For sure Chris.
Had a great day in the forge today.. (Nic and Dom are away).
I've managed to finish polishing back the knife and then hardened it. Tonight I temper it (I cheat. I heat the oven up to 210C and then bake the blade for 2 hours. Then allow to cool overnight without opening oven door).
I also made a 'cake slice' today. It's something which I wanted to do for Nic and my wedding. Make our own cake knife/slice set. The slice is made. It's about 40% polished back. Lots more to do and still have to do final shaping.
Was an absolute dog to make as I didn't want to cheat. So I used round steel (6mm). What follows is a brief summary.
1) Heat the tip and slightly pointy it up.
2) At about the 6" mark heat it up and fold it over on itself. (So approx 6" of double steel)
3) At the bit where the pointy bit from (1) and the rest of the rod meet, heat up to welding temperature (white nearly sparking) add flux, apply more heat and then beat the shit out of it. VOILA! 1 forge weld.
4) Hammer the new end down to a point
5) Put the cut off tool into the anvil and then drive the steel down onto that (Between the 2 bits that are now welded together. To create a split)
6) Form the shape of the slice by hammer it along the horn of the anvil (the pointy end). The split is now widened out with the widest bit being up near the handle.
7) Now the slice has got a nasty great hole in the middle for the cake to fall through.
Cut off a piece of 6mm round the length of the hole.
9) Tack weld it in place with the mig welder.
10) Pretty much repeat step 3 for both ends of the little rod.. (Forge welding is HELL FUN!!!! Sparks fly everywhere when you slam that 5lb hammer down on it)
11) Flatten out the round now.
12) Start the polishing shit.
And that's where I'm up to.
Pics later. Nic took the camera with her. (She's in Brisbane with Dominic. Visiting my sister who is a bridesmaid for our wedding, and doing bridesmaid dress shopping stuff)
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