollow. The tang has been re-shaped a bit so that it will sit down inside the scales and looks better IMO.
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I hope to get it completed this week. We will see though. There is still a lot of clean up that needs to be done around the place. Yesterday we had a clean up party with 15 people, 8 chain saws and two tractors.
What wood is that? it looks really good.
and i like the shape of the razor. it is really coming along.
Thanks. I believe that the wood is Bocote also known as Cordia. I purchased some a few years ago for knife handles and found that it turns really well on a lathe.
Your straight looks good. I have a question as it could be a optical illusion, is the edge of the straight razor "straight"?
Well here it is. I just finished it today. Instead of scales, I chose to carve the handle out of one piece of cocobolo. The the bevel was set with a medium diamond hone and then a natural hone of about 1000 grit. My trouble now is that I don't have any finder grit hones to finish the edge. The wood will turn a dark reddish color as it is exposed to light.
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That looks really great. I have been thinking about trying some one piece scales for a while. only thing stoping me so far it that i don't have any material of the right dimensions to work with.
If you see yourself repeating this, buy a 4000/8000 combo stone. They're fairly cheap, easy to use, and all you need for a decent shave.
Thanks. I may just buy one anyways. I already have two razors that need honed and I imagine that there will be more. Also thanks to everyone for all your help. It was most appreciated. I did learn a great deal and now have much more respect for these razors, those that make them and those that use them.
Well I just ordered an 8 inch coarse DMT hone, a Norton 4000/8000 stone and an Illinois #827 strop. I was wanting to get a 12,000 grit hone as well but didn't have the funds for it at the moment. When they get in I'll see if I can finish honing this.
You should get a good shave off the 8K. If you wanted to go one step further for cheap, you could add Cromium Oxide to the inside surface of the web of your strop. After the 8K, go a few laps on that. Wipe off the razor, then strop on your leather. It will smooth it just a little more. Great Job on the razor.
Adam
+1 on the Chromium oxide. However, I would not use it until you can get really comfortable shaves off the 8K. At that point, the paste becomes a help.
If you use it to fudge over the fact that your 8K edge isn't good, it becomes a crutch.
Well done DVW!!!
Very informative thread also.
Well the diamond hone, Norton 4000/8000 stone and strop all showed up. I was able to easily flatten the Norton stones with the DMT. Then I used the DMT to reset the bevel on the razor. Wow does that DMT work so much better than the el-cheapo diamond hone that I had used before. After that I took it to the Norton and then the strop. I tried shaving with it and while it did cut hair, it was not near as good as my shavette or DE. So I finished my shave with the DE and took it back to the Norton. After some time on the 4000 grit and a lot more time on the 8000 grit, I think that I finally have it. Now to wait a couple of days to try it again.
You said you had 'flattened' the Norton, how smooth is the surfaces? If they still feel anything like the sides of the stones, you need to keep lapping. Both of my 4/8's needed a lot of work on the 4K side, but the 8K smoothed out on both really quick.
Just wondering? It never hurts to practice the 6 P's. :shrug:
When you fine tune your blade it should be a really nice shaver :tu
WOW. Disaster and all you still got it done. And then um wow again...you set the bevel on 325 DMT? You might want to slurry that 4k and slowly dilute to clear water. I would look into getting a 1k before you get a 12. I can see grinding away to get near bevel with a DMT but what you can't see is a lot of chipping on the edge. The bevel being set is step #1 and the most important part of your hone job. How good you do there will determine the outcome of the rest. You can go from 325 to the 4k but that is the long road to say the least. If you can't shave arm hair after the bevel is set there is no need to go on.(and they usually say this at the 1k level) Your test is going to be at the 4k and it better shave arm great there. I shaved off the 8k for a year. I was told that was the old school way of learning and being an old guy I figured I better go there :<0) I think it paid off. 1k 4k 8k basic set up. Anyway , just what I have learned. Build a good foundation and then add the finishing touches.
That sounds like good advice on the 1k hone. What is the recommended 1k (Norton, DMT, etc...)? I think that I will still try another shave with it since I did work on it some more after the last shave, and I doubt that I will have a 1k hone in the next two days.
Many of us have grown to like the Naniwa Chosera 1k. Or well known as old sloppy! Works well on most steels i have used it with.
YMMV
~Richard
PS. There are others, do a search in the little window above the postings for 1K and hit return. If you use the Magnifying glass you do an on line search not just SRP.
So I remembered that I have a Smith's "Fine" grit diamond hone. After checking out their web site, it looks to be 750 grit. While that's not 1k, it is a whole lot closer to it than 325. So I took the razor to that and started over. I could shave arm hair with the Smith's, but I spent extra time with the 4000 grit stone to try and make sure that I had a true 4000 grit edge without any of the 750 grit "chips". Then I finished up with the 8000 grit and the strop. Now to try it tomorrow night, but it definitely seems to be sharper than before. Even if this does work, I think that a 1k stone would be a good purchase.
The surfaces are really smooth now. The 8000 has a really nice "buttery" feel to it when honing. Both sides were pretty flat out of the box, but were not smooth. You are correct that the 4000 needed more lapping than the 8000. However I wouldn't say that it was excessive.
Norton is the old stand by and what I use now. The King you can get at almost any wood working store and they are inexpensive, smaller ,but do a fine job. The Chosera is the champ for the guy that is going to do a lot and wants to save time.
You could get by with the 750 and maybe slurry the 4k still. You can use what you have it's just more efficient to kinda spread out the spacing between grits. From what I see some guys go Naniwa starting 1k and go 3k 5k 8k 10 or 12. You pick your poison, just spread it out some :<0)
I use a King 1200 and to be honest it's because I had it on hand. I also had a King 800 that I gave to a Newbie who became a friend.
It's a thirsty SOB but thanks to Glen's recommendation of using a little plain liquid bleach in the water for the storage container I just drag it out, lap it and have a go with it.
I make a slurry on the 1200, and then make a slurry on the 4K Norton, and then rinse and start over with the clear water and then I use slurry on the 8K Norton and again start over with the clear water and YUP the same on the Naniwa 12k.
Works great for me!
OH!
Glen posted that he had a King 1K and if he was only honing for himself, that's what he'd use. However since he's a pro and honing for many he uses the more expensive and more efficient 1K that Geezer mentioned.
Ok Let me see if I can get this written so it's clear. :shrug:
'If' the 4K has already been lapped it should be smooth. Since mine is I use a DMT 325 and some water and just give it a few laps and round the corners then use a spray bottle of water to rinse any slurry back onto the hone. This leaves not only the slurry but a 'fresh' surface.
The slurry multiplies the amount of work being done. That's why I do it on all of my hones.
If you haven't seen Glen's wonderful video on how to set a bevel and finishing an edge on the Norton 4/8K here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y53SL9QMq6I
While Glen uses a 'slurry' stone the DMT 325 works well.
I hope this works for you. :tu
Yes. Thank you.
The slurry multiplies the amount of work being done. That's why I do it on all of my hones. Sixgun
You just clleared up alot of stuff. When the slurry is gone..where do all my friends go.. :D Al joking set aside..thank you. The 325 is what I meant when I said plate.
Heres one for gssixgun..
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