[TheForge] A not so spectacular failure

Fri Aug 22 21:41:01 2003

Frosty:  That's a fair amount of tang left!  You can salvage it even further
by gas welding on a tang section.  The fact that you have 1.25" left makes
it very do-able.  You can gas weld it with filler designated for carbon
steels, or mig weld.  You can protect the hardened edge by wrapping a wet
rag around the blade, using heat fence paste or placing the blade between
two steel sheets as a heat-sink and welding on a tang section from flat
stock, and grinding to shape.  When welding. leave a bit of gap between old
& new tang sections for better join.  This method actually works well.  I
wind up doing tang work on student knives often, as that is where there is
often trouble, mostly from warpage on quench.

Hats off  to you for helping Lindsey along!  What a great age she is at for
smithng.....

Grant
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Frost" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] A not so spectacular failure

> Thanks Grant:
>
> Not being a bladesmith there're a lot of the tricks of the trade I don't
> know. I'll pack the tip away in my mental tool kit as a keeper.
>
> It seems though Lindsey's knife isn't a writeoff after all. There's enough
> tang left to fashion a button tang or maybe use as it with or without a
> rivet. I remeasured and there's closer to 1 1/4" of tang remaining. I'll
> pass the info on to her so she can find a local bladesmith to help. I sure
> hope she finishes it rather than frame and hang the broken pieces.
>
> Yeah, Lindsey's plenty gutsy and picked up the basics not only quickly but
> very well. I wouldn't have let an average student go for a knife so early
on
> the learning curve. Just too much chance of failure and a loss of
confidence
> early on. "Normally." <grin>
>
> Lindsey left for Virginia the 19th. and I just got her "safe arrival"
> message last night. Some lucky smiths down there are going to get to work
> with her now. I'm so jealous. <pout pout>
>
> Frosty
> ------------------------
> If it ain't forged
> it ain't real.
> Wrought iron is.
> The FrostWorks
>
> Meadow Lakes, AK.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "gblacksmith" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 12:14 AM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] A not so spectacular failure
>
>
> > Frosty:  Bummer about Lindsay's knife.
> >
> >     Bless her heart for trying a not-so-easy project for a beginner.  I
> had
> > this happen to me once when I was a newby knife-maker.  I determined
that
> > the reason was my failure to maintain heat at the junction of the tang
and
> > blade, after it had been formed.
> >
> > My remedy was to make sure the tang junction was heated with each heat
and
> > to cease striking before the tang junction had lost its color.  Tongs
near
> > this area also draw heat away very quickly.
> >
> > Hell, she's young enough to break many more knives as she travels along.
> >
> >
> > Grant
>
>
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