[TheForge] Drilling hard metal

[Ron Childers]

Andy, try a masonry bit. A Paragon furnace will drop the temperature
incrementally; it should be soft enough to drill. Also, you might try
putting the blade in vermiculite with a piece of larger & hotter steel.
Leave it overnight.

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Gladish Family
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:15 AM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Bricks- Light vs heavy

This is interesting, because I've made a few pretty nice knives with L6 
and 1095, basically a forged sandwich with the bread being L6 and the 
baloney 1095. The big problem I have is drilling rivet holes through the 
L6. IS there a way to anneal it enough that you can drill it? Nothing 
I've tried so far gets it soft enough to drill, and punching is an 
inferior method for this, I think.

Andy G.